Who knew a creature as large as an elephant could be cute? The elephant I’m walking with in this photo is five-year-old Namthip and she was cute! While we were in Chiang Mai, we spent a wonderful day with rescued domesticated elephants and their keepers. There was no riding and they didn’t perform any tricks. We walked through the jungle with them, watched them eat and take a mud bath (see photo below). We filled the bags we were given with chopped up sugar cane, which all the elephants loved. They would take it from your hand with their trunks and then crunch it loudly while reaching out for more. Not surprisingly given their size, elephants have voracious appetites and eat all day long. They very eagerly hoovered up all the left-over fruit from our picnic lunch, including the banana leaves it had been served on.