I touched a baby elephant 12/21

Andy woke me up this am, it was supposed to be a sleep in kinda of day, but I guess 10 hours is enough. We walked around looking for breakfast and settled on a nicer hotel. I had French toast w honey and boiled eggs, Andy had an omelette w toast, then busted out his own peanut butter. Who does that?!

We rented some bikes to see the baby elephants at the breeding center but we were late and didn't find the center. Well head back for the afternoon event. Today was lazy. We walked a little, found the bus station out of here for tomorrow, played w a puppy, then bought a beer and the most delish local chips. We rented bikes again in the afternoon and stopped by a lovely bar by the river (w no food) for some beer. Off to the elephant breeding center. 

So I don't feel good about this "breeding center". They are only breeding them for tourists to ride on from what I can tell. They way they train them is what you would expect from a 3rd world country. Hell, maybe it's how all countries train them. Not good. We saw some elephants, several calves were w their moms. That was very cute. The elephants being chained up, not so cute. They put in electric fences so the elephants wouldn't have to be chained. Some weren't working yet. We did meet some elephants in working electric wire cages. Andy was throwing them grass for them to eat. The elephants were trying to grab the grass without touching the wire. A dude was riding another elephant around who was kicking a soccer ball. I hope it was a little fun for the elephant. A dude was riding a mother elephant in and the baby was running next to her. Right toward where we were standing. I moved to the side so I wouldn't get smashed between the baby elephant and the gate. The baby stopped and I got to pet her for a brief second. Until she contined to her cage. That part was great! The rest was sad. Don't do the elephant rides boys and girls. 

Back into town for dinner. We found a great place by the river to watch the sunset. We had grilled fished and Andy got his fried chicken. Back to the hotel and we get a first hand show of a tractor digging up tree stumps. Some little kids saw it and ran back to see the action. One of them combed over the wall where the tractor was digging while the dad was on the phone. I yelled at him to get back. The kid did but climbed back over in excitement. I yelled again. I pretty much saved that kid's life. Good times.