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Asterism Travels & Tours - Myanmar | Elaphant walking on log by tourists' request - Taungoo |
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Photo album - Taungoo (Bago division) | Old photos 
The tourists requested the elephant trainer to order his elephant to do somersault over its head. One of the Myanmar tour operator's staff who had been to foreign country warned the trainer that that might be a trick. He told the trainer that there had been articles in the media by kinds of animal-lover associations who claimed that in some south-east asian countries animals such as elephants were treated mercilessly for tourist-income. The elephant trainer said there had never been a case in which an elephant had to do somersault. That was not natural and the request was refused politely. The tourists then requested whether the elephant could walk on a log over a stream as if it was crossing a bridge. The trainer said normally elephants would not walk on a bridge if they felt the bridge was not strong enough. So they usually walk in the river. However this time to please the tourists the trainer took opportunity when he found a large cut timber lying over a small stream. The elephent crossed the stream over the log keeping balance of its big body. Jan 2006 |
