Mahout-for-a-Day

One of our splurges was a full day at an elephant camp, where they trained you to take care of and command your elephant. A lot of elephants in Thailand are exploited pretty badly, so we tried to do some research and avoid the ones where the elephants are worked long days or made to do weird stuff.

At the beginning of the day, we and the eleven other tourists in our group hopped in the van to the camp, changed into ugly but durable denim uniforms, and got our first lesson in the commands for an elephant: "pai!" (forward) ,"toi" (back), "kwaa" (right), "sai" (left), "jut!" (stop!), and, for mounting the elephant, "sok kaa" ("lift your leg up") and"soong" ("higher"). Mr. Thom, our guide, explained what elephants like to eat, how to feed them, how to climb up and down them, and how to use the elephant hook (vicious looking metal tool for guiding them, but not meant for hitting. He demonstrated its lack of sharpness on himself; apparently we're not the first tourists concerned about the welfare of the elephants.

Then we got to meet the elephants; stuffing them full of bananas and sugarcane is apparently meant to reassure them that we're friends, not to mention that it's a pretty fun job if a little slimy. Some elephants had been previously owned and taught tricks, so they demonstrated (one played harmonica, one tambourine, one "danced," most could trumpet on command. We got some sticky elephant kisses too!



Next we practiced climbing on and off (easy on the smaller ones, a bit challenging on the largest; I was one of the taller women and I still had to jump-and-scramble after climbing up to the elephant's thigh.) We also practiced our commands, turning the elephants in figure eights, backing them up, etc.

After lunch, we got our elephant assignments. Ours was named Phim - the only male in the group, about 9 years old, so still on the small side. He was a bit feisty, and WAY too interested in the females of the group. (I tried to ask if he was neutered or not, but couldn't make myself understood without getting graphic.) Scott and I loaded up, him taking the driver's spot behind the ears, and me on the middle of the spine.



OK, so riding an elephant has to be the LEAST comfortable activity in the universe! People pay for this? Our elephants spine stuck up a good four inches from his back, and straddling that, even on a blanket, was sheer misery - even worse than spinning class.

But still pretty awesome, admittedly. We took a trail ride up to the top of a hill, elephants stopping to browse for food on the way. Then switching drivers, we headed back, and ended up at a nice shady pool in the nearby river.

Then we all took off our shoes and, scrub brushes in hand, headed into the river to bathe our elephants. As a precautionary measure, the assisting mahouts had all the elephants lie on their sides in the water, and we were warned to stay away from their feet, just in case. After a thorough scrubbing on both sides, the elephants stood up and we finished the day with a water fight, humans versus elephants. One elephant, Faa, was trained to slap the water with her trunk; the others did the whole trunk suck and spray thing. Eventually, we figured out that we could seize their trunks and use them like water cannons to spray each other, which was WAY fun.