Thailand: Elephant Ride

Date: February

I got to cross quiet a few things off my "Awesome Things To Do" Bucket List on my trip to Thailand.  One of them was ride an elephant through the jungle.  While it wasn't exactly a jungle--I did ride an elephant through the wilderness of northern Thailand. That qualifies for me.

So, let me start at the beginning.  We are on our 2nd day of hiking.  It was a heck of a day.   we started around 9 in the morning and the first hill was a monster.  And then 4 hours later, we are still hiking.  I'm loving it.  I think I might have been the only one who was in love with trekking.  But I loved the struggle of forcing your legs to keep going.  I loved the quiet-ness of the hills.  I loved that we were walking on trails only the natives (an other trekkers) use.  I loved that we could literally go an hour without talking--but in some odd way, communicating none the less.  Communing.   It made me feel like I was actually in Nature.  Not just some park that had pavement thorugh it to make sure that the walking was smooth.  No, this was actually NATURE.  REAL. LIVE.  Beauitful.  Stunning.  

But after 4 hours we were getting hungry. I had passed the morning learning Thai words.  Bai Long Dai (Lets go uphill).  Bai Kun Dai (let's go down hill)--this was a popular one.  But it was lunch time.  We come down this slope and start walking on a path that has tire tracks and we know that we are close to a rest stop.  Civilization.  

I wouldn't exactly call the hut we can to "civilization" but they had coke products so for us, it worked.  Then, we looked up the hill and spotted something you don't see everyday: 

Look Mom--three elephants.  Just chilling!

 This elephant was nice enough to pose for us.

 After a delicious meal made by our trek tour guide, Gee, we got ready for our Elephant Ride.   We climb up the steps of this make-shift stairway so that we can climb on top of the elephants.

 You sit on this bench thing that is tied around the Elephant's belly, neck and a little tie under their cute tail.  To get to the bench, you step, place your foot on the elephants shoulders.  This was weird to do, because it's a little surreal to think about stepping on an animal.  You don't step on animals in my home.  But elephants are so big.  That my weight is nothing to them.  You can step on them--it doesn't matter.  If you don't look too closely, the elephant skin almost looks like some sort of weird carpet--until it moves.  And then it hits you again that you really are standing on an animal bigger than cars.

 Riding in an elephant is a lot like ... a mix between a horse and a really fat man.  You sort of sway side to side, trodding along, but it is smooth, like a slow horse walk.  It was interesting.

 Jan and Sam were behind us in the order of Elephants so I was able to take a bunch of pictures of them. About half of the pictures I took got deleted because it is HARD to focus on someone when both you and they are moving!

 Jan and Sam's elephant was a bad boy.  He would stop and eat leaves, took alternate routes, and had fun not listening to the native man in charge of steering the elephant.

 We crossed a river, and the elephant would suck water up its trunk and then slap it on each side of the body.  I couldn't help but think, "eww....elephant snot!  Snotty Water!"  But it was hot and it did feel good.

 See, Jan and Sam's elephant is making its own path.

 And again.

And a third time.

 I love these next two pictures.  Apparently, this company had 6 or 7 elephants that they let wander in their part of the forest (I didn't see any fences and if an elephant really wanted to, a fence wouldn't do squat).  We passed one elephant up on a hill--chilling out. It was awesome.

 We walked through a village.

 And then we de-elephanted and got to reward the animals for their good job with some bananas and watermelon.  Intrepid (The company I used to book this trip) use this elephant ride company because of the humane way they treat the elephants.  Giving them treats such as this.  Not using a painful riding crop.  Keeping healthy and happy elephants.

 Give him a banana, claire!

 I thought their mouths looked really sweat, until I saw one use enough pressure to crack a whole watermelon in half.  I kept hearing this strange "klunk" sound and I couldn't figure out what it was, until I saw seeds shoot out of an elephants mouths.  Sure enough, he was eating a watermelon.  He would put the whole thing in his mouth, apply pressure until the thing broke in half and then half would fall on the floor while he chomped on the other half.  Then he'd suction the 2nd half up with his trunk, put it in his mouth and return to chomping away.  It was one of those--whoa, I'm feeding an elephant moments.

Crushing the watermelon

So, that was my hike through the hills of Thailand on an Elephant.  Pretty Sweet.