When the very nice lady from the polo club called and said she was playing elephant polo in Hua Hin, and would I like to come and take a look; the only answer was “yes”. Not because I like elephant polo, but because she is indeed a very nice lady who has me come and shoot her horse polo every year and provides me with excellent food and wine. But the event stretched over seven days, which is about six and half days too long, so a few hours last Tuesday was more than enough for me.
The elephants are brought down from Surin and for them it is a bit of a holiday. Good food, a jungle area to play in, and plenty of water to splash around. Some of them think that running around chasing a ball is fun, some of them don’t. There is no way of knowing which elephant is going to tolerate the game, so the first couple of days are spent weeding out those who don’t want to play and would rather just muck around in the bushes.
This meant that games were frequently halted for elephant changes. And even when the game was in progress, it could be hard to see any real movement as the players lurched around trying to hit the ball. Such was the pace of the game that it did not need to be stopped in order for the poo removal squad to do their work.
Each elephant was controlled by a mahout, and it was up to the player to communicate directional changes to him. For those who didn’t speak Thai, there was a helpful guide on the back of each T-shirt.
Anyway, here are some of the shots I took, which I hope fail to capture the utter tedium of the whole idea.
Pattaya Days: Biting political comment one day, photos of elephant poo the next. You won’t find that in The Times.