Elephant riding -cor blimey that hurts!

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  150km North of Bangkok, Thailand
Saturday, March 1, 2008

Hi there -1st March already -I can hardly believe it!
Having a wonderful time with our ellies -2 of them a male 15yrs and a female 35yrs, and fairly unimpressively I can't remember either name! Our eco location is in a beautiful spot on a hillside. We walk down hill to our ellies in the morning and ride them 3km to cut sugar cane for them with machetes -I know another weapon I'm used to handling! After the first day riding on a howdah (seat thing) to the sugar cane fields I opted to walk the following day as the seat dug into the back of my legs something chronic and the movement of the ellie means you have to brace for the entire journey which is about one and a half hours at ellie pace. In any event it's lovely walking alongside them and as this project is only in its 3rd month ellies  are a new thing in this area  and they're treated as celebrities in the surrounding villages. Yesterday a very bent and toothless old lady emerged from her shack with sugar cane and bananas for them and the evident pleasure it gave to feed them was fabulous to witness

Cutting bananas - hard work!

. As soon as they caught sight of the food they practically ran - not a comfortable experience and everso slightly terrrifying if you're on top! 
They, the ellies came across a jackfruit tree one day and took great delight in removing it from the tree (jackfruit can weigh up to 20kg and I think its the most delicious fruit I've ever tasted and that's a big claim now after the absolutely wonderful sweet and juicy pineapple and watermelon we have each morning for breakfast -I digress) and treading on it to break it open. Dried and crisped jackfruit is a speciality in one of the local villages and I can tell you  that it's absolutely yummy as well as in its natural state . The ellies also take great delight in snacking en route to the sugar cane fields stopping off the pull up leaves, roots and grasses. I stood during one such stop off and stroked the trunk of the male and thought to myself  "wow , what a privilege it is to be able to do this" It's amazing watching the mahouts handle them, and the way they clamber all over them to wash them is something else. Talking of washing them I did take a shower on ellie back on our first evening there and it was fantasic although incredibly uncomfortable for me what with my rubbish hips n all. Mind you I wouldn't have missed it for the world and you and the ellie come out of the whole process very wet but clean!
It's now Sat 8th March and I can't believe its our penultimate day here - its gone so quickly

Cutting sugar cane -so many new skills

. I had the most fantastic ride/shower on the female ellie yesterday evening and she's a much more stable seat than the male who as as he's a teenager can be a bit wilful at times whereas on the female the mahout will get off and leave you to it as she's such a good girl.
Yesterday we had a change from cutting down sugar cane , which is very satisfying although you have to watch out for the leaves as they are razor sharp and there are also tiny prickly hairs not unlike my dear friends the prickly pears from South Africa! A farmer had called the project and asked if we would lke to clear the remaining  bananas from him crop for the ellies as  they would only go to waste as he was going to dig it all up and plant something else.  Cutting down banana palms made a nice change from sugar cane - getting the angle of the machete right was key to minimising the slog of taking them down altho in about half an hour I hsad an impressive blister! I'd had a really good ride on the ellie the previous day as I'd stuffed my fleece at the back of my knees to cushion the rubbing and it was far more comfortable but I chose to walk again yesterday. There's something really quite special walking along the "road" with 2 huge animals sometimes just behind you or just in front or, cutting right in front of you so you have to change diresction -it's not like you're going to argue! For such big animals they move so quietly and they watching their very deliberate foot movments is kinda hypnotizing

Kwan the driver with one of the ellies

. I dug around in  the adjacent now ploughed potato fields along the way for bits of potato and once found I'm only needed to vaguely wave it b4 an enquiring trunk nudged it's way into my hand! It's very difficult to describe the feeling you have being in such close proximity to the ellies and I think it has something to do with their size and strength but their incredible gentleness and calmness too.Calmness was a great quality my female ellie dispalyed yesterday as I dismounted her without the aid of the platform. I say dismounted, I actually fell out of the tree we pulled up to with the mahout pointing to this branch about 15ft above the ground suggesting I climbed on to it and then got to the ground (how??!!) Fortunately as I fell there was a ruddy great elephant behind me to shoulder my fall and Kwan, one of the Thai guys grabbed hold of me as I stumbled!. Barbara caught the whole thing on video and it's now available as a training video " How not a get off an elephant" I'm sure you're thrilled to know that I wasn't much injured apart from from a bleeding toe which I may have broken (but I'm being terribly brave as you would imagine!)
We're off to Koh Samet tomorrow and  I'm not sure there's that much to do there except sunbathe altho I think I'll try and find out about boat trips else I'll be getting a bored quite quickly. We will however be meeting up with our other group mates with whom we spent the first week so it'll be fun catching uop and seeing what's what

Little old lady with the ellies

.
I'm on Koh Samet now and yes although the beach is lovely and the sea is warm and appears to be clean it's also very busy and full of farangs(wetserners) and having been out in rural Thailand with very few western faces it certainly is a bit of a culture shock. Shall have a swim later but have just popped into this internet cafe with Jo whilst trying to find the start of a trail that no one seems to know where it is or is interested in in even hazarding a guess -ho hum...
Going to sign off now and probably lose the will to live uploading photos....
Love and hugs
Asia Sal xx

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Me chatting to the boy ellie	Me replete with bracelets...!	One of the dogs	Our ele project site
Riding ellie on howdah	Sally the mahout?!

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