Here there be Elephants

There are various elephant experiences available in all of the major tourist cities in Thailand, from Chiang Mai to Bangkok to Phuket. They range from using an elephant as a taxi in the city to watching mock elephant battles at the Surin Elephant Festival. We wanted to interact with the elephants, but we also wanted to do what we could to support a pleasant life for tourist elephants. Until fairly recently, elephants were work animals, used for transport and logging (and warfare before that). As a side effect of their history, even today elephants are registered with the Thai equivalent of the Department of Motor Vehicles, and are legally allowed to share the road. These days, while a fair number are still used for logging and other heavy tasks in remote locations, many are used solely for tourism, and the elephants numbers here have declined.
Nov 8

There are various elephant experiences available in all of the major tourist cities in Thailand, from Chiang Mai to Bangkok to Phuket. They range from using an elephant as a taxi in the city to watching mock elephant battles at the Surin Elephant Festival. We wanted to interact with the elephants, but we also wanted to do what we could to support a pleasant life for tourist elephants. Until fairly recently, elephants were work animals, used for transport and logging (and warfare before that). As a side effect of their history, even today elephants are registered with the Thai equivalent of the Department of Motor Vehicles, and are legally allowed to share the road. These days, while a fair number are still used for logging and other heavy tasks in remote locations, many are used solely for tourism, and the elephants numbers here have declined.

We chose Patara Elephant Farm out of the operators in Chiang Mai because they got great testimonials on TripAdvisor, and they do a lot of what might be called elephant rescue - taking sick or no longer wanted animals, healing them, and putting them in a combination breeding program and gentle tourism operation.

Patara picked us up in Chiang Mai and drove us with 4 other people to their location in a farming community well outside of town. As you might expect, elephants eat a lot, and Patara buys their produce for the elephants from the local farmers, giving a boost to the economy of that area. When we arrived, we were each loaned a poncho-like outfit to wear, woven by the family who runs the farm. Having us in familiar outfits increases the elephant's comfort level with all these different people from day-to-day.

Each of us got our own elephant for the day. Danny's was a young female named Champu. Mine was named Mae Mai, and was an older, pregnant female. She's got about 4-6 months to go still, so was happy to go on the walk and get the food, but she didn't like to lie down, so some things went a bit differently for me.

Our first job was to check and see if our elephants were in a good mood so we could approach them. To do this we held up some bananas and called their name. If they sqeaked, flapped their ears, and wagged their tails in response, then they were in a good mood (and they all were). Then we fed them a basket of bananas, which they ate as fast as we could feed it to them (and would take bananas out of the basket themselves if we were too slow). Their mouths had an odd triangular shape, and their tongues couldn't come out very far, but they were very grabby and rough. I could only see a bit of their teeth way back in the mouth.

Feeding an elephant, from Thailand 2009 - Elephants

Then we learned to check four signs of good health - the already-checked mood, a proper level of sweat (did you know that elephants sweat only at the edge of their toenails?), evidence that they've slept on both sides of their body in the night (a sleeping mat of dirt on their skin), and good dung (consisting of a good number of large chunks, with slight moisture, no bad small, and only small fibers left). After this, we learned a couple commands, like stop and go, so we could move the elephants away from each other and clean them. Elephants use dirt as a sunscreen and bug repellent, so they spray it over their backs whenever they have the opportunity. However, it's very uncomfortable for the elephant to be ridden that way, as the dirt can get ground into their skin, and over time cause infections. So, we brushed all the dirt off, and then finished the job by scrubbing them down in the river with a stiff brush (making sure to brush with the grain of the skin).

Washing the elephants, from Thailand 2009 - Elephants

Then we were given some more commands which were combinations of words and sometimes touches: get down ("nam long"), head down ("tam long"), go forward ("bai"), go back ("toi"), stop ("hao"), get up ("look"), and don't do that ("yanna"). More than I and some of the others could remember, so they started writing them on our arms. In addition to an elephant, we each had a guide, who knew the elephants well (mine was named Ala). Now the guides demonstrated the ways to mount an elephant - tapping the elephant on the leg, so that it would raise it and bend it, making steps for you to climb up on; jumping up on a lowered head; having the elephant lay down on the ground; or having the elephant bend its trunk so you could use it as a step up and over the head. Then we were shown how to sit on the elephant's head, with your knees tucked behind its ears. After that, we were ready to get on the elephants and ride them to the waterfall and swimming area.

At the waterfall, we played with the elephants in the deep spot, where they rolled in the water and drank directly from where the water flowed quickly over the rocks. Swimming with the elephants meant trying to stay on top of them as they lolled about. It was a bit strange because they could keep their head underwater and breath through their trunks. One of the male elephants was especially fond of the swimming and was reluctant to get out. In addition to swimming with our own elephants, both Danny and I swam with that one together. After playing with the elephants, we took a quick dip in the upstream waterfall, which could really pound on you (free massage, we joked) while the guides set up our lunch feast.

Swimming with an elephant, from Thailand 2009 - Elephants

Lunch consisted of 5 different kinds of sticky rice, piles of fried chicken, egg yolk candy, coconut gelatin, purple and white dragon fruit, bananas, and a dry chicken curry. This was way too much to eat, but that was intentional. All the leftovers except the meat, but including the banana leaf tablecloth got feed to the elephants, who were getting antsy for their snack after we'd been eating for a while. Then we rode the elephants partway back, this time through the jungle along a more adventurous path. At the rest stop, the elephants got a huge meal of grass while we got a lesson about the history of elephant usage in Thailand.

A big lunch, from Thailand 2009 - Elephants

We we got all the way back, we were given the option of buying an additional basket of bananas (100 ฿) to feed to our elephants, which most of us did. Danny tied with a woman from one of the other couples as the best elephant rider for the day, so they got stand with their arms out and eyes closed as the elephants gave them a surprise in return - big sloppy kisses on the arm with their trunks.

Danny about to get a kiss, from Thailand 2009 - Elephants

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