Now I know how you feel (II)
...the last, I promise, of my sets of holiday snaps to bore you with - just commiserate yourselves with the thought that you can hit the "back" button and I'll be none the wiser; you haven't settled onto the couch, accepted a sherry and are sitting looking at the projector screen I've borrowed from work especially for the occasion.
You've met the elephant in this series of photographs before, part of my project over in Sri Lanka was to look at the driving techniques used and I have never been much of a book learner so when given the chance to drive my own ele, well, lobby shoes and trousers (slightly incongruous in the jungle, but I was representing) or not, up I went...
Well, I tried the Thai style, tried the Nepali style.
Nothing.
Who is this foreign idiot who says he knows about elephants? Doesn't even know where to sit?
So after a little explanation I found the correct Sri Lankan seat...
...sit behind the shoulder blades, no, idiot, leave the ears alone, don't you know you have to tap the shoulders?..
...OK, that's the right position, why are you falling off?...
...no, no, no, idiot, where are you going? why are you crossing the river? there's nothing over there...
...enough, idiot, get down, let me show you how it is done!
I should point out, of course, that the commentary is mine and entirely made up, my hosts were extremely polite - if a little amused - at all times and the elephant, Punchimathya, once I had learned the right buttons to push, was as responsive and eager to please as any elephant I have ridden.
PS. Due to time constraints, those were the clothes and that was the skin I travelled back to Thailand in and spent the next 24 hrs (missed my transit flight in Bangkok but did get some wonderful exercise jogging around the new airport in an attempt to catch it) so apologies to those who had to sit next to me on the plane!
You've met the elephant in this series of photographs before, part of my project over in Sri Lanka was to look at the driving techniques used and I have never been much of a book learner so when given the chance to drive my own ele, well, lobby shoes and trousers (slightly incongruous in the jungle, but I was representing) or not, up I went...
Well, I tried the Thai style, tried the Nepali style.
Nothing.
Who is this foreign idiot who says he knows about elephants? Doesn't even know where to sit?
So after a little explanation I found the correct Sri Lankan seat...
...sit behind the shoulder blades, no, idiot, leave the ears alone, don't you know you have to tap the shoulders?..
...OK, that's the right position, why are you falling off?...
...no, no, no, idiot, where are you going? why are you crossing the river? there's nothing over there...
...enough, idiot, get down, let me show you how it is done!
I should point out, of course, that the commentary is mine and entirely made up, my hosts were extremely polite - if a little amused - at all times and the elephant, Punchimathya, once I had learned the right buttons to push, was as responsive and eager to please as any elephant I have ridden.
PS. Due to time constraints, those were the clothes and that was the skin I travelled back to Thailand in and spent the next 24 hrs (missed my transit flight in Bangkok but did get some wonderful exercise jogging around the new airport in an attempt to catch it) so apologies to those who had to sit next to me on the plane!
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