Thank you for the warm welcome @phortun and I understand how you feel about the elephants man. While the elephant carried me, I'm happy because it's a gentle giant. However, there's a big part of me that I'm sad too. They are being abused, yes. I see that most of the elephants I've seen in Thailand are bleeding in their foreheads, as the ones driving them are having mining picks. When these elephants don't behave, they would actually hit them with the mining picks to keep them going or stop. They're doing it for money. I just hope one day that these elephants are being set free, but may not happen soon.