Day 117 - Chiang Mai

We crawl out of bed as the alarm goes off, hating having to get up at this time (7am) but knowing that it'll be worth it. We get ready and head down stairs and are picked up by Jack from Patara Elephant Farm, we hop in the mini bus with 2 other couples and are taken to Patara. Along the way Jack stops at a stall at the side of the road to buy some banana's ... 6 bunches to be exact one for each of our elephants.

About 30 mins later we arrive at the farm and there are elephants all around as soon as we get out of the van just stood there eating away at sugar cane etc. We make our way to the meeting point where we meet Pat the owner who explains what we will be doing today and basic things that we should know about the elephant.

After our introduction and talk from Pat its time to be assigned to an elephant and Pat explains that they put young people with young elephants and pointed at me :) and the older people with the older elephants, he also said that they try and pair male riders to female elephants and vice versa. We are all given a basket of sugar cane and banana's and shown how to approach the elephants, always from the front, you should show them the food and say 'bon' if they are a 'happy elephant' they sound their trumpet and raise their trunk to reply that they do want the food and you are then ok to approach them. We are also taught that if the elephant is flapping its ears it is content but if the elephant looks straight at you with its ear spread and does not move them then the elephant is not happy and you should not approach it. Anyway Si is assigned the female elephant called Messi Noy who is 36 years old and I am assigned Gon La So (meaning waterfall) who is a cheeky little 6 year old. Pat explains to us that the personality of the elephant depends on their age very much like humans, so basically Si's would act like a middle aged woman (its also pregnant so could be a bit hormonal) and mine would act like a child!

We seperate and begin feeding our elephants and saying 'Dee dee' whilst patting them to tell them that they are a good girl/boy for taking the food, mine kept reaching for the basket with all of the food in it trying to be greedy, Si said his did the same. Once we were done feeding the elephants we re-grouped and Pat then explained how to check if the elephant is healthy. There are 4 things to check for to ensure the elephant is healthy, one is that their ears and tail are flapping, two is to make sure that they have slept lying down and that they have not just lay on one side and you can tell by where the mud patches are on them, three is their poo they have to have at least 6 droppings, be able to squeeze poo juice out of it to make sure they are not dehydrated, smell it as all they eat is plants so if it smells really bad then they have a digestive problem and make sure the fibres in the poo are small to know that they are chewing properly and finally four is to check that they are sweating which strangely they do from their toe nails. After we are shown how to health check we all go off to our elephants and carry out the check including getting hands on with the poo!

We then free the elephant and walk it down to the river where we are going to bath it, to get it to walk where you want it to you hold the bottom of its ear and say 'Ma' to tell it to come and 'How' to tell it to stop. When in the river we have to get the elephant to lie down which we do by patting it on the back and saying 'Lalon' once the elephants are lay down we then begin to clean. They were very muddy especially on the top where they had been throwning mud on themselves, mine kept waiting for me to of cleaned its back and side and then rolled in the river getting muddy gravel all over it grrr cheeky elephant! While I was cleaning my elephant when it as lay in the river it kept wrapping its truck around my ankles and took a liking to my watch and wrapped around my arm a few times as well being all playful. Me and Si then got given a handful of gravel each and got to clean my elephants tusks for him.

Once the elephants were clean we instructed them to stand up by saying 'look' then began to lead them out of the river and stopped for a photo opportunity with the elephants behind us ... what we didn't know was that my elephant was going to squirt water over us :)

Back on dry land and we are shown the 3 ways to get on and off of the elephant, either by the front leg, by the trunk or by getting it to lie down for you. Both me and Si chose the front leg and it was really easy, they bend their leg for you and raise it off the floor for you to stand on and then you just swing your other leg over. Si said everyone commented on how easy I made it look :p but when Si was trying to get on his it lowered its leg and made it a bit difficult for him the naughty elephant. On the elephant you have to sit as far forward as possible to try and sit in the dip of its neck with your legs bent and feet behind the ears as this is comfy for you and the elephant. It was easier for smaller people like me to sit like this but all the tall blokes (including Si) found it hard to get comfy.

