Elephant Trekking

After lunch at the camp, it was time to do what I was most looking forward to….ride elephants! The Siam Safari elephants were trucked down from Burma after regulation of the logging industry of that country. Kung told us that because the Burmese were no longer allowed to “cut down big trees”, the elephants needed a new job so they were brought to Thailand to do trekking. An interesting thing is that each elephant came with its own trainer, all of whom came from Burma with the elephants. These men lived in a little community a few meters away from the camp, in a series of about ten raised huts. Their lives completely revolved around caring for the elephants, and while not trekking the elephants lived pretty much freely in the front yard of the community (I think they were chained to trees when not in service.) I learned that elephants can live up to 70 years of age, and they could live longer but in those 70 years their teeth are worn down and they can no longer eat. Essentially they starve to death. I was wondering how we would get onto the elephants, and my question was quickly answered when we climbed the stairs onto the “elephant loading station.” It was a raised, covered platform that was about the same height as the elephants, so instead of climbing up onto the elephant you stepped over onto the elephant. There was a little seat on top of each elephant that was big enough for two adults, and the elephant’s name was written the back of the seat. Molly and I climbed on and set off on our trek. Our driver didn’t speak any English but laughed and giggled off and on for our entire ride. He was an extremely happy man, and throughout the ride grabbed goodies for the jungle for me and Molly, including: a flower that turned out to be covered in ants, and a leaf from a lime tree that smelled just like a freshly squeezed lime! We trekked for about two hours through the jungle, stopping to let the elephants munch on the vegetation. We bounced forward/backwards/sideways every time the elephant took a step, and we swore that our seat was sliding to the right and that we were going to fall out. I liked the trek because our series of six elephants were the only ones out, and there were multiple little paths to take so we weren’t in a line the entire time. At some points, it felt like Molly and I were the only ones there. After the trek, you could buy a basket of fruit to feed to your elephant. This was my favorite part of the trek. I have never been so close to an elephant, and it was amazing to be up close and personal watching them eat. Our elephant was so funny—she definitely knew which fruit she liked the best, and she would throw the fruit she didn’t like on the ground! She was trying to reach around us to get into the basket, and we would have to hold it far enough away from her so she couldn’t eat the fruit faster than we wanted to feed her. I was sad when all the fruit was gone. Pictures: Our elephant trainer; Molly and I atop our elephant; Feeding the elephant after our trek.