"What's his name?" I asked the mahout who was riding between the elephant's head and myself.
The mahout was not impressed. "It's Pompeii, and she's a lady."
"Oh," I giggled. For a female, this elephant was huge!!! I was much higher up in the air that any of the other tourists I saw on their elephants. And I'm not actually sure her name was Pompeii... that's just what I heard and repeated, and the mahout didn't correct me, so for the rest of my life, I will remember my elephant friend as being named after a lava-buried village.
The half-hour ride was a bit costly, but the money goes towards taking care of the elephants and their mahouts, and it was obvious to me that this guy really cared about Pompeii, so I was happy. When we departed from the center, there were several professional photographers who tried to sell me on paying a steep price for a photo of myself on the elephant. I declined (-I'm cheap), but wondered afterward if I would regret it. But alas, when we were out of the view of the photographers, the mahout climbed off of Pompeii, and offered to take pictures of me with my camera for free! Yes! He took some excellent shots. Pompeii was content because I had brought along a bunch of bananas for the ride and during the photo shoot, she reached her long truck backwards towards me and sucked air through her nose (it really is just like a vaccuum cleaner) until I put a banana there for her to pluck and pop into her mouth.
Awwwhh. How adorable.
I also saw an elephant show while at the center, which was excellent. I was a bit worried at first that I would feel the animals were being exploited by being made to act like humans for entertainment purposes, but it really seemed as though the animals are well taken care of and at least they are not at risk of being poached while they are at the center. The show actually put tears into my eyes and a lump in my throat, because I was just so amazed and so proud... as if they were my kindergarten students putting on a Christmas performance. The elephants played soccer, played harmonicas and danced, performed massage on the mahouts (scary!), threw darts (also scary!) and, most amazingly, painted pictures! Not just squiggles on a canvas, but actually pictures... a bouquet of flowers, a tree... one elephant even did a self-portrait! And they did it with very little help from their mahouts. It was a spectacle to be had.
