Argh! Tourists!

I missed Dern Pen so much it was great to see her again and she gave me the usual welcome of sniffing me all over looking for hidden fruits. Piccha also gave me the elephant ring he had told me about. He made it using black and white hairs from her tail. It sounds gross but the ring is so nice. I will definitely treasure it.

Maybe it’s the heat or something but today’s tourists are crazy. One guy from Iceland brought his 5 year old daughter along and after two minutes it was clear he was more scared than the kid. He kept yelling every time Den Pen went an inch off the road, he did not trust me to command her and so kept yelling at Piccha. DP had no idea what was going on and so decided to do her own thing. She got so mad that she ended up trumpeting and so the other Mahout’s came running to see what was going on. I used to think the sound was cute but when you realize they only do it when they are very angry it does become frightening. Luckily she calmed down and as soon as the stupid guy had gotten off she was fine!

The women of the camp have all left to visit family in the north and so the main hut has turned into a boys camp. I thought Reung would be sad without his family but the other Mahout’s are keeping him company. I spent most of the afternoon chilling out on DP, writing my journal and watching her. I have also found myself talking to her which is funny but when I’m just sitting on top just chilling out I feel like I should. Me sitting on her by the way is the equivalent of when a cat sits on our lap so it’s not like she’s bothered by it.

I have perfected my dismount I just need to work on getting up her a little smoother. I am not the most graceful person by any means and I have some horrendous pictures to prove that getting on is harder than you think. Tonight we went to a local market to start buying presents for the mahouts. (I got lots of haggling done – mum would be proud!)