Today was another exciting day. Were off to an elephant excursion! Were going to visit an elephant sanctuary for animals rescued from unhealthy work environments.
Our ride picked us up at the hotel right on time, and after picking up another family of four we were off to the mountains! Its quite a long ride, about an hour and a half in a songthaew (basically a pickup truck with a bench on either side of the bed and a roof over it). Not the ride Ive ever been on! At a rest stop along the way another truck joined us with four more girls for our group. Then we were off, and finally made it to the camp. And there were our elephants! Three beautiful beasts, all females. Our guide, Ken, was very enthusiastic and friendly, told us all about the elephants, why they were there, and what wed be doing today. There were also two mahouts (caretakers), both named Mike, a photographer (for part of the day when we wont have cameras with us, read on and youll get it), a cook and our driver. All in all a very large staff for a group of 10.
And they all were very happy to see us, after over a year with no visitors. And the elephants seemed happy too.
We were given wool pullovers and encouraged to get in touch with the elephants. To pet and touch them, and make friends. And to feed them. There are two ways to an elephant - either hand her something to her trunk and shell grab it, or raise your hand with the food to her side (so she can see what youre holding) and call out Bonbon! Shell open wide, and you push the food into her mouth. She wont bite! In fact, she has no front teeth to bite you with. Its quite an experience feeding such a huge animal by hand.
The three were rescued from abusive work in the tourism trade, and their exact ages are not known, but estimated at 35, 55, and 75 years old. Very quickly we made friends with them, and they are such gentle giants that we forgot how big they are! They were happy to let us hug them, pet them, tug gently on their ears, and scratch their trunks. Of course fresh bananas and watermelon probably
We were taught how to feed them, and what they eat, whats good for them and whats less so, and a lot about their daily life. We also learned that the organization has 8 other camps with elephants from different backgrounds in the Chiang Mai area, and more camps in other places in Thailand, so although here they have only three, they actually take care of a lot of elephants.
So after getting to know them, we went for a short walk in the forest with them. They just had a nice time grazing on the tall grasses and weeds while we admired them. They didnt seem to suffer from the heat as much as we did (at least there were no mosquitos), but when we got back to camp they got into their mud pool and splashed themselves with mud, and then had a drink from their water hose.
Next we prepared vitamin pills. We crushed fresh tamarind with salt, green bananas with the peels (for fiber), peeled fresh bananas, and sticky rice (to stick it all together). We made balls of this mess and fed them to the trio. We had to push the
pills into their mouth. The pills are not stiff enough for the trunk method. We also got a quick lesson on giving a basic health check.
By now it was getting on noon, so we scrubbed our hands and had our own lunch Nothing fancy, just some chicken, rice and overcooked vegetables in a plastic tray, but it got the job done.
And now it was time to change. Were going to bathe the elephants! So anything that mustnt get wet (like our phones) gets left behind. This is where the in. We herded the elephants to their bath, a small pond nearby, and got in with them. Our job was to splash water all over them, and each other, with plastic bowls. The ultimate water fight! I think our elephants enjoyed it almost as much as we did! We got totally soaked! And it just gets worse from here...
