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PHOTOS: The Sri Lanka Tour 2004

Unless otherwise specified, Copyright by Tickle and the Ivories 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and pretty much ad infinitum.

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The Elephant Polo tour of Sri Lanka was preceded by a minibus tour of the central highlands of Sri Lanka.

Here we see Kathryn Temple with some guys she picked up in the lobby of this charming faux Tudor hotel in 'tea plantation country'. Many of the photos on this page were taken by Kathryn, the talented Tickle Team Photographer for the tour. The other photos were taken by the artist now known as Tripwire.

Here we see a painting on display at the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy. It depicts a group of pompous twats colonial-era dignitaries (or possibly a gaggle of locals dressed up in British Raj-surplus starched whites) watching the toss-in for the start of an elephant polo match. The Sacred Tooth is in fact not one but four nuggets of enamel which are supposed to have been used by the original Buddha for mastication (as you'd expect really). Team speculation has it that they are just as likely to have come from road kill.

Copyright 2004 by Kathryn Temple

Here we see some of the 60 or so elephants at the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage. The baby pictured is standing next to its mother and therefore is one of a handful of such elephants in the Orphanage able to trumpet "nah, nana nah na".

The daily tourist extravaganza elephant bathing.

Pinnawela is now owned by the Disney Corporation which has ingeniously installed small radio receivers behind the ears of the elephants. Here we see a group of elephants who have been remotely instructed to stand around with a minimum of movement while the tourists finish their lunch.

Thousands of spectators, tourists and locals alike, crowd the Galle Fort parapet watching the looming tsunami Thom "EIEIO" Fisher (photo below), a vitally-important member of the Ticklers, growl, snarl, frown, bark and generally make four-legged mammal noises to intimidate the opposition.

Copyright 2004 by Kathryn Temple

I [EIEIO] am the very model of a modern Major-General,

I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical,
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical.

Copyright 2004 by Kathryn Temple

The artist known during this tour as Studley but now better known as Top Talon the team's Vice Captain is seen here fiddling in his groin region. Whatever sad pleasure he is deriving from a good old scratch has rendered him oblivious to the rain, his team, the spectators on the ramparts ...

Copyright 2004 by Kathryn Temple

Here we see the umpire and CEPA chairman, Geoffrey Dobbs, gazing on - from under a CEPA umbrella - as Studley yet again perfects the art of aqua-planning by skimming the ball over the mud flats of Galle.

Copyright 2004 by Kathryn Temple

The Ticklers were yet again the most dapper of the teams with a different outfit for every occasion. EIEIO (left) has clearly mistaken Sri Lanka for one giant Club Med and can be seen wearing his currency beads on his pith helmet.

Copyright 2004 by Kathryn Temple

"Fume" the team's captain may or may not have received his new team nickname "Slow Loris" at this point but in any event is seen feeling like a right royal twat in his formal black trousers as he slowly walks to the team tin shelter, having forgotten his jodhpurs back in Singapore. He can be seen carrying a stack of coconuts for a coconut daiquiri to bribe the elephants into playing nicely.