Sorry for the long pause right in the middle of our Thailand entries. Jim O came to town! More on that later....
Brian was the one who spear-headed this day of the trip. He did plenty of research on all kinds of 'elephant excursions' and settled on.... wait for it.... the most expensive one! Big surprise. Anyway, because of all of his extensive research, Brian went into this day with lofty expectations, while I was a bit more cautious. The day started early. We were picked up by a van at 7am and greeted buy three other Australian guests. It was a mother father daughter trio who were in Thailand for the mother's 60th birthday. Her dream was to spend the day with elephants so they had also done extensive research ending on Patara Elephant Farm in Thailand. At that point I knew this would be a great experience.
When we arrived at the farm we drove right into the field of elephants. We immediately noticed small huts on the property which we later found out were the homes of the trainers. Each elephant was paired with it's own trainer.
We went through a short introduction with the rest of the group. We learned the differences between elephant farms, conservations, reserves...etc. The owner of the farm was pretty adament about the fact that farms are the real deal comparatively speaking. Farms are centered on breeding and furthering the dwindling species. While his shtick was convincing, his designer attire didn't go unnoticed. It was obvious that this guy (about 35) had designed a genius bleeding heart yet lucrative business plan.
Next we were introduced to our elephants. Brian and I were paired with the largest beasts there! Brian's was named Benjoon and mine was Dodo...easy enough! The pink coloring on Benjoon means that he came from Cambodia. The trainers taught us various commands in Thai and we greeted our elephants with breakfast. Upon first being introduced, the sheer size of the elephants is unbelievably humbling. It seemed surreal reaching past the tusks and putting my hand right into Dodo's wet gooey mouth. We were taught various signs to look for to make sure the elephant was healthy, including counting and
di-secting mounds of poop... no comment.
After breakfast we were off to the river for a bath. We were handed a bucket and a brush. Since none of the trainers really spoke english, bath time was a lot of pointing and grunting. We'd scrub and scrub and rinse and rinse, then look to the trainer for approval, he'd shake his head, and the game would continue. I'm sure these guys loved watching us scrub and sweat. By this point we were more comfortable with Benjoon and Dodo. We were able to climb up on them to get the 'hard to reach' spots.
When bath time was over, we fed them once more then awkwardly climbed on their necks for the ride through the jungle. There were three different methods you could use to climb on. No matter which you chose, it certainly was not a graceful mount, unless you're a 5'0" Thai man. I was nervous about sitting right on Dodo's neck, but they assured us it was just like us carrying a baby on our shoulders. The ride through the jungle was rocky and mountainous. There were times walking downhill when all you could see were the large boulders below you, until the elephant trunk came flying up to say hi.
The trek led us to another riverbed where we had a traditional Thai picnic on the rocks while the elephants went for a dip. It was beautiful to witness their change in emotion upon reaching the water. They were like children wrestling and playing. We stayed for a couple hours and then hopped back on for the trek back.
It was literally sad saying goodbye to Dodo. Although I only spent 7 hours with him, I of course got the feeling he liked me better than most visitors! Since then, I've come back to reality and recognized that that's part of the beauty of these creatures. They are kind and highly intelligent. We were left from the day with a quote 'walk like elephant, live like elephant'. Simply put, elephants walk deliberately, with purpose and live long, happy, healthy lives.
Thank you Brian for the hilarious, fun, nerve-wrecking, and inspiring experience!
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