Elephants Part 2

Long before we knew about Laos and the elephant experience, Tash had seen a sanctuary you could visit close to Kanchanaburi. We decided to book onto it (a whole day this time) and it cost about $40.

It was a 30 minute journey from our hotel to the elephants. They have 16 elephants in the camp, that have been worked hard logging and then in the trekking industry. It was interesting to find out that you shouldn't really sit on an elephants back as this contradicted being able to ride the rescued elephants in Laos. Most of the elephants have a disability and arrive in a bad way.

First up we grabbed a basket of food to feed our first elephant. She was completely blind so had to be fed by putting the bananas, pineapple and watermelon into her mouth. I felt her tongue a few times! Her mahout was a Japanese lady. It's also the biggest concentration of flys I have ever seen, very irritating!

We then had to cook some rice that would be later made into balls for the older elephants to eat. They go through 6 sets of teeth in their lifetime, and once they lose the last set they will starve as normally in the wild they struggle to find food that doesn't need to be chewed. The rice is cooked on a open fire that has a base for a giant wok type pan made out of concrete. Once the water is boiled you stir the rice around with something that looks like a mini paddle. Other parts of our group chopped up some banana that was then added to the mixture and then removed to cool. Whilst cooking one of the workers started talking to us, he was from Myanmar but had to flee the country as he was a solider fighting for the opposition and he would have been killed if he stayed. He mentioned his cousin and uncle was killed there, and his dad was tourtured. For the last 7 years he had been working with the elephants but was due to return home at the end of the month where he will probably end up a soldier again now the country is safer.

Lunch was a huge buffet, it was fresh as we got to it as soon as it was brought out. We then got into a truck, drove for 25 minutes to a banana plantation. The sanctuary have an agreement with farmers to cut down the plants once the fruit has been picked so the elephants can eat them. Apparently after a year the banana tree is no good and has to be ripped up and replanted anyway. It did feel a bit like the water run in Cambodia, in that I was expecting to be given a machete to run around with and chop up trees, but we just collected the branches that the sanctuary staff cut. Probably best for my safety. We didn't even fill the truck, so for 50 mins travel we actually did about 10 minutes of actual work.

Back at the sanctuary we took the rice mixture from earlier and mixed it with some protein powder, rolled it into balls and then coated it in calcium powder. The two older elephants came along to be fed, we had the slowest eater who they sometimes call 'princess' as she is so fussy, often spitting out parts of the balls she didn't want!

After another feeding session we went down to the rivers edge, Tash got into the water and sat on a elephants neck and was dunked in and out of the water when the mahout gave commands. It only lasted for a few minutes but I got it on video.

Although the kitchen was open when we got back to the hotel we took a journey into town to buy some supplies and have some pizza for dinner.

Bowls of rice; 49
Elephants seen; 18