Elephant's Ear (courtesy David Rich)

I can identify with kids who hunger to join the circus. Personally, I've always wanted to boss around elephants. When I stumbled onto the website for a mahout school an hour south of Chiang Mai, Thailand, I knew I'd found my ideal back-up profession: elephant trainer supreme.

I grabbed the Elephant Conservation Center's first available three-day course, arriving with half a dozen excited students: a German couple, Dutch sisters, a miniature Japanese girl and me. Supat, the course manager, escorted us to our home-stay quarters and handed out schedules listing the 14 basic elephant commands, none of which I could begin to pronounce. First hurdle: darn Thai elephants only speak Thai.

We donned baggy pants and spiffy shirts in bright blue denim, mahouts-in-training. Then came the big moment, introduction to "our" elephants. more...

View full photo

I took this photo in the city of Ayutthaya, a world heritage site north of Bangkok.

No one really knows how the head came to be in the living tree, but they think perhaps when the temple, Wat Mahathat, was sacked and burned in about 1767 A.D. the broken head came to rest where some trees grew.

It remained there, abandoned for more than 100 years. People still put offerings and candles in front of the head. The colored ribbons and unusual setting made for an irresistable shot.

- Chris Buckley

Movie (video) clips are an increasingly popular component of Personal Travel Websites.

They're a fun way for folks at home to enjoy your experiences in living colour, and a treasured part of your permanent trip journal.

MyTripJournal accepts videos in most major file formats, so as you are traveling you can just upload the movie clip directly from your camera to your MyTripJournal website. In turn, they can be viewed by all major internet browsers and plug-ins.

Before uploading, review these steps to get the best quality movies and the fastest upload times for you and your visitors.

What makes you tick?

Lonely Planet's annual Travellers' Pulse Survey is kicking off for 2006, and they want to hear from you.

Where you go, how you go, why you go. Tell them your all and you could end up with some great travel prizes for your efforts.

Take survey.