Elephant Pants

A short post this time.

If you have traveled in Southeast Asia, you know about elephant pants.  For others, these are lightweight pants that have an elephant print as a primary part of their pattern, usually as a row of elephants running up and down the pants.  I think you only see them when traveling in places where there are many backpackers.  

Lots of tourists wear them - male and female.  I didn't understand the appeal of wearing an image of the largest land animal on an area of your body that we usually try to minimize.

I resisted these pants in Nepal and Sri Lanka.  Ecuador and Guatemala also offer these pants even though the only elephants you will see here are in zoos.  Okay - there are no wild elephants in Nepal, either.   I could not understand the appeal.

So I now have a confession - I own not just one but two pairs of these pants!  And I love them...  The fabric feels like butter.  I had resisted for far too long but I now understand their appeal.  

So what caused the change of heart (other than the commitment to Flexible Maggi 2017)?  It was the work plan at Mirror.  I knew that we were going to get muddy and disgusting so I decided that I would buy cheap pants (they always seem to be less than five dollars a pair) that I could wear for outdoor work and then dispose of at the end of my placement.  But then I tried them on, and I "drank the kool-aid", so to speak.  They are heavenly pants.  

I quickly decided they were too nice for outdoor work (and we learned from other people's experience with them on our project - not up to the task!) so I was going to wear them only to sleep in.  

But yesterday, after my day with elephants, I put these pants on for my last walk around Chiang Mai.  They were perfect for pulling up around my knees as i experienced my first fish spa (which I will do again!).  And the easiest pants to wear while getting a Thai foot massage and pedicure.

I am a convert!  Elephant pants will be with me on any future vacation.