Thailand Elephant Polo 2012 - Hua Hin

Warning: September 12-16 2012 pacy pachyderms will be running riot in Hua Hin, the royal seaside town just south of Bangkok.

Unstoppable: D2 makes a run down the sideline ...

Fortunately, their top speed is only around 30km/h, and they will be under the control of experienced mahouts, and goaded on by largely middle-aged, corpulent players in bright shirts, all under the guise of 'sport'.

In this case, elephant polo, jing jing.

Read my previous blog on this rather eccentric sport which brings together some heavy hitters from around the world, all building up a good sweat, quenching voracious thirsts, and building up a good amount of money to conserve Asian elephants.

The Anantara Group is behind this as usual (they set up the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation in northern Thailand), and this September the tournament returns to its spiritual home, Hua Hin, where it was first staged.

Guests at the gala dinner ...

'Anantara has partnered with some of the world’s biggest personalities of the screen, stage, fashion and business world and asked them to share their larger than life artistic talents to help raise money through an ele-auction to be held during a gala dinner,' trumpets their press release.


Over half a million dollars has been raised for charity in the 11 years this tournament has been staged.


Your humble scribe will be participating again this year (yes, as a player, not as an elephant as some have unkindly suggested!) 


For more details on Anantara King's Cup elephant polo 2012, click here.

A date to remember ... Elephant Polo Festival 2011

Elephant polo can be a head-to-head battle, literally.

They say an elephant never forgets. I don't know why or how that expression came about, but here's something that you will never forget ... watching your first elephant polo tournament.

(This reminds me of the joke about the Irish polo team -- sadly their horses drowned!)

The highly popular King's Cup Elephant Polo Tournament will be celebrating its tenth anniversary this year and will return to where it started in 2001: the royal seaside town of Hua Hin.  Over the recent years it has been staged at the Anantara Golden Triangle Resort.


Picture if you will -- or if you can -- two teams of tuskers going head to head, egged on by their mahouts, with the players wielding super-long polo mallets and trying to strike the ball downfield into the opposition's goal. The things people will do in the name of charity (and Gins and Tonics!)


Having played a chukka or two of this over the years, it's adrenaline inducing to be in charge of several tons of mammoth mammal as it pounds its way down the field. 

You end up with inner thighs chafed raw, blistered hands, plus a raging headache -- and that's just from the sponsor's party, jing jing.


12 teams from four continents, encompassing 40 players from at least 15 countries take part in this week-long ele-festival. Talk about a jumbo-sized spectacle. And all the proceeds go to benefitting Asian elephants, so it's a good laugh for a good cause.


For more info, see www.anantaraelephantpolo.com

PS: Oops - forget to tell you the dates: September 5 to September 11 2011