Thailand: Goodbye Elephant: Hello Gibbons!

Filed in archive vacation possibilities on April 12, 2008

On our last day in Phuket, I said goodbye to my new friend, the baby elephant Sawasdee. (which means "hello" in Thai)
His trainer gave him the command to "kiss," and I was treated to an elephant smooch on my cheek! If you've ever wondered what an elephant kiss feels like, it's kind of like your cheek is being sucked in by the hose of a vacuum cleaner. But Sawasdee is so darn cute that I just decided to go with the flow, or should I say, suction!

Later on, as we were checking out, the elephant and his trainer were walking across the lobby. A group of people were sitting down, engrossed in their conversation. They didn't notice that an elephant was walking across the hotel lobby. Suddenly, Sawasdee decided that one of the woman, whose back was towards him, was in definite need of a kiss. He reached out his long trunk, and planted one of his giant smooches. Astonished, the woman just started screaming. It was one of those, "you had to be there" moments, but darn, I wish I had that on tape!

Our next stop was the Phuket Gibbon Rehabilitation Center. The Gibbons Rehabilitative Center is located in the Khao Phra Thaew Forest Reserve. It is the world's first permanent program to rehabilitate captive Gibbons. Since Gibbons are stolen as babies, they do not have any life skills. The Center teaches them to rehabilitate themselves so that they can be released into the wild. The entry fee into the forest preserve is about 100 baht, which comes to about $3.00. While entry into the Gibbons Rehabilitative Center is free, a small donation is needed and appreciated.