Holy man! I had an amazing weekend in north east Thailand. We took the night train to Surin, the capital of the province with the same name. We arrived at five in the morning after a 7 hour ride, took a tuk tuk to a guesthouse and were lucky enough to get a room. This weekend was the renowned elephant festival, where elephants and their trainers from all over the province put on a massive show. There were around 300 elephants in a city of 40 000. The “elephant round-up” or Phon Chang is a ceremony celebrating the relationship between the Kui people and their elephants. While we were in town we took a guided tour to Khmer (Cambodian) era temples from the 9th to 12th centuries, CE, visited a silk-weaving village and watched the elephant festivities that involved ceremonies, dancing, epic battles and the intriguing mahout (elephant trainer). Our weekend culminating in partying with the mahouts AND their elephants…
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