So much fun. Such sore muscles from unnecessary panic grip, but still so much fun!
I totally recommend doing the programme if you ever get the chance to. Beau and I did a slight lengthened 1 day programme (we stayed over, you don't normally). If you do the longer programme then you can do a homestay with the Mahouts.
We started with just getting on an off our elephants. I got better at this as the day progressed. Initially I was afraid of hurting my elephant (Wan Di- good day) as you use the top of the ear as a hand hold. We were taught 3 ways of getting on an off.
From the side, when the elephant lifts a leg up for you to use as a foot hold. From the front, when the elephant puts its head on the ground and your climb up over its head. You then have to trickily turn around on top of the elephants head without falling off. Success! Getting down from the front is easier and was Beau's favourite method.
From the back/side. In this case the elephant lies down making it much easier for your to clamber around.
After learning that and some basic commands (go, stop, turn, walk backwards) we rode the elephants down to the feeding ground. This is when we also learned that elephants can seriously growl. Like they have tigers or engines inside them! They seem to do it when they are happy though. Which is good.
I totally did not feel in control of my elephant at all. I have no idea why she occasionally deigned to allow me to direct her movements. It was awesome.
After the feeding (elephants have to eat for most of the day apparently) we went for a ride to visit the baby elephants and the elephant hospital. Baby elephants are cute and I like them lots. The Thai Elephant Conservation Center (website has info about courses etc) is especially proud of one of the babies as he is the product of artificial insemination.
It was quite touching seeing the injured elephants at the hospital. Two of them had damaged legs due to stepping on landmines near the border to Myanmar. One of the elephants was brain damaged due to having been taken from its mother too early and not receiving the right nutrients. It also had physical disabilities as its bones were malformed.
It's good that the thai government is sponsoring a free elephant hospital (they also run mobile clinics). It's bad that so many of the problems they have were caused by people.
After the hospital we went and saw the elephant's bathing and then the show. Pretty standard stuff, elephants hauling logs, painting and playing music. No soccer this time.
Following the show we got back up on our elephants and this time we bathed them. Basically this means you ride your elephant as it walks into a pond and then lies down and splashes around. Everyone gets wet. It's fun!
At some stage we had lunch. It was good. We also went to the elephant dung paper factory where we had a go at part of the paper making process. Beau and I were strong and didn't buy anything.
At the end of the day we rode our elephants back to the mahout training center. We had to feed them and shovel dung. At the end of it, we got back up on our elephants and we each got a certificate and a little mahout stick keyring. That was the end of the regular one-day course.
Beau and I also were invited by the mahouts to come and hang out with them while they were fishing in the evening. We imagined poles on a little wharf. We were so wrong. They were wading in the pond occasionally throwing out circular nets. There were many fish in the pond. Sometimes when they were startled they'd leap out of the water and we'd see glimmers of silver.
The next morning Beau and I enjoyed a pleasant walk into the "jungle" (it's all another type of forest to me) with our mahouts to collect our elephants. They are led into the forest each night. My Mahout told me that they only sleep about 5 hours. They spend the rest of that time eating. They have a chain looped around an ankle and it is staked into the ground over night. When we collected them I was amazed at the dexterity of the elephant's trunk as she grabbed and pulled her length of chain in.
We then rode our elephants back to the training area where we gave them sugar cane and hosed and brushed them down. I think they quite enjoyed that. They were then ready for a new lot of tourists.
Beau and I were then roped into reading, editing and typing up some translations of articles and letters the center had. This took up about 3 hours. We had intended to tip the woman who had been looking after us (ie picked us up from train station, dropped us off at bus etc), but we figured that was worth waaaay more.
We've since been to Chiang Mai (I liked visited the Umbrella/parasol factory and doing the walking tour in the lonely planet guide) and are now in Pua. Next week we will be in Ireland. We need to sort out a place to stay and jobs! Gyah.
Point of Fashion: Tidy teacher
Current Obsession: flats