Nakprasith School and Sam Phran Elephant Grounds

So last week Evan and I got jobs at a school called Nakprasith which, in case you're wondering, is situated in Sam Phran, Nakhon Pathom, and is about 50 km outside of Bangkok. For those of you still using that tired old system of measurement called the mile, that's very roughly thirty miles. With traffic, it takes about an hour to get in or out of Bangkok, which is perfect for weekend trips, although we're so new here that we haven't taken one yet.

More about the school later, and more about Sam Phran later too, because this post is about the Sam Phran Elephant grounds, and our excursion there last weekend.

The Elephant Ground doesn't have only elephants:



Yes, that man is sticking his hand into a crocodile's mouth. And not only into, through the flap at the back of the mouth, and into what I can only presume is the throat. There were three guys doing this at the crocodile show, and they all seemed fairly comfortable putting their heads and hands into the crocs' mouths (very carefully), but when they weren't doing this, they were pretty wary of getting to close to the biting end.




Not just crocodiles either:






But also, plenty of elephants.












They had an elephant show with mock battles, and simulated soccer games, which were very entertaining to watch, although of course the issue of how they are treated does come up. I think they don't lead great lives, but they don't seem appallingly mistreated. I was still glad to be able to see them up close and touch them a bit.