Surin Elephant Round-Up

Keeping up my Blog tradition of being about a month behind (I’m desperately trying to catch up before we go to Malaysia for the Winter Holidays – note that I did finish Myanmar!), let me tell you a little about the Surin Elephant Round-Up we went to the weekend of November 17-19.

Surin is a smallish town about a six hour drive (northeast) from Bangkok. We packed a van full of 11 people (including the driver) for this drive. I had the middle seat in the far back. This was good because there was a gap into the second row where I could stretch my legs, but bad because it was the only seat with no head rest and therefore I couldn’t sleep too easily. But it was better than the second row, which I had on the way home. We left straight from school at 3:30pm and everybody was in a chipper mood. Food, some beers, etc. That lasted until about the first stop when it started to get dark. Then it was pretty quiet as everybody tried to sleep off the long week. But what the heck, I am trying to keep this short – focus!

Back to the town of Surin that is basically popular for one weekend a year. The Elephant Festival weekend. Other than that it is basically tourist-free. So the Elephant Festival is just what it sounds like. There are over 200 Elephants that descend upon Surin for the weekend. There is a Stadium show, a “Sound and Light” show and the Elephants walk around town the rest of the day. You can take a ride on an Elephant (we did not), feed them (Margaret did), etc. It is pretty strange to be in the middle of town and see Elephants maneuvering with regular traffic.

A little history if you are interested. About 50km from Surin live the Guai (or Suai) peoples. They have trained the Elephants to be domesticated animals and use them in the ceremony. Rumor has it that the Elephant trainers are with their specific Elephant for life. The first Elephant Round-Up was in 1960 to celebrate the opening of a district office. It got the attention of locals and foreigners and by “public relations was spread all over the world.” It has been THE annual fair of Thailand since 1962.

There were two big events we went to, both on Saturday. The Elephant Show at the Surin Stadium and the “Sound and Light” show. The Elephant show at the Stadium was a lot of fun. It was from 8:30am to 11:30am. A few highlights.

Before (and After) the Show: Traditional Guai Dancers:

“The Rumble of the Land and Jungle:”

An Ancient Royal Elephant Battle:

The other event was the “Sound and Light” show. And I guess the year before it had been a pretty fun show that included Elephants. But this year they decided to do a play that included Elephants. Anyway – before each act there was a little description in English, but other than that it was impossible to follow. And impossibly boring. No pictures to share because they all came out blurry, but you aren’t missing much. There was a gym right near it and before the “show” Margaret and Angie had fun!

Just a few other things:

We walked around a local market in Surin and there were some interesting sights. On the way home we stopped by the Prasat Meung Tam Temple – very characteristic of the Angkor Wat Temples.

Our last stop on the way home was at a famous beef restaurant! I can’t remember the name of the “ranch” – but the owner had two (or more?) restaurants in Bangkok. But this one was about two hours outside of Bangkok and was an actual “ranch.” It was surreal, as it is totally set up for tourists. Western music playing (hilarious), cows in the fields (it is an actual ranch) and the whole cowboy theme (souvenirs included). And one would think the steaks here would be amazing. And I was so excited for my medium-rare filet! But about 10 minutes after we ordered the waitress came back and told those of us who ordered the filets that they “no have” them. This just cracks me up. We are within spitting distance of cows and yet they no have any filets! So I had a pretty tasteless New York Strip instead. Unreal.

Ok – like I said – short and sweet.