You can’t visit Thailand without an elephant adventure, and that’s where I headed off to on my second day in Chiang Mai. There are so many to choose from, and they basically come in these different combinations:
- Elephant ride (either on chairs or bareback)
- Mahout training (simple commands for the elephant)
- Cleaning the elephant (a lot more fun that it sounds)
- Trekking (careful here, most of the time it’s on foot and not on the elephant…)
- Elephant show (I didn’t get to see this but I heard it’s fun)
Depending on what you want, you can go from half day to a whole week. Since I had limited time, I opted for a half day package that includes the basics, elephant riding, training, and bathing with the elephant. The camp was far from the city (about an hour away) and we woke up early for the ride. Twelve of us were picked up from various corners of the city and packed uncomfortably into a red tuk-tuk, along with some potatoes, chicken meat, and pineapples, which was apparently our lunch. About an hour later, we also stopped by a local market where we bought overpriced bananas as treats for the elephants. I guess it wasn’t mandatory, but who was going to complain about the price and disappoint the cute elephants?
Despite the rocky and sweaty ride, our eyes lit up as soon as we got to the camp. We smelled the elephants before we saw them, standing under a hut in the middle of a beautiful field. As we got off the tuk-tuk, a baby elephant wandered out to welcome us and refused to go back (or he probably just wanted a snack).
Before anything else, we had to change into these lovely outfits (not sure why, I thought it was so elephants would recognize the color as their trainers, but then learned that they only see in black and white).
There were also other cute animals around the camp, like this very enthusiastic pig…
And these friendly stray kittens.
We were sent to work soon after, and our first task was to make some shampoo/soap for the elephants by pounding these tree branches. It also serves as a snack for them after usage, so quite versatile!
After some hard labor, we were finally released to hang out with these big hairy animals. (Yes, elephants are very hairy! Another fact that I did not realize until I sat on one.)
The baby elephant was of course the center of attention. Since everyone was trying to feed him, he actually got so full and stopped eating!
The big elephants had much better appetites. These two were fighting for the banana in my hand! One actually grabbed my hand and tried to eat it along with the banana. Not so cool.
After some play time, it was time to get on top of the elephant. After a quick demonstration by the guide, we took turns riding the two sister elephants whose names I forgot 🙁 There are three ways to get on the elephant – from the front (having the elephant bow its head), from the side (having the elephant raise one leg), or have the elephant completely kneel down, which was very bad for its knees.
Um, so going up from the front requires some jump and arm strength. Otherwise you will be in this awkward position for all to see…
After a round of posing, we were ready to train our elephants. We had been given a list of elephant commands in the car, and saw them in action with the guide’s demonstration. But it was still difficult to remember once we were on top of the elephant!
So we pretended to command the elephants for a while (even though for the most part I think the guides were still the ones telling them what to do), and were forced to surrender our cameras for a ride through the jungle. Ok, not really a jungle, but it was fun to ride through the trees and the creek, and we even had scary moments when the elephants had to climb some hills! The elephants then walked straight into a pond, which was actually their bathtub. As I protested I’m not wearing a swimsuit, our guide decided to splash me with a bucket of pond water anyway -_-
Since we were already wet, we jumped into the water and gave our elephant a nice, cool bath.
Which was really for our photographic purposes rather than the elephant’s benefit…
So I ended up wearing wet underwear for the rest of the day. But was it worth it? Oh yeah.
So you might think that’s enough wild adventures for the day, but I wasn’t done yet! After lunch and a bit more playing with the baby elephant, I headed to Tiger Kingdom to play with some domesticated cats.
There’s been a lot of criticism about drugging tigers for tourism in Thailand, so there was this sign at the front to explain why these cats don’t eat us.
I’m inclined to believe it, because while these tigers are caged up, they still seem quite playful and well, happy (as much as any locked up animal can be), unlike many of the wild animals I’ve seen at zoos. (Yes, this seems to be a happy face).
While you see many pictures of people holding baby tiger cubs, Tiger Kingdom actually doesn’t allow you to hold the babies or even be too playful with them, since they haven’t been trained to be nice to humans yet.
Most of the big cats here are about 1 year old, and grew up in captivity. As a result, you can pretty much do anything with them…
Even my dog doesn’t let me do this -_- (the trainer made me do this pose. I swear.)
Of course there are some scary moments, like when you are giving the sleeping tiger a hug…
And he suddenly decides to stretch.
Or when you are laying on his back…
And he decides to stand up.
But giving these big guys tummy rubs has got to be one of the most amazing experiences in life, and I’m so grateful that none of them decided to make me food instead 🙂
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