Lady Gaga was the elephant actually.
I had booked a tour on Expedia for the Elephant Safari Park. We honestly weren't sure what to expect but my first impression was that the park tour organizers were super on top of everything. Not only did they contact me within an hour of booking for my hotel information, they called the hotel to reconfirm a couple days prior.
We were picked up right on time along with a few other people staying in the Seminyak area. The ride was a bit long and bumpy and honestly, I napped most of the way there. Upon arriving, we checked in with our prepaid vouchers and were handed food and told to go ahead and explore and our names would be called when it was our turn for the elephant rides (eeeeeeek).
We started walking the beautiful resort and wandering the trails and upon reaching a koi pond, we were approached by two very large, very hungry elephants. Apparently they saw the food. None of us had ever actually fed an elephant before so figuring out where to put the food (up their trunks is not a good idea) but they knew what they were doing and were munching away pretty fast.
We continued down the path and got to a wide open space with a tiered platform and a number of other people. Here the elephants were just hanging out, eating, and taking pictures with people. We got to take a bunch of photos with the cutest baby elephant who not only used my mother's shoulder as a trunk rest, he also tried to lean his (very heavy) head on my shoulder several times. What a sweetie!
Shortly after, the show started where the elephants would demonstrate their mathematical skills, paint pictures, and try to play soccer. You could tell these elephants were quite well cared for since they were clean, well fed, and not a single trainer ever raised their voices or made any gesture that seemed abusive in any way.
Our turn for elephant rides came up pretty fast and getting onto the elephants was actually easier than we expected. Of course, it took some getting used to the bumpy ride but a few minutes later, we were having a blast. Our ride (Lady Gaga) was one of the stars of the show and her companion, Alex, was entertaining and informative as we wove our way through the resort jungle on her back. Every once in a while she would stop to look for bananas and then continue on her way.
After our awesome ride, we grabbed lunch at the resort restaurant and did a little souvenir shopping.
And then one last goodbye to these sweet giants!
