Indian Elephant Bathing Pool

**The Indian Elephant Bathing Pool** also known as **the Secret Indian Elephant Bathing Pool**, the **Enchanted Indian elephant Bathing Pool** or more simply the **Elephant Bathing Pool** is a location from the Jungle Cruise.

## Description

The Indian Elephant Bathing Pool is an elusive waterbody along the Mekong river of Cambodia. The pool is located behind an ancient flooded Buddhist temple built by the Khmer Empire, contributing to the secrecy of the spot. It gets its name due to being a hot-spot for Indian elephants to bathe themselves. The pool was also located along the, "Rivers of Adventure", a series of mystic waterways connecting tropical locations across the globe. While located in Cambodia, the pool intersected with the Ganges river of India due to these waterways.

## History

### Background

#### Origins

The waters were originally uninhabited, leading to them having been visited by the ancient magic-user Trader Sam, prior to or during the golden age of piracy. After making his first liquor concoction, Sam accidentally spilled a barrel of the booze into the waters. Upon arriving the next day, Sam found that the liquor had attracted a large number of elephants who drank its booze.

The waters remained a hot-spot for Indian elephants for years to come as the animals never forgot the spot. On the June 5 of 1888, Dr. Albert Falls, "Discovered" the ancient Cambodian shrine which the pool was hidden behind. Around 1891, Falls returned to the region and found the bathing-pool while on the fourth day of a 13-day expedition through the mystical, "Rivers of Adventure". Falls documented the waterbody as, "The Elephant Bathing Pool" and a safe harbour with calm waters.

#### Jungle Navigation Company

Following its founding in 1911, Falls' business the *Jungle Navigation Company* often passed through the region. At some point following 1916, company boatsman Frank Wolff travelled through the Cambodian shrine and into the bathing-pool while documenting new routes along the Rivers of Adventure. Frank gifted this map to Dr. Albert Falls and the Jungle Navigation Company with said map being modified over the years.

In 1931, the JNC was run by one Alberta Falls who started the, "Jungle Cruise" tourism service that travelled through the pool. In a December between 1935 and 1937, the temple and the temple's region were polluted along with the rest of the Rivers of Adventure by the Jungle Navigation Company. The company had imported a large amount of Christmas decor and paraphernalia which their pilot by accident dumped in the Rivers of Adventure resulting in mass pollution. This crime was reported on by Tallahassee Glover of *The Daily Gnus* newspaper with other related incidents including a skipper seemingly having been killed by a tiger within the temple. Due to the success of leading Christmas oriented, "Jingle Cruise" tours through the jungle, this act of pollution became an annual standard for the Jungle Navigation Company.

By 1938, the pool was somewhat secretive due to it being accessed by the treacherous Shir Lee Temple which skippers of the JNC were forbidden from entering in the 1930s when a boat called the *Zambezi Zelda* disappeared within. However, many skippers around 1936-1938 ignored these restrictions and passed through the temple anyways. Due to this, the secret pool was frequently visited by tourists of the Jungle Cruise and its skippers.

### Development history

The Indian elephant Bathing Pool was a scene designed by Disney legend Marc Davis. This was for a comedy-oriented refurbishment of the Jungle Cruise. Many sources say that the scene repurposed an audio-animatronic wooly mammoth designed by Davis for the 1964 World's Fair attraction *Ford's Magic Skyway*, but this is not true.

## Appearances

### Jungle Cruise

The bathing pool is passed through in this attraction.

#### Jungle Cruise: Wildlife Expeditions

In addition to appearing in this ecologically themed attraction, a photo of the pool is in a cabinet of the queue labelled, "Friends of the Jungle".

### Skipper Canteen

In the Skipper Canteen's library is a book titled, "Bathing with Elephants" by Bertha Trunkstein. Additionally, there is an illustration of one of the bathing elephants in the menus.

### Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar

There is a photograph of the pool in this bar. Along with it is a note from Trader Sam which reads, "I spilled a barrel of my first drink recipe into this once vacant spot in the river and the next day a whole bunch of elephants showed up".

### World of Disney

This shop in Disney Springs is themed to being an old animation studio within the town of Disney Springs, Florida. On a table implied to have belonged to Davis is concept art of the elephant pool.

### Other connections

#### Jungle Cruise (film)

The temple and pool were once explored by Frank Wolff, a lead character from this film.

## Trivia

* The skipper of the 1968 *The Enchanted Tiki Room & the Adventurous Jungle Cruise* record identified the pool being part of an enchanted rite of passage for young elephants.

## References

1. ↑ Sam dumped his first brew in the pool and ran a pub during the golden age of piracy
2. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg\_-9TRFBNh/
3. ↑ https://twitter.com/livelyland/status/1562478434755813377?s=21&t=fSEon41AvgxBCI8moMUhmA
4. ↑ https://momotraveljourney.wordpress.com/day-2-tokyo-disneyland/
5. ↑ https://www.disneyfoodblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/jungle-navigation-co-skipper-canteen-ltd-bookshelf-3.jpg
6. ↑ http://www.fromscreentotheme.com/FunFindFriday.aspx
7. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU4LZcpl0pY