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On the morning of the 16th April we were picked up from our hostel at 8.30am, along with 10 other people, by a couple of really cool Thai guys both called Tum, for 2 days of mahout training. A mahout is somebody who drives and looks after an elephant and first stop on our training course was the local market for the elephants' breakfast. We were told that elephants eat 250kg of food a day so we bought dozens of bags of bananas and sugar cane and loaded them into the van before heading off to the camp which was about an hour outside Chiang Mai.
Once at the camp we were issued with our rather fetching mahout clothes, thick blue cotton shirts and trousers in traditional Thai style. Once changed we sat down for a cup of coffee and a quick lesson in elephant commands. We learnt that when driving an elephant you use a three different methods: voice commands, leg squeezes/kicks and a 3 foot wooden pole with a blunt hook on the end which is used in a similar way to a riding crop. For example, to turn you shout "Pey pey", pull gently on the side
of the elephant's head with the wooden pole and kick the ear of the direction you want to turn. To go forwards you kick both ears, shout "Bouy bouy" and rest the wooden pole on the elephant's head. Once we had learnt all of the commands we went to meet the elephants.
The camp has 11 elephants and a group of mahouts, most of whom own their own elephant but some of whom just work for the camp and train the camp's elephants. It was quite amusing watching the mahouts with their elephants as they were obviously very close, constantly talking to them and trying to get the best bunches of bananas for them. We unloaded all the food, took it down to the elephants' area and started feeding them their breakfast. It was fascinating how they all had different personalities. Some would grab the bananas out of your hand with their trunks before you had a chance to feed them, others would patiently wait until you popped the bananas in their mouths for them and others would try and snatch the food out of your hand when you walked past to feed another elephant! Once all the food
had gone we sat down at watched the mahouts give us a demonstration on how to mount and drive an elephant with the commands that we had already learnt. Then it was time for us to try.
Actually getting on the elephants was by far the most difficult part. The first method we learnt was to go to the front right leg, give the command "Song" and wait for the elephant to bend its leg. Then you step up on to the thigh, shout "Soong" and they lift their leg up into the air for you to jump onto their back, while grabbing onto their ear for purchase. Sounds simple enough but it really isn't! Once on the elephant you are meant to sit very far forward, just below the head. If you sit too far back the elephants' legs crush your legs as they walk. Once we had successfully mounted, we tried the various commands we had learnt to go forwards, turn, stop, go backwards and dismount. They were surprisingly obedient and very responsive to the commands. After an hour or two of practising we dismounted, had a wash and sat down for a tasty lunch.
After
lunch we were assigned an elephant each and set off on our first trek. We had to use all of our newly learnt mahout skills to control them as they often decide to veer off the path for food, stripping tasty looking leaves off of branches and plucking fruit from trees. When you eat 250kgs of food a day eating is an almost constant hobby. Around this point, I decided I want to be reincarnated as an elephant. We walked for around an hour through the hills surrounding the camp and then came back for a bath. There was a mud pit behind the camp building that the elephants bathe in a couple of times a day. We led our elephants down to the pit and then dismounted before ushering them into the water. We then followed and instantly sank down to our knees in the warm, disgusting sludge. The mahouts helped us to wash the elephants, throwing water over them and scrubbing their hides with a brush. The elephants seemed to love it and had to be virtually dragged back out of the water.
After the bath we were all drenched in muddy water so jumped into the
shower and changed back into our normal clothes. All of the other guys were only on a one day course so they were driven back to Chiang Mai while Tum showed us our room. It was very basic and consisted only of a matress on the floor with a mosquito net above it but it did look out over the mud pit and it was very cool to occasionally see an elephant meander past our bedroom window on the way to a bath.
Once we had cleaned up and changed we settled down to dinner with Tum before turning in for an early night.
The next morning we were up early to go walking in the hills with a couple of the mahouts to try and find some of the elephants' favourite plants. When we found a few patches it was down to work, cutting them down with a big farming knife and bundling them up for the walk back to camp. On the way back we got a lovely view of the camp and the small village nearby and stopped to look out, feeling very surreal as we stood on the hillside, dressed like Thai farmers and
holding bundles of leaves over our shoulders for elephants' breakfast. Once back at camp we fed the leaves to the grateful elephants before relaxing with some food and a cup of coffee while a new group of one day mahouts were put through their paces with the elephants. After food we mounted our elephants and set off for our seconds trek, separate from the main group. We walked much further this time, through palm trees and over picturesque hills before taking a break near some fruit trees in the countryside. We picked some apples and tamarind for the elephants and snacked on a couple ourselves. One of the mahouts also found some leaves that he urged us to try, saying they were herbs. We hesitantly tried, feeling rather foolish plucking leaves off a tree and eating them but it turned out they were actually really tasty so we grabbed a handful each and munched away. Once the elephants were rested we mounted them again for the trip back to camp and another bath in the mud pit.
Once the elephants were clean we had another shower before Tum drove us back to our hostel. The two days were without
question among our favourite and were worth every penny. The elephants are incredible beasts, very intelligent and full of personality and we left very happy.
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Steve(Dad)
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Hi Amy and Lee, we've waited patiently to hear from you again. Hope you enjoyed your meditation. The Elephants look fantastic, I would definately like to try that (and no Amy you can't have one of those either). Steve