I-to-I elephant village conservation project. Surin, Thailand.

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We booked our two week elephant conservation project through the company, I-to-I, back when we were living in Australia. We'd been looking forward to the experience for ages and couldn't wait to meet our elephants!

We headed back to Bangkok from Chiang Mai on the overnight bus and headed straight to our hotel. It was too early to check in, so we all fell asleep on the sofas in the lobby. The hotel was nice- the most luxurious accommodation we'd seen in a long while! We thought that someone from the project would be meeting us that night, but nobody came. We were a bit concerned so asked at reception who called I-to-I for us. We were told no one was coming tonight but be ready for pick up tomorrow to be transferred to Surin (where the project was actually taking place) at 9am tomorrow. When we got back from dinner that night, there was a note on our door from the hotel to say that the time had changed to 7.30am- this was starting to get a bit concerning! We were up and ready the next day and thankfully someone turned up to meet us at the right time. We met Karen and Lucy- a mother and daughter from Brighton- who would be doing the project with us. The I-to-I representative was Thai and he told us not to worry, everything would be explained once we got to Surin and that night we would have 'orientation'. He dropped us at the bus station with our bus tickets and said goodbye as he wasn't coming with us.

When we arrived in Surin we were met by Nang, the manager of the project. She was so smiley and friendly, which put us all at ease straight away. We also met Ya and Shau Pou- they would be living in the same accomodation as us and would be onhand through out the two weeks to help us with anything we needed. We all piled in to the back of a ute for the ride to the elephant village. Ta Klang elephant village a 45min drive away from Surin. The view on the drive was full of lushious green scenery. As we got closer, we noticed road signs warning to look out for elephants. We all got excited when we spotted our first elephant! We stayed in accommodation just across the road from the elephant village- Nang explained that the village was where we would be working and we would be allowed to go in whenever we wanted. Connected to the accommodation was a restaurant where another lady called Nang, nicknamed Mum, would cook for us everyday. It was a Saturday and we would only be working on the week days- all other time was free. That night after dinner Nang sat down with us and gave us orientation. She explained that the project was set up in order to stop domesticated elephants from having to travel around Thailand in order to particpate in shows and make money. Surin the home to over 200 elephants. A government scheme supports the village and the Mahouts (elephant trainers/keepers) to live there. In addition to the government scheme the I-to-I scheme exists. A Mahout from the village who participates in the scheme choses to work with the people who volunteer for two weeks at a time in return for the extra money we paid. We found out the names and ages of our elephants. My elephant was called Chok Chai and he was a nine year old boy. Amy and Tina both had girl elephants- Permsub and Tuk. Karen and Lucy also had girl elephants- Seepri and Canda. I was a bit worried that I was the only one with a boy elephant, I hoped he wasn't going to be too much of a handful! Later that night we met the Mahouts who we would be working with. My Mahout was called Hong, when I first met him he seemed a bit shy but totally crazy as he couldn't stop laughing! Nang said that all the Mahouts were quite excited as there hadn't been such a big group of volunteers in awhile. Amy's Mahout was called Pong, Tina's was Tiya, Lucy's was Ay and Karen's was called Thai (Thai spoke the best English). The next day (Sunday) was free time so we all had a bit of a lie in and at 2pm, Thai and Hong came over to take us to the village. Every Sunday there is an elephant show which we could get into for free with our Mahouts. None of our elephants were in the show but it was quite nice to watch. We all couldn't wait for the next day so we could start work.

