Watching the Sunrise

There is something about watching the last sunrise of your twenty-fourth year, standing atop an ancient temple. Its stones have seen the same sun rise and set a thousand times in the past; it will stand guard for another hundred or so years, watching our star move across the sky. 

Yogyakarta // Indonesia 

Borobodur 

Water for Elephants

Elephant bathing - Kanchanaburi, Thailand

The name of my elephant that day was Mayura, and she was particularly fond of stopping every so often to forage for food on the way to the riverside. I went ahead and sat on her head for the most part of the afternoon, and I had to keep apologizing to her for having to climb over her face every so often. I patted her on the back and stroked her trunk as best I could to let her know I liked her very much indeed.

There's a lot to love about these gentle giants. You can sit on the apex of its head and it won't swat you away the way we swat away flies. You can hold onto its trunk, and it won't send you flying off to the side. You can stare straight into its eyes and be confident that you've at least made a good friend out of a wild animal--something to cross off the bucket list, I daresay!