Thai elephant park reopening a sign of recovery

The elephants famous for carrying tourists through Thailand's ancient capital of Ayutthaya have returned to work as their home, the Ayutthaya Elephant Palace, reopened.
Following the devastating floods that left more than 550 people dead nationwide, Thai authorities were keen to demonstrate that the country is beginning to return to normal.
Reopening having been swamped by flood waters in December, the Ayutthaya Elephant Palace witnessed a prayer ceremony asking for future blessing.
The park is famous for offering tourists elephant rides through the ancient temple ruins that dot the city, a UNESCO World Heritage site 80 kilometres) north of Bangkok. Experts fear that at least half of the more than 200 waterlogged monasteries, fortresses and other monuments in the one-time royal capital have been damaged by Thailand's worst floods in more than half a century.
Parts of the city were covered in up to two metres of water for more than a month. While the major temples are drying out, dead fish and piles of debris and garbage still litter their grounds, highlighting the massive cleanup effort that lies ahead.
Shops in the city were reopening, but the streets were largely empty of tourists. Thailand's tourism industry as a whole has been mostly unaffected by the flooding, with visitors simply avoiding the inundated central region and heading to the many mountain and beach areas unaffected by the floods.
Authorities hope the reopening of the elephant park will start drawing visitors back.
Ayutthaya's Governor Witthaya Piewpong explained that "right now the tourists are starting to understand and hear the news that tourism in Ayutthaya is resuming.
"We are now welcoming all tourists, especially here at the elephant palace."
The camp closed when the city began to flood and 98 elephants were stranded on a small space of dry land where they lived on donated fruit and vegetables.
The floods have affected more than a third of the country's provinces and killed 562 people nationwide since they began swamping the central heartland in late July. The water has been inching across parts of Bangkok for several weeks, and officials have often struggled with how to protect the city of 9 million people.
While the major threat that the flood waters posed to central Bangkok appears to have largely passed Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has stated that some parts of the city particularly in the west could still be flooded into the New Year holiday period.
Yingluck stated "I'd like to see people feel happy during the New Year but ï¾ I am not confident about: the west side. It is very difficult to drain water in that area."