I must write about my elephant excursion in Bali. That was the only thing I actually regret. We didn't research it quite honestly as well as we should have. It was like going to Disneyland. A f***ing circus. I watched a documentary on elephants and how they are trained at circuses and I cried throughout the whole film. They use these sticks with a metal point at the end to penetrate through the elephants skin so that they feel pain. Also elephants are made to be in herds and walk for long periods at a time. They are not meant to be solo. So this place had a person sitting at the head of the animal while us dumb tourists sit on those seat things they wrap around them. Not bareback at all. Each worker had a stick in their hand. The same one I saw on this documentary. It was supposed to be a jungle ride through the forest and it was just a paved road through the island that looks like a forest already anyway. As we are riding through you see a few elephants chained down. Why are they chained ? Because it's their day off from this circus. One elephant kept moving back and forth while chained and that's when I couldn't take it anymore. I realized this poor guy was trying to walk or acting like he was walking because that's what their instincts tell them! Our guy said that their chained because they can get aggressive with one another. I call bulls***. They probably get aggressive because your beating them with that stick and chaining them down. Even baby elephants were chained. All of this going on right in front of your face and all the tourists are smiling and taking pictures with them. I cried for a while after that experience and promised myself that I would research more before I go onto anymore of these bulls*** excursions. It is sickening to me that people abuse such magnificent animals as elephants and don't even think twice about it. How would you feel if you were jailed and brought out to do a little song and dance for the crowd while behind doors your getting abused? It's inhumane. It's morally wrong. There are places that actually take care of the animals correctly while allowing tourists to enjoy them as well. So if anyone is reading this and you are thinking about ever doing anything like this please for the love of our animals who have been here before humans and probably after, please do your research and help the cause instead of being another dumb tourist like me. And the picture you see is a picture they took of us and neither one of us is smiling. I kept the picture for this very purpose. To expose them. It's called elephant safari park in Bali.