We've been in Chiang Mai for a few days now and already are enjoying it much more than Bangkok. It's located in northern Thailand, about an hour's flight from Bangkok. Of course, it's much smaller so that makes it much easier to get around but that also means much less air pollution and noise. The other cool thing about this area is there are a lot of really interesting things to see and do on a much more human scale. One of the more popular things to do here that we're looking forward to is taking Thai cooking classes. Since we have about 10 days here, we're hoping to take a couple of them. Of course the trick will be to see how much we remember when we get back to Seattle! We're also looking forward to some great Thai massages.
Yesterday was probably one of the best days we've had on our travels. We visited a place called Patara Elephant Farm which is a conservation/elephant breeding project about 30 minutes south of the city. It was a day of complete immersion in the day to day activities of the farm and man, was it a blast! They picked us up from the airport about 7:30 in the morning and when we arrived at the farm, there were about 15 total people there, ranging from a family with four little kids to mature adults like us (don't laugh......). The day was to consist of getting to know the elephant and trainer we would be matched up with, doing a health inspection on our elephant, then guiding them to the river where we would bathe them. Then we would be riding them on a 1 hour path through the jungle to a waterfall, where we would all have lunch while the elephants played in the water and then ride them back to the farm.
After learning about basic elephant behavior and commands, each person met their elephant and trainer. I had a female elephant who was one of the oldest on the farm at 38 while Jim had a younger female and her 3 month old baby......totally adorable. My elephant's name was something like Mae Koo Pa, which in Thai means "flower" but I'm sure how I've written here probably means trash bag. Anyway, it was such a fantastic feeling to walk up to this huge beast (mine also happended to be the largest on the farm) and feed her pieces of sugar cane and whole bananas while I scratched her trunk and said "dee dee" over and over, which means "good girl". Intimidating? Oh yes.......but it is amazing how gentle and friendly they are. The health inspection involved four items: First, ensuring the elephant slept on the ground the night before (apparently, if they're sick or not feeling well, they'll stand up all night) and you do that by checking for dirt marks on their sides and ears. Second, making sure the elephant is sweating property. How do you check this, you might ask? Well, elephants don't sweat from their skin and the only place they do sweat from is right around their toenails. Sure enough, mine had damp rings around her toenails so she was in good shape. Third, you check their dung. Yes, the dung. Each elephant is expected to produce at least 6 softball sized balls of dung at a minimum a night which shows they are digesting their food properly. Fourth, and this is something that is usually seen first thing when you walk up to the elephant, is that they are swishing their tail and flapping their ears which tells you they are in a good mood.
My girl was doing great on all accounts, so we then walked her to the river to the river. Jim was there with his elephants as well as everyone else in the group. Besides Jim's elephants, we had another one in the group with a small baby, so it was quite entertaining! Before we took them in the river, though, we had to get them to sit down and then we used a large bushel of branches to brush off the dirt on their backs that they blow onto themselves during the night. This is really important because apparently if you sit on them where there's some leftover sand or small pebbles, you can actually force it under the skin and cause an abscess. Well, I got as much off as I could and then down to the river we went with her. I used a bucket to splash wate all over her and then a brush to get everything off. Needless to say, we were going to definitely need showers by the end of the day!
After they were all clean and ready for the trek, the group took a short break during which we learned the necessary commands to use when riding the elephants. There are three ways to mount the elephant (we were riding bareback, by the way): First, you get the animal to bend it's leg so you can use it as a step up, then you grab the top of it's ear and pull your way to the top. Second, you can have it lower it's head and climb up it's trunk to the head where you turn yourself around and third, you can get it to sit down and climb on it's back that way. Most of us found the easiest way was the first. I was told because my elephant was the oldest heading out that day, she would need to head out last behind all the others as it gives the other elephants a feeling of security having the oldest, and presumably the wisest, bringing up the rear. Apparently, elephants are more fearful of what might come up from behind them rather than what might be in front of them.
So off our parade of elephants went, with us riding behind their heads with our legs tucked up by their ears and our trainers walking beside us. It is really phenomenal to be riding that high up on such a massive animal through the trees and feeling their huge bodies moving underneath you. I have to say, though, that I never felt unsteady up there at all as elephants are very careful and methodical about their steps as they go along so it was really quite safe. It wasn't just a simple straight path through the jungle, either. We were going up and down a pathway that at times was very muddy and quite steep. Let's just say there were a few times I chose not to look down the side of the path if you know what I mean! The journey gave us lots of time take in views of the lush hillsides and enjoy the sounds of the jungle, which was a real treat.
What wasn't such a treat is how much you have to use your inner thigh muscles to keep your legs in position and by halfway through the trip, my legs were quivering like jelly! While I LOVED being on top of the elephant, I was really read to get off and stretch my legs - if I could still stand, that is - and since elephants only move at oh, say 2 miles an hour, I started to wonder if we were going to be having lunch in Cambodia. We finally made it to the waterfall, and they cleverly had each elephant go into the water, walk up to a rocky area that was about the height of their backs so each of us could easily step off. Once on the rocks, the guides had set up a classic Thai buffet for us laid out on banana leaves. Yummy! There was a little of everything, from fried chicken to classic Thai sticky rice with sweet coconut milk as well as various kinds of local fruit.
After lunch, we were able to get in the water below the waterfall with a couple of the elephants and swim with them while the guides took our picture. What a hoot! The ride back was much through a shortcut - thank God - and only took us about 15 minutes. It truly was an amazing day and has given us some absolutely wonderful memories. It also felt really good to conribute to such a great organization that adopts these elephants and takes them out of some pretty miserable conditions where they're treated like circus sideshows. Definitely a Thailand highlight for us!
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