Elephant Round up Surin
On the third weekend of November, Surin hosts the annual Elephant Round-Up.
Surin has long been associated with elephants. The local people are well recognized for their skill in capturing and rounding up wild elephants as well as training and taming them. At the Elephant Round-Up around 300 elephants perform in spectacular shows as soccer games, log carrying, war games and capturing elephants shows.
Many these elephants and their mahouts work in places like Bangkok to earn money for much of the year. But in November, they all head back to Surin for this big event. Walking at the festival, you are surrounded by elephants: Elephants dressed up for war. Elephants swinging with hula hoops. Elephants playing harmonica. Dancing elephants, painted elephants, painting elephants. And lot’s of baby’s. Last year we found Sri Nuan and Douk Ngern at this location. Happily they have a much better life now!
During this weekend, you’ll see many elephants on the street in Surin: in front of the train station, the bus station, in front of hotels, on the market. When I’m having a break from all these impressions, a trunk is being pushed against the window: 20 baht for some bananas! Mahouts are calling: “hello, elephant taxi?”
The youngest elephant we see at the festival is 3 weeks old. His body has many infected wounds, because his mother tried to kill him. The young animal was in the hospital, but for the festival the owner took him out. A young woman is walking around with a bottle of milk and ask visitors to sponsor. I leave the festival with a sad feeling.
