The Forever Elephant Camp

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So we've arrived early at the Green Jomtien Studios which is the base for our work at the Forever Elephant Camp. We arrived last night to a very suprised Anon, who wasn't expecting us until Monday! Still, they have made us feel very at home and we joined them for dinner that evening, a Korean style BBQ.

This morning we woke up and headed out to the Forever Elephant Camp. Once we got over the issue of not being able to start the car we were on our way, and on arrival we were greated by the sight of four elephants and their mahoots waiting for us.

On first arrival we had to partake in an innitiation ceremony which involved offering a few baht, some flowers, some whisky and some orange juice to the spirits of the past mahoots, who will help protect us and the elephants during our time with them.

We spent the first part of the day chatting with the locals until we were introduced to our mahoots and our respective elephants. Hels and i will spend our three weeks working with only the one elephant / mahoot so we can learn everything about them, and them about us. Hopefully, by the time we finish we will be riding them, and commanding them efficiently, hopefully!

For such large creatures they move very gently and gracefully. The eat over 60 kgs of food a day and half of that comes out the other end, we will be responsible for what goes in, as well as what comes out of our elephant! That' a whole lot of dung! LOL

Helena's elephant is called Tum Tong, and her mahoot is Ulee. They went for a walk around the jungle to get to know each other, learning the basic commands such as "come on ", "stop", "turn" etc. My elephant is Noi and my mahoot is Nin, we spent today just getting to see the village and the elephants. After a trip around the jungle, and a nice bath for Noi and Tum Tong it was time for a refreshing lager, both thoroughly deserved by Nin and I. He even offered me his hammock to chill in and cool down, very nice : )

Tomorrow is our day off, i plan to go to the shooting range and fire off some handguns, then maybe some golf at the driving range and/or some karting. It's a hard life! Enjoy the photos, the internet here is really slow so when have more time or find a better place we will upload the best of the photos for you all to see.

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Photos

Nin and John
Sharing a well earnt Chang beer

Comments

[jackie]

Hi John and Helena, good to see you having such fun! Mum told us about your insect encounters! We can't see any boots on feet yet so perhaps we could be wrong!? Looking forward to the next installment. Love jackie, brendan, sam and emma.