'Dumbo' in Metro
In today's METRO (another popular freebie newspaper
recently available in NY) there is an article called TRAVEL AROUND THAILAND
THE OLD FASHIONED WAY- TREK BY ELEPHANT TO A PLACE REMOVED FROM HUSTLE,
BUSTLE which features several photos of a man riding an elephant (one on the
front page). Here is a portion of the text:
"Hand-feeding a hungry elephant is an unnerving
experience. At the first whiff of a banana, its leathery gray trunk snakes
out, probes the air and sucks it from your hand with a squelch. It is like
shoving fruit into a wet vacuum cleaner nozzle. It may be unpleasant, but
if you're about to plunge into northern Thailand perched on an elephant's
neck, you have to get your vehicle on your side.
...'Hold onto its forehead and dig your heels into the
side of its neck,' said Chan, my enthusiastic guide. Steering an elephant
sounded easy enough. But 10 minutes into the trek, my thighs were chafing
on Dumbo's course hide. It wasn't luxury travel, but as we searched in the
tropical heat for a Lahu village, I was happy to let
Dumbo do the work.
A trek offers a chance to walk through beautiful
forests...on top of that, you learn how to steer an elephant, and you never
know when that may come in useful." (Ed Johnson).
METRO states it is 'the world's largest global
newspaper, with 14 million daily readers in 37 major cities.' Please tell
METRO this elephant isn't a damn block of wood - she is a living, breathing
sentient being; and I despise the term 'Dumbo' - it's not even this
particular animal's name, which would be bad enough; the report just
improvised.
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printed ones are considerable longer).
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