Elephant Owners for the Day - July 18

We knew we would regret not having an elephant experience in Thailand but also didn't want to contribute to elephant abuse.   Lucky for me my sister-in-law Michelle had already done all the research to find Patara Elephant Farm, a day they unanimously decided was their best of 2016.   Turns out that Patara is the premier elephant farm in Thailand,  focusing their efforts on reproduction.  They are really careful about the number of visitors they allow each day and are proud that the number of elephants always outnumbers the number of people, so we were fortunate to be able to make a reservation - I'm glad I did ahead of time!   

This morning we woke to heavy rain and as I was giving my usual speech about not letting the weather deter us or ruin our trip, the girls reminded me that that speech is largely for my own benefit, since everybody else is fine.  Patara Farm picked us up early from our hotel and drove us an hour outside the city to start our day as "elephant owners".  When we first got to the farm we had to wait for all the other guests to arrive so they said to put our stuff down and "come play with the baby elephant".  The baby was only 4 months old but at 200 pounds he was much stronger then he looked...or than he knew.  He was super playful but when he came running at you it felt a little dangerous.  The trainers told us if we lay down on the ground, the baby elephant would come lay down on you. But it wasn't the cuddly picture you might conjure.   He is heavy and really mostly interested in stepping on knees and ankles.  We passed on that one, though a couple other brave souls gave it a shot and received a very strong Thai massage!  Meanwhile the baby's momma was distracted nearby with a pile of bamboo she broke in pieces with her trunk and ate like it was nothing. 

Chris and Melissa

Once everyone arrived we were divided into groups and sent to our elephant pod. We were paired with another set of Americans (Chris and Melissa, Kim and Greg) who turned out to be great companions for the day.  Chris and Melissa are from Ohio but have been living in Bangkok for the past three years for his work. So they were a wealth of useful information.

We were each assigned our own elephant to care for. Mine was named Kaupon...I think.   Speaking the Thai language (a tonal language) is an impossible task for me, a very tone deaf person.   I spent 5 minutes talking to a local trying to figure out if I should be making a p or b sound in the middle until Chris told me they have a letter that is both sounds at once... and then I gave up. Sadly tonal languages will never be my strong suit.

Our first task was to feed the elephants. They gave each of us a basket of food and told us to command the elephant to open their mouths and we were to place a piece of fruit in their open mouth. My elephant opened her mouth and when she came towards me I promptly dropped my basket.  Even though I thought I was standing still, my guide kept telling me to stay still because I guess I was actually walking in circles and the elephant was following after me.  He also kept saying "slowly" but I was more interested in keeping my elephant happy.  Rachel's elephant clearly didn't think her one at a time approach was fast enough; he just put his trunk right in to her basket and took it all.  

Then they explained to us all the signs they look for that the elephants are healthy, including a close inspection of their poop.
The guide just scooped it right up with his hand, pulled it apart and had us all smell it up close.  It actually just smelled like grass and bananas...a sign of a healthy elephant.  Next we had to brush the elephants with brushes made from leaves that we then got to give them to eat.   My gal was particularly dirty because she spent the majority of her time spraying dirt onto her back to prevent mosquitoes and other insects from landing there, leaving her with a really thick layer of dirt on her back.  

Then we walked (read: followed) the elephants down to the waterfall and got in the water with them.  We climbed on their backs and brushed them with a thick horse brush all over while our guides threw buckets of water on them. It is important for their skin care and they really seem to enjoy being scratched.   Then they lined them all up so we could contiunue throwing buckets of water on them.  After bathing the elephants,  they returned the favor...

Then we sat down to a fabulous lunch served on a table of banana leaves.  All of the stuff that we had seen yesterday in the market but were afraid to eat suddenly became possibile with someone showing us how to open the fruits and what parts to eat. There were also three different kinds of sticky rice and meat on a stick, fried chicken,  special vegetarian fried rice for the girls, and lots of Thai desserts.  After lunch was the big elephant ride.  Though the morning rain had basically passed by the time we arrived at the farm, after lunch is when it really began to pour in earnest.   We mounted our elephants -- some more gracefully than others -- and sat with our legs just behind their ears.

And then rode them straight up the side of the mountain and down the other side. As we were going up the rain was so torrential the water streaming off the side of the mountain looked practically like a flash flood.  The elephants demonstrated amazing strength to keep themselves moving upward through it. Meanwhile our guides walked beside us in flip-flops carrying our backpacks.  

My elephant was the last one to arrive preferring to take his time and eat a little along the way, probably because he couldn't understand my attempted commands in the Thai language.  Julia's got there first, but only because her elephant loved taking shortcuts, all of which involved going up the steepest, most flooded area that the other elephants avoided.  In the end,  we were soaked through and through and I was happy to have gotten through the day without an elephant sitting on any of us, and without anyone somehow falling off one.

We got back to the hotel, really tired.  We went to find one of the restaurants that Dean suggested, a noodle house near the river according to Google, but it wasn't where we thought it would be so we ended up at a different Dean-recommendation called Curry House. We had assumed it would be Thai curries, but it was more Indian in nature... which is always okay with us!

After dinner, had our tuktuk driver drop us off at the city gate that we thought was right down the street from our hotel so we could walk home. But we told him the wrong gate. Before we figured that out though we got to walk through another market and try a dessert that is said to be a  Chiang mai specialty... dough cooked in butter with more butter added on top.  We got ours drizzled with honey.  A really good day!