30 List: #8 Bathe An Elephant

Posted on 12.21.09 to 30 List, Personal by Joan

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I don’t know exactly why I want to bathe an elephant. I think it stemmed from the times I travelled to Phuket quite frequently. The holiday was always tremendously enjoyable, and there was a baby elephant around the hotel grounds which I kept a lookout for.

So I wrote into the Singapore Zoological Gardens to ask if I could bathe an elephant, as part of completing my 30 List. They normally don’t accede to such requests but decided to help me with this, for a donation. So I trooped off to the zoo this morning, with John in tow to take my photographs, for my little elephant adventure.

Truth be told, I was mildly underwhelmed because I always have illusions of grandeur in my head. I imagined a majestic elephant standing up and I scrub her with some big brush then hose her down. So when the elephant flopped over and I was handed a clothes scrub, I was taken aback.

But when it finally kicked in that I was this UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL with an elephant, I was pretty psyched out! The elephant I bathed is the oldest elephant in the zoo, 40-year-old Komali. She laid there in the water enclosure, patiently waiting while I scrubbed her (or rather, at the strength I was scrubbing, it seemed more like exfoliating, said the mahouts). She was a real sweetheart. She even lifted up her ear while I scrubbed behind it.

I only got around scrubbing her head — I was advised against working on her underbelly (as she is not familiar with me) and the water enclosure was too deep for me to wade into at the other parts of her body. But that was enough work for me in the morning! (Also, I was getting a little embarrassed at having everyone standing around waiting for me to finish up with this bizarre birthday wish. It was odd being in the centre of attention!)