Chiang Mai #3: Mahout Training

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I was up at seven and at the breakfast place, before eight. Since I had plenty of time today, I decided to eat at the stall/restaurant. I added chicken to my rice porridge today, but it wasn't very nice, definitely should have stuck to the pork, only. I saw an offering while I was having breakfast, that was cool. A monk was walking by, and the couple at the table next to me called him over, but a bottle of pop in his urn(?) and knelt praying, while the monk chanted away. Thai people are so devout. It's cool how they can fit it into their day like this. It reminds me of in Japan, when people would stop and pray at the shrines set up on the street.

I waited ages for my pick-up, over 45 minutes, I was a bit peeved at this point. It meant I could have had longer in bed! However, they finally turned up at 9:15, at least the minivan was pretty empty. We drove for a little while, and we soon arrived at a market. We waited there for about 15 minutes, perhaps a bit longer, as they bought bananas to for us to take to feed the elephants with. We were all a bit bored, standing around in the market, as it wasn't very big. I think that they could have bought the bananas before coming to get us, as it would streamline the process, and get us to the elephants quicker. A woman on the tour explained to me, why they were late, as they didn't do the first pick-up til nine (they tell everyone 8:30) and then they stopped to give an offering to a monk. I paid for the trip, it was 2,400 baht, I thought I would have to pay more as I was alone and had nobody to share an elephant with, so it looked to me like they would be pairing me up with someone else on the trip. We then drove for about an hour into the countryside.

We arrived at the elephant farm, there were no elephants in sight. We made use of the facilities (very nice and clean) and then we had a look through the big wardrobe, and picked out some clothes to wear. They were well ghetto, but it saved my clothes from getting wet and dirty. After getting changed, we sat around for a bit, while Mr. Eddy played the guitar. Then he gave us some pens and paper, and explained a bot about the elephants to us. He taught us the commands to use. After noting them on the paper, we then had to write them on our hands and arms, so that we would have them when we needed them.

We had unloaded the bananas from the minivans when we had arrived and now we had to pair off and carry the bananas up to the field, where we would meet some of the elephants. There were three elephants there, Jenny, Iriana, and another one, whose name I couldn't pronounce, so I knew I would have no chance of remembering it. It was fun feeding the elephants, I was a bit scared that it was going to bite my hand off, but they weren't aggressive. They would grab the bananas with their trunks and then wrap their trunks around it, jiggle it about a bit, and then pop it in their mouth. We were then shown how to get on and off the elephants, bloody hell, this is hard work, there are so many things to remember. Then it was our chance to have a ride. I rode Jenny, the smallest one. It was hard to get on, my legs ain't that flexible, and it took a good few hefts of Mr. Eddy to get me up! We rode around the field, the journey was only about 5 minutes, but was a good introduction, and gave us a taste of what to expect later. It felt really weird riding the elephant, everybody looked really comfortable and natural up there, but we didn't feel it. We all felt that we were too far forward and it didn't feel good, when the elephant went downhill, as it drops its head, and I felt I was going to fall off its neck and be trampled upon.

We headed back to the dining room/restaurant for lunch. The food was canny, we had flavoured savoury rice, mixed vegetables, omelette, and a watery chicken and potato soup. Water was provided, but if you wanted a soft drink or a beer, you had to pay extra. I had a coke, I needed a hit of caffeine. We all chatted during lunch, getting to know each other. It was a pretty diverse group. After lunch we headed down to a small river about 5 minutes away. We spotted some elephants that had already been on a trek and were getting bathed off in the river. We headed past them to a tin roof shade, where there were some more elephants. We had brought some bananas with us and we got to feed the elephants. We were able to pet them loads, and we also got some kisses from them. Cute and gross at the same time!

After feeding the elephants, we walked a bit further along. We passed a house and there was a big elephant chilling outside of it. It just looked so natural in these surroundings, it was part of the family, just like a dog or cat would be at home. We then stopped and took off our shoes, and handed over our cameras, so that Mr. Eddy and his helpers could take our photos on the way round. I got my own elephant, I wasn't expecting that, and it was a nice surprise. Also, we didn't have to worry about getting on our elephants, as we were up on a platform and the elephants walked up to it, and we jumped on. I was happy that I didn't have to heft my big arse up there again.

Since I had my own elephant, I sat at the front. Its mahout sat at the back, behind me. He was proper chill, sitting sideways with his legs dangling down, eating his lunch. My elephant's name was Mwoma, I think, at least that is what it sounded like to me. S/he was feisty creature and not long after we started he began to spray me with his nose. I was covered in elephant snot, lush. He did it quite a few times on the journey round. We headed across the road, and into the forest. There was a path that the elephants followed. Going downhill was a lot worse here as the gradient was steeper, I definitely felt like I was going to slide off his trunk. My elephant stopped for ages to have a big massive poo and to scratch his bum on some trees. We stopped back at the field from earlier and we fed the elephants. Bunches of bananas were passed up to us to feed the elephants with. It was funny watching and feeding the elephants. Their trunks came up, and you had to put the banana on its nostril, then it would wrap its nostrils around the banana, put it in its trunk and then pop it into its mouth.

We then headed the way we had walked to meet the elephants. We went past a couple of houses and then we were on the smooth tarmacked road. It was hilarious going along the road with the cars whizzing past. However for me, I didn't like the road part as the elephants walked too fast. I preferred the path in the countryside where they were slow and steady. My mahout jumped off before our approach to the river, he went and sat in a stilted bamboo hut. I wondered why he had buggered off, and I was shitting myself heading down towards the river, as the path was pretty steep, bit Mwoma navigated it well and I didn't end up in the drink.

I found out the reason why Mwoma's mahout got off before we entered the river. Mwoma loves to spray water! As soon as we entered the water, he began sucking up water with his trunk and sprayed it everywhere. It was funny, and I got totally soaked. The only bad point was that the water was full of grit, and I was glad that I had my sunglasses on as it protected my eyes. We waded through the river a couple of hundred metres, turned the corner and came to a wider spot. Mr. Eddy had told me that Mwoma would pretty much throw me off, and that he would be there to capture it on camera. So I was prepared for that, and if I wasn't soaked already, I was now. I think Mwoma was happy to get rid of me, as he enjoyed bathing in the water. I spent a while scrubbing him off, as he lay in the water. I spent ages doing it, and was a bit bored by the time I finished, when the mahout told me to stop, but Mwoma seemed to enjoy it and he had just carried me around the countryside for about an hour. We all gathered together and took some group pictures and some pictures of the elephants in the water. The elephants sprayed us quite a bit, while we were taking the group photos, it was funny. Then it was back to the camp, I dried off and changed, and then it was back in the minivan for the drive to the city.

I marched straight up to my room, and headed for the shower. I had a lovely shower to remove all the grit from my body and hair. My hair was rotten. Then, trying to get myself organised for my early start tomorrow I headed up to Seven Eleven to grab something for breakfast, coffee, and water. I dropped the stuff back at the hotel and headed to the night stalls to get some dinner. I ordered duck noodle soup (40 baht) from a stall, it was really nice, although there was some kind of unidentified organ or body part ,which I ate as it didn't taste bad. I think I overdid it with the chilli powder though, as my nose was running. I was looking forward to a roti for dessert, but the roti woman wasn't there. So I had to walk all the way back to the other roti stall. I decided to order a special roti with cheese. It was one of those plastic processed cheese slices. It was so wrong but so right, the cheese was really salty. I washed it down with a Leo beer.

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