44Saturday morning starts at Si
Narong stadium, dubbed “elephant
stadium”, where all the elephants
gather and take part in a parade,
followed by displays of traditional
Kui elephant hunting techniques and
rituals. After paying respect to the
roundup’s hunting roots, the elephants
display their fancy foot- (and trunk-)
work during a match of elephant
football. The pace is slow and the score
low, but it’s astounding to see how
nimble and coordinated the elephants
are with their big round feet. Every so
often, an elephant decides to break
the rules, grips the ball in its trunk and
makes a run for it, and the audience
erupts into laughter. The elephants
also show off their skills at painting on
canvas, and do logging reenactments,
racing, and twirl hula hoops.
At one point, volunteers from the
audience lie in a row as an elephant
steps over their bodies, with theelephants occasionally – playfully –
patting a volunteer’s bottom.
Later in the day, an elephant takes
on real-life soldiers from the Royal
Thai Army in a heated tug-of-war
contest. Even with as many as 100
men, they’re still no match for the
strength of a single elephant.
The grand finale is a re-enactment
of an ancient battle between
colourfully decorated Thai and
Burmese armies and their elephants.