Elephant Ride!

One of the reasons we came to Varkala is that from here you can go on elephant rides, and this morning that's just what we did. A half an hour's drive out into the villages, we came to the elephant keeper's compound, a simple house with a large yard in front and a small 3-year-old elephant whose stall was being cleaned by one of the keepers. Soon enough the larger elephant, Baladevan, came lumbering up with two French backpackers on her, and we climbed some cement steps to take their place on his back. And off we lumbered!

But we'll let Claire take it from here...