Day 13 - The Jungle Book 3-hour Tour

"Nature's masterpiece, an elephant; the only harmless great thing" - John Donne

WHAT an amazing gift I was given today!!!  A group of us decided to plan a trip to the elephant plantation for our 2nd full day off.  It was a 2-hour drive but it was so worth it!  We arrived and had lunch to start.  We then were taken to look see the grounds and there was a beautiful 43-year old male elephant who was huge.  He was so beautiful.  There were some goats and a little tiny baby one that was so cute.  I will post the picture of me holding him and him giving me a kiss when I have access to post my photos.

Went with Nikki, Cheska, Naomi, Beatrice, Danielle, and Lindsay.

We went to look at some other elephants and one danced for us.  They have such beautiful markings on the front of their foreheads.  Then we headed off to an area to go for an elephant ride!  Super exhilarating!  We headed over to a river bed to sit on an elephant and he wasshed us with water from his trunk and then we washed him.  At one point when Danielle was heading over to get on the elephant it decided it was the right moment to have a poop - let me just say it was the biggest poo I've ever seen in my life.  One turd was the size of 2 footballs combined - he released like 3 or 4.  I was quite grateful I had already had my turn . . . but was well aware of the fact that it occurs several times a day.  At least we got to shower off after.  But a proper shower and a wash of my bathing suit and clothing was the first thing I did when we got back to Kranti.

Our driver's dashboard

A baby goat

She danced for us

Riding the elephant, Cheska was nervous

Strike a pose

JUST before I got my first douse of river water splatted in my face

Such gigantic, gentle, majestic creatures

Many sculptures depicting Indian history

Our group: Me, Niki, Naomi, Lindsay, Daniella, Cheska, Beatrix

A local girl I saw while we were heading back to Kranti

The drive back was beautiful.  I saw a beautiful temple called Temple of Sai Baba - He believes in all the Gods . . . I love that.  The sky was a hazy gray and orange and pink . . . the air not too heavy and we rode back with the windows open instead of the AC on . .. it was lovely.

The markets through the towns we passed through were buzzing with the  locals buying their wares . . . the streets lined with an array of gorgeous coloured saris on all the women.  And can I jsut say, I thought our family did something miraculous by being a one car family for the last 22 years . . . here, they fit entire families on a motorbike or scooter - the max I saw today was 5 . . . no one is hanging off the end.  It's quite an astonishing site to see . . . women in their saris riding sideways on the back of the bike hanging onto their man . . . so beautiful.

Here in India people get married on Sundays as opposed to Saturdays back home.  The cars are decorated in elaborate flowers and on the front of the car is some form of decoration that says "so and so weds so and so" such as "Rupinder weds Rupesh".  It was beautiful.

This was not the car I saw, but an example

Some of the others decided to go to the Capital of Goa (Panaji) today for a day trip instead of the elephant plantation.  I look forward to hearing their stories and seeing their photos.

My Mother's Day was missing my family but I did walk down the beach early this morning for my Ayurvedic massage by Sadhi.  I will only be able to get one more before they pack up and leave Goa for the Monsoon season.  Sadhi said he will give me some of his massage oil, which is comprised of coconut oil and the medicines from the leaves that they boil into the oil.

All the girls said Happy Mother's Day to me when I got back from my massage and sat down to have breakfast.  They are so so so so lovely.  I just thought that was so special.

This from my hubby today ... Quite appropriate I must say and oh so lovely ...

Back at Kranti had dinner with some of the other ladies and then Ellie and Helen (our instructors) joined us for a bit . . . they made cake again for us tonight, which I cannot eat, but they did have Nutella out, so I divulged in a spoonful of that . . . a blissful way to end my day.

What I think is just so neat about Indian people is that they love to take your picture just as much as you want to take theirs as a memory of your meeting.  They love to have their pictures taken also, and if you photograph their children, they ask their children to say, "Thank you ma'am".

**Photo courtesy of Bex

I am so immensely grateful to be here in this beautiful country and it's beautiful people.  This has thus far been an experience of a lifetime.

Namaste

J