Today, we had the services of a driver from the University. He took us on a little trip out of Banda Aceh, to an elephant rehabilitation center. The trip took about an hour, and when we got there, there was little to show that it was an elephant place, other than a truck.
Our Driver, Pak Rushdie, told us that the elephants were on break, and wouldn't be back until about 2:00 and so we should go have coffee and wait. I don't really know how he knew this, but he did. It was shortly after noon at that time. So we walked up the street to a coffee shop.
We went here and sat and talked until after 2:00. Sarah tells us that nothing happens at the time people say it will, so there was no point in going back until around 2:30. When we did, the driver, who was just sitting in the car talking on his cell phone (he did not want to go have coffee with us), told us that the elephants are ready and we should walk down the road a bit and we'll see the place.
Sure enough, here it is. And we see an elephant nearby.
Meet Ahmoy:
And here is Rahmat:
We rode the elephants for about a half hour, through the jungle and then out on to the road, past all the shops where the people were hooting at us as we rode by. If we had the time, we could have taken a ride to a waterfall, an hour away, and back...but after sitting in the coffee shop for so long, we didn't think we wanted to spend so much time riding. Maybe next time. A half hour on the back of an elephant was really plenty!
Here's the crew.
Sarah got to feed bananas to Ahmoy.
That's all for now! Tomorrow we're going to the beach!
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