When we were all on our elephants we began our trek, the first 10-15 minutes was very easy on a flat road but then we turned off into the jungle and it was slippery mud and steep hill from then on. My elephant being only young kept being a bit mischevious and poking one of the guys that worked there with its tusk and wanting to stop and eat alot but I had to try and instruct him to keep going by saying 'pai' to tell him to go and when he wouldn't stop eating or carried on doing something that he wasnt supposed to I had to tell him 'yanna' so he knew to stop doing it. Si was always either in front or behind me on his elephant and we think that his elephant was my elephants mum cause he kept wanting to be next to her and poke her with his trunk. We were ending our first ride at a waterfall and as soon as my elephant heard the splashing water he sped right up and the ride got very bumpy! Our elephants walked us into the water and up to a rock where we got off the elephants and got some time to relax and stretch our legs as they had been bent in the same position for almost an hour!

We dipped our feet in the river at the bottom of the waterfall and then got called over when lunch was ready, lots of sticky rice with different flavours and fruit etc but there was far too much for us all to eat. We soon discovered that lots of food was put there on purpose cause whatever we didnt eat was fed to the elephants including the massive leaves used as a sort of table cloth. 3 of the biggest elephants came over and muscled the food out of your hand, I was planning on saving some for my elephant but as soon as they saw the food I had no chance! Once all the food had been eaten the elephants were led away to give us room to get out of the eating area but even while walking back to where we had been sat before the elephants were thinking that we still had food and tried grabbing our water and shoes out of our hands!

After lunch a few of the elephants went into the river playing and rolling around and we were given the opportunity to go and swim with them, I jumped at the chance but Si had been a bit greedy at lunch and ate to much so he sat this one out and just manned the camera. I slid down a rock slide and straight into the deep end with 3 elephants all being very playful and rolling around in the water. When one of them came near to where I was one of the guides signalled me to get on so I sam over and jumped on its back. It kept rolling over and dipping itself under the water so I kept having to re-position myself to not get squashed or fall off the elephant. It was such good fun and you can tell by the way they are behaving with each other that they love just rolling around in the water. I got out and dried myself off when one of the elephants wandered over to where me and Si were stood on the rocks, its trunk turned towards us and we knew instantly what was going to happen ... it soaked us! The elephants that had been playing for a while in the river got out and the young elephants incluing mine went into the river, mine being the youngest kept jumping on the others and splashing them :)

Once us and the elephants had stopped playing it was time to head back to the farm so we hopped back on the elephants and away we went, we weren't going through the jungle this time we were having an easy walk along the road all the way back. Mine and Si's elephants were together again although Si's elephant didnt seem too happy and eventually started getting very restless and he chose to get off and walk .. must be the hormones from the pregnancy. My elephant being as naughty as ever was trying all sorts on the way home and even tried to run across the road with me at one point to get to a tree that it liked the look of but with a lot of 'pai' and 'yanna' instructions we were sorted. He seemed more likely on the way home and kept speeding up making it a very bumpy ride but so much fun seeing him get all excited.

Back at the farm and we all get off our elephants and are shown the baby elephants that are less than 2 years old very cute just stood there eating sugar cane. Pat joins us again to give us a talk and a refresher on what we have learnt today and to also tell us that we have been scored on each thing that we have done today with the elephant. He went through everyone with the larger elephants and said that they had done very well but then said that the younger ones because of their nature and the fact that they are still learning are harder to control (I can vouch for that) so me and the 3 other people that were on the younger elephants won and were told to stand with our backs to our elephants with our eyes closed. A few seconds later our elephants 'kissed' our arms with their trucks (well they really just sucked our arms with their trucks) so all the winners got a few elephant kisses, however, mine had been playing in the mud again and I was the only one with mud all over my arm from it :)

After the elephant kisses it was time to go so we said goodbye to our elephants and gave our guides a tip to say thank you for the day, I gave my elephant the money and said 'bon' and he very cleverly passed the money to the guide that was sat on him. Pat finished his talk by telling us to live our lives as elephants which means the men have to do whatever the women say cause they are the leaders :D

We made our way to the mini bus and were driven back to our hostel where we collapsed on the bed shattered from our day as elephant owners. After an hour or two of just lying there we decided it was time for tea and went down to the restaurant for something to eat ... our muscles had already begin to seize up so god knows how bad they will be tomorrow! We finished our tea and had a well deserved drink, went back up to the room, we couldnt keep our eyes open and must have fallen asleep at about 9pm.