File this under “Only in Thailand”.
We had two elephants come to the village recently for a game of elephant soccer (”football” to those people with funny accents). Now I thought that would mean the two elephants playing soccer against each other. But oh no. In typical Thai style, this turned out to be two elephants playing soccer against the local 12-year-old team.
Apparently everyone thought this was a great idea! So full-tackle soccer with eight 12-year-olds versus two elephants.
Turned out to be marvellous fun; they roped an area off and charged 30 cents for spectators. The elephants were powerful and hard to tackle, but the kids were quick and nimble, a 2-all draw in the end. And no kids got squashed.
Don’t believe me? Well here’s a short video montage I made of kids scoring a goal, and then of the elephants scoring. Gooooooooal! Stick around to the end - the live footage of the elephant goal is a keeper.
Check out Jordan’s earlier post on Life Lessons in Thailand. Planning a trip? Browse Viator’s things to do in Thailand, Bangkok tours and activities in Phuket.
August 2nd, 2008 at 12:59 am
this is awful i cant believe you would do this to an elephant they are wild animals. Well sure they LOVE to play but that gives you no right to treat them like toys.
IM SOOOOO frustrated
October 7th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Hi, I am looking for the guy who saw this event. Would you like to write something further for our soccer magazine. We are always looking for human interest stories around soccer.
Please contact me.
Thanks,
Carrie