Elephant Sanctuary

At first, Boom was completely scared of the incredibly tame orphaned elephants at this Conservation Center outside of Kuala Lumpur. Even before we left the hotel, he dropped to the floor and threw a tantrum, "I don't like Elephants!" You can see his pulling away from the elephants above. But, after numerous attempts by me to get him accustomed to my feeding the elephants, with no success, Ken did his magic and somehow coaxed Boom to ride an elephant with him.

The Center is funded by money from visitors and private donations; elephants are driven out of their Malaysian jungles by overdevelopment, especially of palm and rubber plantations. After the farmers or poachers attack the Elephant families, they are often brought here. One elephant's foot was amputated by a poacher trap and he limped around until a donor got him a proscetic limb, which was so touching.

A handful of the elephants have to pay the price of our riding and bathing them daily. And, feeding them cucumbers, watermelon, grass, and peanuts, as you can see from the video of Griffin feeding them. I put the cucumbers directly onto their tongues and, let me tell you, their tongues feel as soft as wet silk.

While us Americans, Australians, and Middle Easterns watch the elephants, the local kids living in the jungle, above, watch us.