Although there are elephants all over Thailand there is a higher prevalence of them in the Chiang Mai area. The particular training centre I visited, Chiang Dao, specializes in helping orphaned, young or otherwise damaged elephants learn necessary forest working skills with an eye to them returning to work. Our guide grew up in the area and confirmed that the use of elephants to work is still very high and the bond to Thai people extremely close.
The entrance into the centre was across a small river over a very wobbly but safe bamboo bridge - certainly no elephant would get out across here! I hurried to the show centre where elephants were demonstrating their knowledge and skills. This picture show how the mahout (trainer) is able to mount the elephant stepping up from their feet.
These next two shots show the inside of an elephant's mouth (while eating bananas!) and how they sleep. Speaking of mouth, elephants eat about 1/3 of their body weight a day, in grass, leaves, bamboo shoots, twigs and of course fruit! This could be up to 250-300 kgs of food and they drink 240 litres of water a day! Talk about diet!
A couple of other little jobs these fellas had been trained for were picking up litter and for fun...a little painting class on the side! And yes, I do have this painting - I couldn't miss the opportunity to have another "Monet" in my collection!
The next stage of the visit was the most fun! We got to ride the elephants in the jungle and river for quite a while experiencing their unique sense of humour, sense of direction, and insatiable appetite along the way! My elephant's name was Son Boon (good luck) and we found that his naughty sense of fun as the leader of our group truly did need good luck!
Asian elephants are so much smaller than African ones you didn't feel unsafe at all. Our Mahout was a riot and every time Son Boon decided to make a sharp turn, up or down a path in the jungle or to the river he would yell out "Oh My god..." surely mimicking many previous tourists! What a hoot! We just laughed as we knew we were totally safe! The ride went through the jungle, along a very tiny creek bed, up some steep hills all while Son Boon was munching on the vegetation. We found a red ants nest at one point but stayed clear! Then the group went towards the bigger river and yes....into it we went! We truly thought this was going to be a wet experience, but were pleasantly surprised with just a walk in the water!
A drink along the way was fine for the elephants - could have used one myself at this point!
After our ride we went along past some of the baby pens and had the opportunity to feed bananas to the mums and babies. All proceeds from any purchases (including bananas) went to the upkeep of the animals.
As we left the area we saw containers that are used to collect, dry and press the dung into paper materials. The Centre's flyer, art paper and mailing tubes were all made of this type of paper. Right now it was too dry; the rainy season is coming.
This was a great segment of the day and well worth the stop. I continue to marvel that at each turn there is something new, fun and exciting to see!
More tales another day!
Great to see you back!tr6y57u76
ReplyDelete