Five Tons of Fun
Trip Start
Jul 09, 2008
1
10
12
Trip End
Aug 19, 2008
Lamphun,
Thailand
Saturday, July 19, 2008
for us at elephant camp. At the bus station, we managed to find the
Wintour bus company to take us to the Elephant Conservation Center,
despite several different people telling us there was no such company
and to take theirs instead. Luckily, that was probably the only
negative part of our entire day! It was raining hard during the 1 1/2
hour bus ride, but the rain began to taper off as we arrived at the
center. It was huge, lush, and beautiful. The best part is that there
were elephants everywhere! The center takes in elephants that have been
used as work elephants in the city or forests, as well as breeding its
own herd. There are about 50 elephants there, all of whom seem happy
and healthy (unlike the ones at the other place!). And the majority of
the mahouts (kow-chang in Thai) live on the premises themselves with
their families and pets; it's one big happy family!
After checking into our thatched roof house, we and the other
three-day camper (a sociology prof from Stetson named John), donned our
suits (Susan could probably have fit an elephant in with her, as well)
and headed off to our first lesson. As soon as they arrived to where
the elephants were, Susan whispered to Nick "That elephant looks so
sweet! I love her!" She was incredibly delighted, therefore, when Supat
(the head tourist guy) said, "Susan, here is your elephant, Wanalee."
It was love at first sight, and her mahout, Diem, was very kind and
silly as well. Wanalee means "Queen of the Forest" in Thai, and it was
the king's (that oh-so revered king) sister who named her! She is a
small elephant (well, relatively), and Diem was even shorter than
Susan! Wanalee was very happy and silly, but extremely gentle. Also,
Wanalee never stopped eating - more so than the other elephants.
All elephants eat for around 17 hours a day (!), consuming about 8-12%
of their body weight (!), so they are always stopping to eat, but
Wanalee seemed to have a particular passion for food. As did her
mahouts. She also makes the most adorable grunting/chirping sounds in
the world that just melted Susan's heart. All around, it was a perfect
match. Nick's elephant was named Seung-hwin, and his mahout was named
Bum, which he thoroughly enjoyed. He bragged to Susan at lunch that
Seung-hwin was a total pimp, having knocked up several girls already
this year, only to learn later that Seung-hwin was, in fact, a MOTHER
of two babies. Susan loved it. Seung-hwin was very noble and large,
despite her female status, and made this really cool vibrating noise
that we all thought was some sort of large vehicle at first. It would
shake Nick when he was riding her. She's only 15 and has already had
two sons! Wanalee is only 11, but Susan hopes that she will have some
little ones the next time Susan comes back (and there will be a next
time).
As soon as we met our elephants, we began learning different mahout
skills, most of which consisted of getting on and off these huge beasts
(Wanalee clocking in at 2 tons and Seung-hwin at 2.5). We learned to
climb up using their leg and their ear, as well as jumping over the
tops of their heads! We rode on their necks like true mahouts (not with
a chair or saddle or anything), and began to get used to getting on and
off the elephants, as well as just riding around. It was a little scary
at first since there's nothing really to hold on to, and we were pretty
high, but it became really fun (and almost natural) after a while!
About an hour after we had first started riding the elephants, Supat
announced it was showtime. And we were in it! We took the elephants
down to the pond for their bath, which the tourists can watch. We ride
into the water on them, so that we can help them get their heads and
backs clean. It's really just a good time for everybody - it's the only
way the elephants can cool down (they have no sweat glands), and the
mahouts have a lot of fun getting the elephants to spray each other.
When you have tons and tons of force behind a dozen giant spray guns,
everybody ends up soaking wet. Susan had taken off her sandals before
going into the water, and with a simple command, Wanalee picked them up
for her one-by-one. Though we would become used to their incredible
intelligence and thoughtfulness over the next few days, Susan was
pretty shocked.
We then headed into the show. Wanalee, since she is pretty young
and Diem has been working with her since she was born, is one of the
lead elephants in the show. She leads the parade of elephants into the
showground by walking between two other elephants and beating a drum.
She definitely can keep better rhythm than her mahout! After the grand
entrance, all the elephants are introduced, then we demonstrate how to
get on and off the elephant. By we, we really do mean us. Like we were
in the show. After only an hour of riding them! Next, one of the
younger elephants (around four years old) demonstrates his different
skills. Then Wanalee goes into the center by herself, showing how
mahouts can command their elephants from a distance (making her sit,
lie down, bow, etc). Next was Susan's big moment. She walked into the
center of the grounds by herself and patiently waited for Wanalee, who
would come walking towards her with a hat in her trunk. Wanalee could
actually place the hat on Susan's head! At first, Susan didn't trust
her and moved her head to help, but Diem told her not to do that, and
next time she did it perfectly. Amazing! Then there were several
demonstrations of how elephants were used in logging (during which
Seung-hwin played a major role), and then came the painting elephants.
This was one of our favorite parts to watch, as they often painted
straighter lines than we could! During the painting was another one of
our favorites - a little elephant who played the xylophone in the most
frantic and hilarious manner imaginable. No real song there. After a
brief song (played by elephants, of course), we all got back on for the
final bow (yes, they really do bow), and then headed to the fence to
wait while tourists (notice I'm not including us among them) fed them
with sugarcane and bananas - surely their favorite part!
Before lunch, we went and visited both the elephant hospital and
elephant nursery. The hospital does great work and provides free
medical care to any elephant who needs it - not just their own. Though
it was sad to visit, it was amazing to see how much they do and how
happy even the injured elephants seem. Unfortunately, one of
Seung-hwin's babies was in there with a hurt leg. He will be fine
though. We then visited the nursery, which has two babies at the moment
that are both about a year old: Seven, named for his birthday on
7/7/07, and AI, named for the way he was conceived - artificial
insemination! Finally, it was time for lunch, which was simple, but
good. They gave us plates of different meats and vegetables, along with
a lot of rice. It was delicious and filling.
Then it was back for the second bath and show. They really work us
hard here! But it's so much fun that you hardly notice it. After the
show (around 2:30 pm), we rode our elephants up to the forest, where
they sleep. It is beautiful up there, and a great place for the
elephants to stay. Since they only sleep about four hours a day, they
spend most of the time in the forest eating. Therefore, they switch
locations every night to keep them from eating all of the foliage
around them. We think it also keeps them from getting bored! As soon as
we had tied our elephants up for the night, a torrential downpour
began. It was a little tough to walk the 20 minutes down the hill in
the mud (which soon turned into a mini-river), but it wasn't too bad
after we were already wet. Diem even fashioned Susan this great hat out
of two leaves (don't worry; there are pix). After some hot (!)
showers, it was time to relax. We explored the property, and it felt
really good to be out of the city and sitting by a pristine (though
filled with elephant dung) lake, journaling to the sounds of
elephants! Around 7, we ate dinner and met the other people who had
arrived to begin the two-day program the next day. We were exhausted
from climbing up and down and around elephants all day and headed to
bed early. Besides, we had to be up at 6 am to go to the forest and get
our elephants the next morning.
Comments
She's Perfect for You
Susan, Wanalee sounds PERFECT for you! Dan and I are loving your blog, keep us 'posted'!