This is, in fact, me feeding an elephant a papaya. I'm the one on the left.
Seeing as how I've been waking up at 2 or 3 a.m. everyday so far this week, I decided to take advantage of that fact and have a little adventure up to the capital city of Colombo this morning. After a nice 6 a.m. walk down by the river, I grabbed a quick breakfast and was tuk-tuk-ing my way up the coast before I normally even contemplate the snooze button. I partied with the lions and tigers and bears at the National Zoo (yes they really had all three, this isn't just some stupid joke this time) and then got my knowledge on at the National Museum (did you know that Sri Lanka is an island? super sweet!).
Driver said we should check out a Buddhist Temple on the way to my lunch, and considering I hadn't eaten more than a roll in nearly 18 hours I was hesitant to oblige him but I figured KFC could wait another half hour so we dropped on in to see what Buddhism had to offer. Now, I've heard that much like the male anatomy, once you've seen one Buddhist Temple you've seen em all, but this was my first Sri Lankan Buddhist Temple so I kicked it into culture-overdrive and put my learnin' cap back on. I got to see some pretty awesome archives, a cool collection of old school Mercedes and printing presses for some reason, and then... um... a friggin' elephant.
He was just chillin chillin there! For the exorbitant fee of $1.79 US I got to walk up to said elephant and feed him a papaya. Also, I got to cringe in fear as he absorbed most of my hand into his mouth and then started pushing me around with his tusks. Let me say that again so you can catch the full impact here - an elephant basically grabbed my hand in his mouth and then pushed me around with his goddamn tusks. And iiiiit waaaas aaaaawesome!
To be totally honest, friends, I actually walked by Mr. Elephant the first time I passed through that area of the temple and thought 'oh that's ok, I guess I don't really need to feed an elephant a papaya.' I turned around to walk away and I mean like the nanosecond that he left my view I regretted not running up there, so I made Driver take me back so I wouldn't miss this chance to walk with the animals. And I'm stoked I did too - I wasn't about to let a little thing like the rational fear that a 5 ton beast with the sheer killing power of an M198 Howitzer would turn on me in an instant if I showed weakness stop me from enjoying this moment!
Totally worth it. I'm glad I had a second chance to overcome my initial terror of said elephant and try something completely different and completely Asia. And besides, I let the nice German couple go first to see if anything would go horribly wrong, and they made it out unscathed.
What. I'm adventurous, not stupid.
I love the embedded links, very witty. - Gaston
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ReplyDeleteAdventure engenders ideas, and this one is a goodie. You should definitely follow a German around and make them do/taste/feel/jump into everything first. Germans are notoriously awesome travelers, and I'm told their digestive tracts are such that the signs of early onset tummyache will flash across their faces well in advance of your fork touching lip. The latter may be completely made up. Also, in my mind, you're smiling so big in this photo because you're thinking up the title of this post.
ReplyDeleteDang, those tusks are ginormous.
ReplyDelete"an elephant basically grabbed my hand in his mouth and then pushed me around with his goddamn tusks" Sounds like kate's dream date
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