Elephants forever

Yesterday we spent another day with elephants, this time at Baan Chang Elephant Camp. In the Thai language Baan means "home" and Chang is "elephant", so the name seems pretty fitting. Two sessions with elephants in two days was a lot, but both were good in different ways. As a result my mahout skills have been further developed. New muscles I was unaware of have started complaining at their overuse, and now, thanks to a different riding style I have lost some "bark" off the inner edge of my knees. Luckily for me I kept them covered today so we could visit a temple. Skinned knees is not a good look. Baan Chang is set up more for backpackers and as such has a camp kitchen and accommodation available. We spent more time practicing mounting and dismounting safely, and fed a large range of elephants before being allocated one each to ride and bathe.

Bun Ward, pronounced Bun Won, was mine for the day. In her early thirties, she was smaller than Boon Pat. She did however move quite differently and as such swayed around more. She also is rather fond of bamboo leaves, which I found out when she stopped on her walk and very nearly dislodged me in her efforts to reach up high. Good thing I grabbed onto her ears quickly. It was the only thing that stopped a minor catastrophe. We learnt further manual handling techniques too in order to request our elephants to move left and right. The command given is the same for both - "kwey", however the accompanying movement varies. Similar to riding a horse, you use pressure from you right leg, and kicking with your left, to turn right, while saying "kwey". Then to turn left you do the reverse, that is, apply pressure with your left leg, and kick with your right. Simple really. Until you realise that this huge animal is under your control and you don't really have any idea what you are doing. Luckily our mahouts were walking alongside, so I was quietly encouraged when mine started singing. It made me thing that maybe I was doing ok enough that he could sing and not keep correcting what I was telling the elephant. Mahouts earn about 4500 Baht a month, plus receive free accommodation and one bag of rice a month. That's less than $150 a month. Based on the accommodation for paying guests, I am guessing a shack in the forest might be all it amounts to. Seems to me they work for the love of it, not the big bucks.

We walked through forest terrain which was interesting, and saw nice vistas across the valley, then did the steep decline thing again. The ride ended at the pool, after passing by the new elephant house, currently under construction. Once finished this will allow safe, dry sleeping quarters for the entire herd.

For me, the water was the highlight of the day. As we were the only two in our group we had the pool to ourselves which meant there was less need to be aware of the activity around us. I could focus on being in the water with Bun Ward. She lay like an angel and didn't move, which suggests she was enjoying her scrub down. Occasionally her trunk snorkelled around me, that was it. She just lay watching me as I moved around her. Once clean, our guide for the day, Tum, invited me to not only lie on her, but also to stand up on her back. I happily obliged his request. How happy was I!

29.1.2013

How to climb onto an elephant

Next lesson for the morning was how to climb onto an elephant. There are a surprising number of ways of doing this, none of which involve a ladder, tree stump or trampoline. Each mahout/trainer has their own preferred way of climbing onto their elephant. Some elephants will accept a number of methods depending on the skill and ability of the person climbing on. Others will only allow the use of one, and frankly, who is going to argue? Most skilled, is the mounting option where the elephant lowers its head down onto its trunk, and the trainer facing the animal, vaults up and onto its head face on. This sees you "land" on top of the elephant's head facing the rear. The trick then is to do a u-turn while up in the air, by swinging one leg over the elephants back and scooting around until you are facing the right direction. All at a great height and hopefully without tumbling off. Luckily for me my prowess was not put to the test as Boon Pat didn't know this way of working. Frank though, mastered the leaping on. Once up there though it was a challenge for him, heights not being his thing. Next option is where the elephant sticks its trunk out, you step on and the elephant, operating like a crane, hoists you up, then you leap onto its head. Another highly skilled manoeuvre. A variation on this is when the elephant bends its knee, allowing the mahout to step onto its leg and it raises the trainer up to the point that he can climb on board. More sedate is when you utter "Non Long", asking the elephant to lie down, and it very kindly let's you grab an ear for leverage then step on it's leg, letting you scramble up, over and on to it's head. Then the command "Look" and the elephant clambers to it's feet. Very inelegant on a large fellow like Boon Pat I am sure. My fault, not his. Once up the idea is to hold on to the elephants ears, and wiggle your way forward until you are high on its head. Then it's a matter of finding your balance and you are off.

The commands used by mahouts in Chiang Mai are all Burmese, rather than Thai, due to the connection with the Karen tribe. A few more key phrases are essential around now. " Pai pai" (phonetically "buy buy") is the command for "go forward". "Hoh" is "stop", while "Ma" is "walk forward" if you are leading the elephant by the ear. "D" "D" is the equivalent of "good" so "D D Boon Pat" is "Good boy Boon Pat". This phrase I used a lot as with my mount being huge and only 14 years old, I figured it was best to err on the side of caution and give him lots of encouragement. The funny thing was that mid afternoon I heard Frank also uttering "D D Boon Pat". When I asked him why he kept talking to my elephant he said he couldn't remember his elephants name, so using mines was reassuring - for him! I nearly fell off Boon Pat I was laughing so much. What's more, Frank still can't remember his elephants name! 28.1.2013