$ 6.8 Million - Wanna Play Elephant Polo ?

If you have about $ 6.8 million to spare and want to do something good with it and at the same time indulge into something truly eccentric - well than this one is for you. Get your entry for one team - you and five other players - in the next King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament, to be held in 2007 in the Golden Triangle region of Thailand. Three weeks’ accommodations for six at Four Seasons resorts in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and the brand new super Four Seasons Koh Samui. A private viewing of King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s white elephants, hosted by a royal escort in Bangkok. Adoption of six elephants and the provision of homes for them in Thailand, where you can visit them annually. If you acquire this gig you will aid the elephants’ cause, in part, by training for and playing in the King’s Cup. You and five team members of your choosing will receive mahout training through the elephant camp at the Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle resort “Animal Rites,” where you will stay in tent-style accommodations for a total of 10 nights before and during the tournament. While enabling you to become sufficiently prepared for your elephant-polo debut, the arrangements also ensure that you enjoy yourself in Thailand regardless of how you perform in the tournament. The outbound leg of a round-trip, first-class flight from the United States will land you and your crew in Bangkok, where suites at the city’s Four Seasons will be home base. Excursions including a round of golf at an exclusive club, a dinner cruise on the Chao Phraya River, and a private viewing of King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s white elephants—hosted by a royal escort—will be on the agenda. Next, you and your guests will travel by private jet to Chiang Mai for a three-night stay in two three-bedroom residences at the Four Seasons. There you will study privately with Thai master chefs in the cooking school, preparing curries and other traditional dishes with herbs from the resort’s garden. Outings on this leg will include a sunrise breakfast at a mountaintop temple, a round of golf at the nearby Green Valley course, and an early-morning ceremony where you will present offerings to monks and receive their blessings. Then you are off - again by private jet - to the Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle for mahout training - and Mahout Recovery spa treatments daily - in advance of the King’s Cup. Souvenirs from this portion of the trip will include one customized howdah decorated in gold leaf and one antique opium bed, similar to those you will see at the Hall of Opium museum in nearby Golden Triangle Park. You can take home the two souvenirs, but the six elephants you adopt will remain in Thailand. The cost of caring for one for its 70-year lifetime is about $630,000, and sponsorship of all six costs nearly $3.8 million of the gig’s total $6.8 million price. You may, however, visit the animals yearly at the Four Seasons elephant camp and witness them in the care of their mahouts, whose housing and salary are covered in the adoption. After the King’s Cup, before returning to Bangkok for your departing flight home, you will unwind for five nights at the new Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui, which at press time is scheduled to open in February 2007.