Jaipur, India - Elephantastic & More - P.M. - Mar 12

Jaipur, India - Elephantastic & More https://elefantastic.in/sanctuary/

Our afternoon was fantastic at the aptly named Elefantastic elephant sanctuary. The family takes in retired circus elephants, mistreated or sick elephants. They have a lot of land where they can roam free and are fed and their medical conditions treated. Upon arrival we were introduced to our elephant for the afternoon. Her name was Pinky and we had lots of time to rub her and talk to her to bond with her while feeding her for a long time. 

The first contact is always important! When meeting an Asian elephant for the first time, you have to let them catch your smell. Make them feel comfortable by stroking and talking to them while looking into their eyes.

As we fed her, they told us to say, "lay Pinkie" (lay is the way it was pronounced, probably not the correct spelling). She would take the bundle of food and rap it against one hind leg and then the other before taking the food into her mouth. We fed her for a LONG time. It was hard for me to "stop touching the elephant" as it was just so amazing to spend so much time with her. 

one of the son's telling us about Pinky

other people there with their elephant

Then it was time to paint her. None of us are artists, but we all put our paint to use. We used organic stone colors that are safe and do no harm and easily washes off. 

Then we took Pinky for a walk around the village. 

they let us use these colorful sun umbrellas

there were some qual & elephant poo

After our walk it was time to bathe her. We took a hose and squirted her with water, and we were given brushes to scrub her. She seemed to really like that.  

They filled her bowl with water, and she drew it up in her trunk and then squirted the water up over her back drenching me in the process. I was on one side, and everyone elsewhere was on the other and I assumed they are all getting soaked. They were barely wet, it seemed Pinky chose me to drench. I told Pinky I thought we were friends.....

Guinea Fowl

We changed into dry clothes, and we had a couple of more stops in our tour we went back to take photos of the Jal Mahal in better lighting, but it was closed off for a festival, so we took shots over the fence. It's a palace in the middle of the Man Sagar Lake in Jaipur city, the capital of the state of Rajasthan, India.

Jal Mahal

would have been a great shot, but this guy wasn't moving from the spot

We then went to the Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing, which is a textile shop and they showed how they do the stamping on the various materials. I got a piece of fabric that could be a tablecloth, or I may put it on stretcher bars for the wall. The guy gave Cathy and I both 2 small, stamped elephant cloths. 

From there we went to a spice shop where we smelled tons of different spices, and we bought the masala tika and some saffron. 

She was pushing for us to visit the carpet and gem stores, but we were ready to call it a night. Back at the hotel we all went to dinner and sat out on the beautiful patio and had a lovely meal. A troop of monkeys were in the tree entertaining us while we ate. The four of us talked about how memorable our day had been and just enjoyed the peaceful evening. 

We went back to the room to pack up and get ready for tomorrow and get some sleep. Just as we got undressed a call came and said there was a delivery for us. It came and it was two bags of heavy stuff. It was quite a few books about Buddhism, a postcard of Ghandhi, an elephant plate and a large heavy brass Elephant & Lord Ganesha.

We thought they were gifts from the tour company and struggled to make room in our carryon's. Debating leaving them in the room, but if they were gifts, we didn't want to offend. 

Jaipur, India - Elephantastic https://photos.app.goo.gl/P6a5SS3rHVbzsruw5

Videos to follow...

Birds seen today:

Asian Koel
Black Drongo
Black Kite
Black-rumped Flameback - NEW
Black-winged Stilt NEW
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Eurasian Hoopoe
Gray Francolin - NEW
Great Cormorant
Great White Pelican - NEW
Green Sandpiper - NEW
Indian Cormorant
Indian Spot-billed Duck - NEW
Laughing Dove
Little Egret
Little Grebe NEW
Purple Sunbird - NEW
Red-vented Bulbul
Rock Pigeon
Ruff NEW
Shikra - NEW
Yellow-throated Sparrow - NEW