Elephants

A Day Out of Chiang Mai

Today was our main event in norther Thailand. We had booked an elephant day upon arrival into Chiang Mai with Elephant Jungle Sanctuary(and here's our photos on their facebook) high in the mountains near the city. At 8 am we were picked up by a...erm...pickup truck. We climbed into the back onto the padded benches and imagined all the wonderful things that might await us

There were already two passengers in the car, a young couple from Montreal--thus they weren't native english speakers and weren't very talkative (by their own admission) but very friendly. Next, after a very short drive we grabbed two more, this time a young couple (just graduated university) from germany. Our driver/guide also threw into the back a couple cases of water, free to drink, and three big bags of tiny bananas for the elepants, and then surprised us by handing us 6 little...tiny purse thingies, free souvenirs. 

Last but not least, we picked up two young women from the states. This was our complete elephant team, and we bonded quickly as the truck moved out of the city.

The drive from that point was over an hour. Most of that was on a windy mountain road, and being in the bench seat of a pickup truck didn't help anyone with carsickness. But  despite there being one or two uncomfortable passengers, there were no incidents. 

We arrived at the last leg of road. A dirt road that climbed straight up the mountain. This road was steep, winding, and had every kind of bump, hole, root, and rock imaginable lying across the way. Thrilling.

We crested the ridge and began to zig-zag down the other side. Our destination opened up below us. There was a river there, and rice fields on either side. One set of rice fields (the one closest to us down below) wasn't growing rice. There were elephants in it. Excited murmurs washed through the truck--we had finally spotted our soon-to-be elephant friends.

We arrived at the camp. I suppose camp is a good word for it, above the rice fields up the hill a short distance were a collection of wood and bamboo buildings, mostly open-air. There were a few flush toilets even, in a building off to the side. As we arrived, a small group of tourists were on the bamboo floor of the building below us feeding hungry elephants who reached up to them with their trunks. We didn't get to join them, instead we were set up at a staging area as the other group departed. 

We put on some special elephant herding vests...not sure why, except to make us feel authentic or something. And we were each given a big bunch of bananas. Told to hand them out two at a time. Meanwhile we watch the younger elephants play on a ridge of muddy clay and laugh as the littlest one struggles to climb back up. Baby elephants are goofy.

And then we climbed down the hill.  

"Going Bananas"

I was in the lead. And as I stepped down into the field...6 elephants were charging towards me with their trunks outstretched.

Well, that's obviously a little overdramatic. Three of the elephants were only about 4 years old, so I was still taller than them. One was only 1 year old. Two of them were fully grown females, and they were suitably gigantic--but also more patient for their treats.

Still, a 4 year old elephant probably weighs like 1000 kg. They began to probe with their trunks, trying to grasp my bunch of bananas. I'd prepared a two-banana pair to hand off as I'd climbed down, so I stuck that out and the elephant eagerly wrapped her trunk around my arm, then hand, and then the bananas. More trunks pointed at me. I needed backup, and luckily the team was close behind. Soon enough there were plenty of bananas to go around (not that you can ever satisfy an elephant's hunger for bananas).

It also started to rain, so we got wet (oh well, that was part of the itinerary later anyway), and the gopro pics got some water splotches.

There were 6 elephants. The main force was a family: a grandma, her daughter, and the daughters daughter (the one year old). In addition, there were three adolescent elephants from elsewhere, two girls and lastly the lone boy of the group with his little baby tusks (Asian elephant cows don't get tusks, unlike African elephants where tusks are found on both sexes).

With the older elephants, you could tap them on the nose and say...some command, though the verbal component was really not necessary, and they'd raise their trunks and open their mouths and you could put the banana right in. But having them grab the bananas with their trunks was the most efficient (plus, the older elephants were more dextrous, and able to pick up the treats with the little finger on the tip of their trunk, instead of awkwardly wrapping the whole trunk around the bananas like the younger ones did).

Here they are!

After the feeding frenzy,and many bunches of bananas later, the elephants switched to stalks of sweet corn and we changed into our swimwear, because it was time for mud baths.

Elephant excursions like this are not recommended for the squeamish and germophobic...by the way, it turns out elephant poop is not that gross. It basically doesn't smell like anything, and it is so fibrous that they can make paper out of it. 

Elephant piss was referred to jokingly by our guide as "Chang Beer," which our canadian male friend happened to be wearing a shirt of to start the day!

Anyway, all of this is to say, circumlocutiously, that the mud was not exactly "clean." And I know clean mud seems an oxymoron but...well moving on, here's a picture of us:

 

 And once we were all muddy, we plodded down some slippery paths to the river for a water bath.

Once we'd scrubbed the elephants, and then ourselves, we marched back up and watched the elephants eat some more from a perch in the building above the field. We also fed them a few more pineapple scraps and watermelon rinds.

 The Jackfruit

I have no pics of this, but I have words. There was a tree beside this little shack. As the elephants milled around, a jackfruit fell. Jackfruits are big, spiky things, and the big grandma elephant was quick to snap up the surprise gift from above. With that finished, the incident got her looking upwards. Were there more such treats somewhere? Indeed there were. About twenty feet up the tree, two big fruits hung.

The grandma elephant couldn't resist. She began to reach up with her trunk, but the fruit was out of reach. Still, being an elephant she wasn't exactly a quick problem solver, so we all sat amused as she stretched and stretched, tried to weave her trunk a different way up to the fruit, all to no avail. This went on for several minutes.

Eventually she stopped and moved around the tree to a more advantageous position. She reached up, and now finally it seemed plausible she might grab the fruit, but she just couldn't quite get it. She stopped for a while. We thought she'd given up. But at last she reached up one more time, this time she'd moved to gain a few extra inches in height and, behold! she found a grip at the top of the fruit. She pulled and the fruit popped off and tumbled down the hill. We all cheered, as she tromped down, stepped on the fruit to break it open and began to chomp into it.

It was far from ripe, but elephants are pretty much garbage disposals when it comes to any plant matter. Pineapples? Sure. Not gonna eat that leafy part? The elephant will. Bananas? Yes, and also banana peels. And also the bunch of stems that are leftover on the bunch They love corn on the cob--they also love the cob! And the stalk! Grass, leaves, flowers, tree bark. They basically eat everything.

And, generally, our time with the elephants thus came to a close.

We went home, tired as hell. Dropped off our friends two by two, and finally made it back to our hostel.