Thailand Tourists Get 'Massaged' By 3-Ton Elephants

This one might not have a happy ending.

ByABC News
January 29, 2015, 1:15 PM
A unique spa treatment is being offered where a number of Asian elephants administer massages using their trunks and feet in Chang Mai, Thailand on Jan. 28. 2015.
A unique spa treatment is being offered where a number of Asian elephants administer massages using their trunks and feet in Chang Mai, Thailand on Jan. 28. 2015.
Caters News Agency

— -- Intense fear isn't an emotion typically associated with a massage. But then again, the masseuse isn't typically a three-ton elephant.

Tourists in Thailand -- a destination perhaps better known for illicit massages than animal ones -- can get the kinks worked out at a an elephant camp in Chang Mai. A mahout -- or elephant handler -- leads the elephant to the tourist and stands by.

PHOTO: A unique spa treatment is being offered where a number of Asian elephants administer massages using their trunks and feet in Chang Mai, Thailand on Jan. 28. 2015.
A unique spa treatment is being offered where a number of Asian elephants administer massages using their trunks and feet in Chang Mai, Thailand on Jan. 28. 2015.

The masseurs weigh thousands of pounds and use their feet (that's there the intense fear part comes into play) and trunks to administer the pampering to visitors who lie on the ground, face down, with a towel on their backs.

The towel is not likely to offer much protection in the event the elephant decides to crush the guest; presumably it's there to keep clothes clean.