Elephants at Mason Park

We spent the morning going to see the elephant park in Taro which is part of Ubud. The interesting thing is that elephants are not native to Bali. They are specifically transferred here from places like Sumatra for tourism. Now that being said, we still wanted to experience it, since we are in Asia.
The trip started out with a long drive to Taro. The roads are narrow, making it hard to pass scooters and parked vehicles. Again, driving here is not for the faint of heart. We got to the elephant park and after setting situated, we went to feed the elephants. The elephants here are Sumatra elephants - the smallest breed of elephants. You can feed them bamboo sticks for free but if you really wanted some attention you had to cough up the big bucks and buy a basket of mixed fruits and vegatables. This was well worth it because they loved it and would come to you when they saw the treats. After we finished our basket, we were called for our elephant ride. Our elephant was Lady Gigi (not Lady Gaga). She was about 35 years old. Each elephant has an owner, or a Mahout. They have created a special bond together and have a lot of trust in each other. The other elephants seemed to listen well but our seemed a bit more rebellious and more interested in eating.
We took a drive back to the hotel with a quick stop at a chocolate factory. Our drive was long and our driver was less than impressive (we agreed that it was the worst drive yet). We had no intention of sitting in a car any longer so we hopped in the pool for a few hours. When the sun started to get low, we ventured a bit further to the beach for the sunset. Again, not wanting to drive anywhere, we went for Italian at the resort. The food there has been very delicious. We are now awaiting one more tour (shopping in Ubud tomorrow - which we are looking forward to), and then a few days off.Read more