Our hours of work were 8am-4pm and the next day after we'd eaten breakfast, our Mahouts came to pick us up on their motorbikes. We were all a bit surprised when they expected us to get on the back of them! Luckily we ®Ýnt have to go far-just across the road to the village. We all got driven to the different locations where our elephants were kept. Hong had his elephant shelter about half way down the village. When we drove up there were two elephants there- one was Seepri (I could tell as she had no tusks) and the other was my Chok Chai! After meeting my elephant and he had had a good smell of me (apparently they remember your smell forever) it was time for me to rake the dung from the shelter into the pile. Luckily there wasn't much. I do not mind a bit of manual graft, but in the whole time I was there Hong never worked me very hard. In fact, most of the time he was tellingme to sit down in the shade because it was hot! We then cut cane from the field just by the shelter. Karen who had been next to us with Thai up until now went off on the motorbike holding onto a trolley- they were going to cut and collect cane from somewhere else. Hong would cut the cane with his machetee and I would transport it into a pile. We spoke a bit with his broken English and my non-existant Thai, but Nang had told me she thought he was shy so it might take awhile to break the ice. It never felt awkward though as we could communicate easily enough and from what I had gathered he liked to laugh a lot (just like me), so I was sure we were going to get along fine. The girls stated to turn up one by one on the backs of their Mahouts bikes- we were all gathering to strip the cane down ready for planting. We all talked excitedly about our first impressions of our elephants and our Mahouts and what we'd been doing. We got two hours for lunch (11-1pm) where we would eat a meal prepared by mum back at the restaurant and sit around and talk/read/write our diaries. Work started again at 2pm. This afternoon we were riding our elephants to the river. I had already ridden Chok Chai a short way around the village earlier to wash him at the wash station. It seemed so high up and I wasn't over my initial fear of it yet! I kept worrying he was going to charge off and had been making contingency plans in my head about holding onto his ears so I wouldn't fall off or sliding down his side so I wouldn't get trampled. Luckily my contingency plans were never needed and he was really good. The Mahouts had brought our elephants across the road to our accommodation so we all watched and laughed at each other trying to get up onto our elephants from their bent legs- it definitely isn't easy! The ride to the river was amazing, such pretty scenery and such an amazing feeling to be on the back of an elephant. There were hardly any tourists in the area and it was such a tight community that Hong just kept shouting out to people he knew and people would call hello and smile at us. Hong walked by the side of Chok Chai with a spiked hook- they have them just incase the elephants get out of control but he never needed to use Þt . At the river we got to stay on the backs of our elephants whilst going in the water. Hong climbed up on the back of Chok Chai too thÑn It was so much fun! He kept ducking down in the water and by the end of it I was totally soaked! You can really tell that the elephants loved the water. Amy's elephant was an especial fan of the water and got so excited Amy would often fall off! She'd then get onto the back of Seepri who was much more relaxed, or Tuk.



Over the next couple of weeks we really got to know our elephants and our Mahouts. Chok Chai turned out to be a bit of a character, I absolutely loved him! He was just the right mix of cheeky and loveable. I got to know Hong better as well and felt really close to him by the end- it seemed like we were always laughing about something. Our mornings would typically consist of breakfast, riding to the village, cleaning the shelters, and cutting sugar cane. When all the cane in the field by the shelter had been cut, we rode with the trolley to Hong 's grandparents house where there was another field. One day he even let me have a go at cutting! We'd then all meet up at Hong 's shelter (which became a bit of a social hub) to strip the cane before lunch. The afternoons were a little more varied. A couple of times we planted sugarcane, this was always accompanied by copious amounts of green fanta brought for us by the Mahouts. Another time we gave the Mahouts an English lesson (we were also there to help improve their English). Amy's Mahout could barely speak a word of English at the start as it was the first time hÐd done the project but by the end of the lesson we'd taught him the basics plus the useful phrase of 'do you have a boyfriend?'- thanks to Thai! One day we got to go the elephant poo-paper making factory and made some paper from elephant dung which we got to keep. Everyday at 3pm we would get to ride our elephants to the pond for bathtime- this was always my favourite time of day . Lucy and Karen left the project before us as they were heading up to Chang Mai . On our last day all together we rode our elephants to the river and spent all day there. We fashioned a homemade bat and ball and played a hybrid game of cricket/rounders. We had a picnic lunch of fried fish or chicken and rice wrapped in a banana leaf. Ay and his younger brother made a paper lantern with lots of coloured pieces of paper and used some sort of fruit that looked a bit like mango for glue! Ay showed us how to write all of our names in Thai . We went in the water again before the ride back. That night we all had a bit of a party where we had some drinks and let the paper lantern off into the sky.



In our last couple of days, as well as the usual things we helped build a fence for Hong 's shelter. We even made wooden plaques with our names painted on them, and nailed them to the fence- so we'll always be a part of the village! Over the course of the two weeks we were luckily enough to experience two baby elephant births. We ®Ýnt see the actual births but went to see them babies as soon as Thai had given us the news. The baby elephants were so cute and amazing to see- we felt so lucky. In the last week Tina had the exciting news that Tuk- her elephant was pregnant! She wants to go back in two years to see the baby. Amy's elephant Permsub will also be bred soon, and Pong (her Mahout) has promised to call the baby Amy! On the night of the party he even said Amy was like one of his daughters! We were all given presents from our Mahouts before we left- Hong gave me a ring made from the hair of Chok Chai ' s tail, he made it himself so I felt really touched. On the morning that we left the village to travel to the Cambodian boarder I felt so sad that I cried. I really wasn't ready to leave elephant life behind. It had been such an amazing and unique experience that I would recommend to anyone. The hospitality of the Mahouts really made the project what it was and it was impossible not to get attached to the elephants.



We had a long journey ahead of us now to get the Cambodian boarder and start a new chapter in our adventure.......

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