The day I rode an elephant.

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Sunday: January 14th



Today was a big day as I would get to be surrounded by elephants! The ride to the elephant camp was around 45 minutes and with no surprise we all fell asleep 5 minutes into the van ride. It seems that lately our only opportunities to nap are during car rides. We arrived at Maetaman Elephant Camp at 8:30 am and immediately saw two elephants walk by on the road. I need to mention that while I was excited to be near elephants, this day had sad moments as well. Next time if I could choose where to go, I would forego the elephant ride and would go to the Elephant Nature Park which rescues elephants. I did have fun throughout the day but I will also talk about the not so good moments.

The first thing we did when we got there was get seats for the elephant show. The show included a total of 8 elephants, one being a baby. They did various exercises such as kicking one leg in the air, bowing, kicking a soccer ball, and using their trunks to build a wall. At one point the trainers put out a canvas with a piece of white paper and the elephants painted pictures. One elephant drew the outline of an elephant, while the one closest to me painted flowers. Occasionally one would come over to us and reach out his trunk looking for sugar cane or bananas. We weren't prepared with food but as soon as the show was over, Libby and I sprinted to buy sugar cane. People now started crowding around the various elephants as it was time to get pictures with them. I bought two packs of sugar cane, each with 6, foot long pieces. The issue with getting near the elephants was that they knew when you still had sugar cane left and when you didn't. Giving them one stick wasn't enough and let me tell you, elephants are aggressive when they want their sugar. I got pictures with the baby elephant and ended up feeding it a whole pack of sugar cane. I observed my friends getting pictures with the larger elephants as well as other tourists. A lot of the tourists getting pictures with the elephants weren't giving them treats so I gave my last pack of sugar cane to one of the larger elephants.

I started walking around to look for more elephants and a group of us found a mom with her one-month old baby. People could buy milk in a bottle and feed the baby. The baby was free to roam around in a fenced area but the mom had one of her legs chained up. I didn't stay at this place for very long because the longer I stayed, the more sad I got. I tried to keep in mind that because the baby was so young, the mother would have gotten aggressive if people tried to touch it, but no animal should be in a chain like that. We did pass several elephants not being used for the various activities chained up like this mother. It really made you think about wildlife and how while these elephants are not being killed/hunted, instead they are being enslaved for our enjoyment. I was glad I was not the only one struggling with this as many of the people on our trip also wanted to talk about it.

Moving onto the next event... we prepared for the elephant ride. We would each be riding an elephant with our Thai buddy for about 30 minutes. I'm not gonna lie, I was a little scared for this. I don't mind heights but I knew the ride wouldn't be very smooth. It all started out fine, but with any downhill movement I had to grip the metal bar out in front of me and use it to push myself back up. If I wouldn't have held on, I would've fallen through. It certainly wasn't as relaxing as I thought, but needless to say, it was a good arm and ab workout. The elephant took us across the river and up a hill. Mean got a little dizzy halfway through the ride but she was a trooper. We stopped with three other elephants for a break and gave a pack of sugar cane that we had purchased. My teacher told us that the trainers expect us to feed our elephant twice. It was also at this time that our friends took pictures of us. After a while, we headed back downhill (my arms were burning), back through the water, and then finishing at the same place we started. It was a cool experience and I feel very fortunate to have done it, but definitely an experience I only need to do once.

The next event planned was ox cart rides. I hopped into a cart with Mean, Libby, and my friend Autumn. The ox took us along a dirt road that was decorated with beautiful flowers and lots of sunshine. Very similar to the elephant ride, we stopped to take a break and we fed our ox mini bananas. The view was beautiful and with the weather being so nice, it was the perfect day.

Waiting for everyone to finish the ox cart ride, some of us headed to the gift shop which was more expensive than other places we shopped at. They were selling poop paper which is paper made from the fibrous elephant poop. While kinda gross if you think about it, I did end up buying some poop paper products.

Lunch was our next destination and within the elephant camp there was a buffet-style restaurant. They had everything from salad & fried chicken, to noodles and veggies. It was delicious (big fan of buffets) as I only had toast and a banana for breakfast.

Our final activity that day was a bamboo raft ride down the river. There was a long raft where they placed three cushioned benches for us to sit on. I went with Libby, Mean, and a few other friends. A man stood at the front and another at the back with long sticks of bamboo to help guide the raft. It was super peaceful and many of us took the opportunity to tan in the sun. Only two spots had some mild rapids and yes we did get a little wet from the water bouncing back up at us. At one point we were passing what looked like another elephant camp. There was a 10-year old Thai boy swimming around in the river and he said a few words that I didn't understand. Next thing I knew he hopped onto our raft and asked for a ride to the next stop. Within 5 minutes he jumped back off again. All in all, the raft ride took about 40 minutes although I wish it would've been longer. We thanked the men, got off at the stop, and hopped back into the vans.

All of the activities at the elephant camp were supposed to take us until 5 pm but we ended up getting back to BCNC around 2:30 pm. I took a short nap and a few of us decided we would head down to the trail and run. Six of us walked 20 minutes down to the trail, ran the loop (around 3 miles), and then walked back. The weather was perfect for running as it was sunny and around 80 degrees. I miss running at home so I was thrilled to get the opportunity to do it again. When we got back to campus, I saw Libby with her buddy Khim getting ready to play volleyball. They asked us to join and we all said yes. The first game was six of us on one team and 6 BCNC students on the other side. I would say that they were much better but other than Libby and I, no one on our side played volleyball often. Most of the volleys were short because of not being able to pass the serve. We also struggled because the three BCNC boys playing on the other side were really good. They would whip out a wicked dig or back-row hit, and we didn't know how to defend it. After we lost that game, we ran inside to quick eat some pizza and then came back out for another game. They originally told us they were only going to play until 7 pm but we ended up playing from 6-7:30. We started the next game by randomizing teams to make it more fun. My team was actually pretty good as we had Libby, my friend Sarah (who is tall), Chelsea, and two BCNC students (one of them being a boy). It was really fun until we realized how tired we were and couldn't stop laughing at all the dumb plays people made. We decided to call it quits and thanked them for letting us play and for being so patient with us. After getting a group picture with them, I climbed all four flights of stairs up to my room, showered, blogged, and then fell fast asleep.



Tomorrow we would be visiting a community hospital as well as seeing our first private hospital in Chiang Mai.

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