Fifty-nine couples in Thailand got married while riding elephants on Sunday, in a massive annual Valentine’s Day wedding ceremony at a botanical garden in a province east of Bangkok.
Dancers and a band led the procession of elephants and couples, and a local official, also on an elephant, supervised the signing of the marriage license. For me, I’ve been planning for a long time that if I were to sign a marriage license one day, it must be an extraordinary event, ”said 26-year-old groom Patiphat Panthanon, sitting next to his 23-year-old girlfriend.
An elephant decorated with heart-shaped flowers is seen before the Valentine’s Day celebration at the Nong Nooch Tropical Garden in Chonburi province, Thailand, on February 14, 2021. (REUTERS / Chalinee Thirasupa)
The Elephant Back Wedding is an annual event at the Nong Nooch Tropical Garden in Chonburi province that generally attracts up to a hundred couples.
But this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the numbers dropped.
A couple rides an elephant during a Valentine’s Day celebration at the Nong Nooch Tropical Garden in Chonburi province, Thailand, on February 14, 2021. (REUTERS / Chalinee Thirasupa)
Kampon Tansacha, president of the Nong Nooch Tropical Garden, said that due to strict screening protocols for visitors, people felt safer and have started to return to visit the botanical park, which showcases recreations of landscaped gardens from around the world. . The trustworthy country has not yet lifted the travel ban imposed last April to curb the outbreak, which keeps most foreign investors away.
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