Have Trunk, Will Travel

After our tiger experience, we put some research into finding a suitable elephant experience. We discovered the Thai Elephant Conservation Center outside of town. Many reviewers who went there had it arranged by a tour guide service, but not us!

We hopped on a, um, vibrant bus and told the ticket seller, the driver, and about three other levels of translators where we wanted to get off. As the movie Jack the Giant Killer blared in Thai, we embarked on one of the craziest rides I’ve ever been on. The driver didn’t slow down for high grade hills, up or down, especially on some almost-hairpin turns. We felt every sway of the bus, as it was a double decker – seats on top, luggage on bottom. Then suddenly, we just stopped on the side of the highway and the attendant motioned to us – and only us – to get out.

There was nobody around as we headed up a dirt road, and very few people when we got to the parking/ticket/vendor area of the center. We paid and got on the shuttle with a couple of other people, and were dropped off at the elephant rides.

I was so excited! See, when I was younger I was a huge chicken about stuff and chose to watch from a safe distance as my little brother and mom rode an elephant at the fair one year. Finally, a chance to redeem myself.

We hopped on an elephant and he immediately went in for a dip in a pond. it was actually kind of deep and slightly alarming, as we were rocking around on an off-balance chair and the water came right up to the elephant’s eyeballs. Then we walked across the pool and up, up into the jungle! There was family on an elephant in front of us, but the jungle was so dense that we couldn’t even tell they were there most of the time. Other than that, almost nobody else around.

Our elephant, Pa Chi Da, was 20 years old and very particular – she would rather step off the trail and walk on a slope than step anywhere near another elephant’s poop. Our mahout (elephant handler) was very nice and seemed to really care about Pa Chi Da. He would keep the flies off of her and scratch itches a tree trunk rub wouldn’t satisfy. We lumbered past the nursery, where a month old elephant was hanging out with it’s mother. It was so rad.

Then we hopped on the shuttle for a bit, rode around the grounds in a loop and then stopped for the elephant bathing and show. Before the show, all the elephants take a moment to cool down and are washed by their mahouts in the pond where we started our ride. It was fun to watch them playing in the water and you could also buy sugar cane to feed them. The show is a chance for elephants to display their logging skills (their primary purpose) and other tricks. We saw elephants curtsy, throw balls in baskets and even watched three paint pictures. These elephants paint better than I ever could!

Next we tried to see the royal white elephants, because the royal elephant stables were in the center somewhere. Unfortunately we were told that those were not open to the public. Then we wandered down to the nursery to see the baby elephant up close – and it was even cuter! Just like Dumbo, but with this wiry hair standing on end all over. Then we walked to the hospital, where one elephant with a lame foot was chilling. Unfortunately elephants stepping on un-detonated mines is a big problem in this area.

To get back to Chiang Mai, we had to cross a large highway and then flag a bus down. It took almost forty minutes until a bus stopped, and when we got on it was standing room only. We stopped a couple times and eventually procured Mom a seat after somebody got off, but I stood for the entire hour it took us to get back.

From the bus station, we had a tuk-tuk driver take us to the night bazaar. It started raining, and we had a long day, so after searching for a well-reviewed restaurant for about an hour we gave up and chose a random (but covered!) sea food place. It was pretty good! We both really like the pineapple fried rice. Mom had fish and I had lanna sausage – a little too hot for me! We bopped around the night bazaar some, but it had been raining all day and people were still setting everything up when we decided to call it a night.

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