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Published: November 20th 2008
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10-17th November 2008
Before we left for our adventure we decided to apply (and were accepted) for some volunteer work in 'The Elephant Nature Park' (ENP) near Chiang Mai. It was the most amazing week and we thought that it deserved it's own blog, so...
After meeting some of our fellow volunteers (there were about 25 of us) and our coordinators for the week we were set our first task (8.30am Monday morning) of helping to load up some of the elephant food for the day. Once the whole truck was loaded we were off to the park, 60km north of Chiang Mai.
As we approached the park (along some notorious Thailand bumpy roads) we caught our first glimpse of an Asian elephant roaming free. The park is the only elephant park in Thailand where the Mahouts (elephant carers) are not allowed to use a 'hook' to control the elephant, they can roam where they like within the park boundaries during the day and are only chained at night a) for their own safety b) for the mahouts to get some sleep and c) for the sake of the neighbouring farmers fields!
During our induction day we
were told about and shown a video which explained how, over many centuries and due to ingrained Thai culture, how all 'domesticated' elephants are 'broken'. This phrase means that their spirit is broken so that their owners and mahouts can get them to do such things as trek, paint, play football and be used for logging. The video was very distressing as it showed the horrific cruelty and torture which all elephants (often at the age of 3 years old-still babies as elephants can live until they are well into their 80's) go through in order to train them. It involves beating with sticks, hooks, starving them, depriving them of sleep, shouting/scaring and not letting them move, this ordeal can last between 3-7 days but often is extended to a month. These periods of torture can continue for 7 years whilst they are in 'training'. Needless to say we came out shocked both at the video and of our ignorance since elephant trekking tours had always looked kind, fun and appealing.
On a lighter note, since the park was started in 1995 it has saved 32 Asian elephants from sad backgrounds, many of them on a full time basis,
some are only leased but the park are trying to negotiate buying and keeping them full time.
So, what were we doing there? We soon found out! The first day was relaxed, we were able to feed the elephants and help the mahouts wash them, ask questions and try to learn some of the elephants names and personalities, this task was much more difficult than it might seem! Simon (of the younger brother Hunt variety) had set Rach a task (his visit and recommedation from 2 years earlier had sent us there) and this was to find Aura, a one year old baby during 2006, we did and she is still the golden girl of ENP but a right (not so) little fatty! Feeding and helping to wash the elephants was the most amazing and surreal experience, especially when they stood up from lying down in the river and you realised how huge they actually were.
Then the relaxing was over and the work began. 6.15am the alarm went off, not elephants trumpeting or one of the 47 dogs barking-they rescue stray dogs too!, but Wichet's (mahout of Tukhum, naughty baby one, and Mae Boon Chun, his Mum)
much loved Eagle's album blaring out of his hut and into ours. 8am and chores began. Once split into groups we were given our morning chores on a rotation. They included; cleaning elephant shelters (poo), mucking out the buffalo sheds (more poo), cat house and beach clean up (again more poo), household duties (no poo) and corn cutting (with the locals, no poo but lots of sweat and machettes). It was great to be outdoors and so active. After chores came project time. During the week this included; fencing, bamboo collecting, sugar cane cutting, shucking corn (and LOTS of it), sorting out elephant lunches, unloading bananas, corn and sugar cane from the trucks, building a sand pit for a poorly elephant with a permanent broken pelvis, helping the vet, varnishing a refurbished hut for visitors, oh, and a little bit of beer and whiskey drinking. We had two projects during the day, morning and afternoon, inbetween them was elephant feeding, volunteer feeding and our favourite time of day...bath time!
Luckily for us we were also treated to an extra initiation into Thai culture, that of the Loi Katoi (water) festival. This is where northern Thai people celebrate sending away
negative thoughts, occurances and feelings down the river on 'Katongs' (small boats made from bamboo, banana leaves, tooth picks, marigolds, candles and inscence sticks). We also let off lanterns, with a wish, into the night sky. It was an amazing sight and a real highlight of the week. We forgot to say that we also were blessed by the local Shamen and got to attend the Buddhist temple for prayer during the celebrations.
Fun and games...
During the week (after 45 minutes we wished that we were staying for 2 or 3 or 4!) we worked and played hard. Lucy witnessed one of our Volunteer Coordinators (Mammoth) fall into a whole load of buffalo poo, it wasn't his day as later when messing around with a sparkler his thai pants fell down...! Other day time fun was provided during elephant bath time, using bread the mahouts had trained many of the elephants to kiss, blow water at and put hats on the volunteers/visitors, whilst naughty baby bath time would have us all in stitches whilst they (2 of them) tried to wash himself, walk down the slope to the river, get back up the slope from the river and
just generally cause mayhem! All of the mahouts impressed us with their capabilities for controlling such massive animals in a humane and gentle way, they really love their elephants.
Other (often evening) entertainment was provided by the cheeky mahouts and our own volunteers (us included!). A Katoi (lady boy) contest was held one night which ended up with the winner, Mong (18 year old mahout of Jungle Boy) trying to float down the river on an oversized Katong, unfortuntely and much to our distress (and laughter) it sank.
One of our treats for being volunteers was to trek for 2 hours, with one of the elephant families, up to 'Haven' the orginal home of the park. It was a real experience to walk alongside the elephants up into the mountains and a real challenge to find them in the morning, since at night they are able to roam totally free. After finding them we were asked to choose a tree to tie a blessed robe around, this is done to help protect the trees (and the elephants environment) from illegal logging.
Our last night was a costume party, it is quite difficult coming up with a costume
when you are living out of a rucksack but we managed it... Four of us were transformed into '80's rock sensation- Afro Elephantasia' with Lucy as the lead singing Albino African lady with a more than ample behind, much to the mahouts bewilderment and pleasure! We didn't win but had the best fun coming up with the idea, group name, costumes AND single 'Same, same, same but different' (a common Asian phrase).
The last day came to quickly and we spent much of it soaking up everything we could. We (just us two...) were also treated to a trip up the river on a bamboo raft. This entailed Mammoth and Deng (younger brother of Supon-one of our favourite mahouts) pulling us up river against a strong current and then us being told we had to steer it back down stream..with bamboo poles, through the strong current, we very nearly sank and crashed at least once-it was brilliant and needless to say we laughed alot.
We both felt really sad to leave the park but our experiences during the week have made us both sure that we want to return to carry on helping the park develop (and marry
a mahout!) and sooner, rather than later.
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Simon Martin
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What a great read!
Sounds like you had a fantastic and really inspiring time; very jealous! Although i'm not very good with poo so i'm not sure if it would be my scene ;)