I have always wanted a chance to be near elephants. I am an avid Animal Planet watcher, and have watched countless documentaries about elephants which lead me to fall in love with these creatures for as long as I can remember. When I knew I was coming back to Thailand, I started researching elephant camps. Basically there are a few types of excursions involving elephants, firstly there is elephant riding where you can ride the elephant in carriages placed on their backs. Secondly there are elephant shows that you can watch where the elephants are trained to do sports or paint on canvas. Thirdly there are the elephant training camps that you can stay at and learn how to be a Mahout (which is an elephant trainer that spends their entire life caring for a single elephant) I would just like to mention that I feel very uncomfortable about the elephant shows, I find the whole thing so shameful that a giant and sacred beast should have to go on display and do such unnatural things like kicking a soccer ball~ but that’s just my opinion.
Baanchang Elephant Park:
In Thailand using elephants to log has been illegal for many years and the primary job of the elephants in Thailand are for tourism. As mentioned before, there are many types of things that elephants can do for the purpose of tourism. The amounts of wild elephants in Asia are scarce (3000 out of 30 000 approx), and the majority of elephants spend their entire life in camps. There are many camps that are dedicated to providing their elephants with a habitat that is close to what they would have in the wild.
I am extremely happy with our choice of going to Baachang Elephant Park. I really wanted to learn about elephants and not only ride them for a short time in a basket and I was adamant about not choosing a camp that preformed the shows.
For the first part of the day our trainer taught us some basic commands and actions for right, left, forward, backward and stop. After we had the theory down he introduced us to the elephants. He instructed us to keep on feeding them the ripe bananas and sugar cane until the bags ran out. The whole time he was watching us to see how we interacted with the elephants and to see the response we got back for the elephants. I must admit that I was super excited and psyched for the experience but as I approached the elephant I began to feel a little nervous. Standing next to them and looking up I realized just how massive and powerful they were. All the elephants were very friendly and gentle, each Mahout stood next to them and showed us how to put entire bunches of bananas into their mouths. Elephants don’t like green bananas, and they are bad for their teeth. They really enjoy things that are sweet. Once the treats were finished, we started our practical training.
Lesson I – How to get on an elephant:
Every elephant is trained by a Mahout, therefore the way to get on it can differ from animal to animal. Some lie down, some lift you on their trunk, some you climb on their legs etc. For our training we learned and practiced on two elephants that did it the same way. We used a command to get the elephant to raise her front left leg then we stood on it while hold tightly to her ear. After stabilizing we had to basically jump and hoist our self onto her neck then wiggle our way up close to her ears. It was frightening at first, but the Mahout and guide really helped us by boosting us onto their backs and holding on to us in case we slipped. Looking at the distance from the floor to the top of the elephant it literally seems impossible that we could somehow manage to be on top, but luckily our entire group was able to do it without too much problems. After making it on top of the elephant of course we had to get down, which was equally as challenging. Again, luckily the guide and Mahout were there to help us down. We each tried getting on and off three times, then it was time to move onto our second lesson.
Lesson II – learning how to use our commands
Knowing our commands in theory is different than actually using them practically. It seems when you are sitting on top of a huge elephant, your mind wants to go blank. After trying the commands a few times, we were tested by maneuvering the elephant around a tree and back to the beginning and stopping. It was so exciting to learn the commands and actually see them work. I never felt unsafe, as the entire time the Mahout was walking with the elephant. Mahouts train the elephants from babies, so the elephant listens and obeys them entirely. Even though the elephants know we are not their Mahout, they are use to being with different people… but on occasion we were told they can be naughty, that is why the Mahout is always near by.
Lesson III – riding through the forest
After a delicious lunch, our guide informed us that he had picked elephants for each of us. Luckily our group was only six people, so we were all able to get our own elephant. During our morning the guide has been watching and studying us so that he could pick an elephant that best suited us. My elephant was such a sweet girl. I was told that she is extremely gentle, walks very slow and carefully and doesn’t wander off to eat a lot. I guess the guide could sense that I was a bit nervous and could see I have terrible balance. Andrew was put on an elephant that was a fast walker… but always needed to go at the back of the group behind my elephant who slows her down. It was so fascinating to learn about all six of their different personalities. We learned that an elephant can sometimes not like a person, for example one of the elephants at the camp didn’t like the guide because he had a loud voice and once head butted him over two metres.
It was easy to get on my elephants back, she layed down and I climbed on her leg and shimmied up to her neck. The guide was right, she was such a gentle soul and immediately I fell in love with her. She never veered from the path and while going down muddy and rocky paths she would step with preciseness and it seemed that she would contemplate here every move.
The grounds for the elephant park were gorgeous, it was a huge forest with winding paths that went up and down with many trees. Some elephants stopped to eat trees and scratch themselves on the tree trunks. Half way through we dismounted our elephants to let the Mahouts take them for a walk to get water and food. The second half of the trek was even more spectacular, the terrain became steeper and a bit more challenging. Even though we all shouted out commands to our elephants and did the things we learned in theory, we knew they were truly being lead by our Mahouts who were walking next to us the entire time and by the fact they naturally follow each other.
Lesson III – bathing the elephants
After our two hour trek, we took our elephants to the pond for a bath and a scrub. We used buckets to throw water on their entire bodies and scrubbed their skin with brushes. It was our last time to be with them and I tried to soak up those last few minutes. My elephant was so cute and she layed on her side with her head under the water, when she needed to take a breath her trunk would pop out from beneath the water.
Oh my eyes are burning!!!
Just before lunch was served, we were washing up when the guide yelled “Come over look at this!” We all ran over and to our surprise there were two elephants trying to…. make a baby, mate, do the deed etc. In retrospect it was a privilege to witness such a thing, but at the moment it was… shocking!!! The whole scene was very “Animal Planet”
The entire day was such a great learning experience; it was great to be so close to them and to witness the bond between the Mahout and the elephant. We will always remember and treasure this day!!!
The following day after the elephant camp:
O U C H !!!
~ Nicola
Click on the picture below to see the album in Picasa
Baanchang Elephant Park:
In Thailand using elephants to log has been illegal for many years and the primary job of the elephants in Thailand are for tourism. As mentioned before, there are many types of things that elephants can do for the purpose of tourism. The amounts of wild elephants in Asia are scarce (3000 out of 30 000 approx), and the majority of elephants spend their entire life in camps. There are many camps that are dedicated to providing their elephants with a habitat that is close to what they would have in the wild.
I am extremely happy with our choice of going to Baachang Elephant Park. I really wanted to learn about elephants and not only ride them for a short time in a basket and I was adamant about not choosing a camp that preformed the shows.
For the first part of the day our trainer taught us some basic commands and actions for right, left, forward, backward and stop. After we had the theory down he introduced us to the elephants. He instructed us to keep on feeding them the ripe bananas and sugar cane until the bags ran out. The whole time he was watching us to see how we interacted with the elephants and to see the response we got back for the elephants. I must admit that I was super excited and psyched for the experience but as I approached the elephant I began to feel a little nervous. Standing next to them and looking up I realized just how massive and powerful they were. All the elephants were very friendly and gentle, each Mahout stood next to them and showed us how to put entire bunches of bananas into their mouths. Elephants don’t like green bananas, and they are bad for their teeth. They really enjoy things that are sweet. Once the treats were finished, we started our practical training.
Lesson I – How to get on an elephant:
Every elephant is trained by a Mahout, therefore the way to get on it can differ from animal to animal. Some lie down, some lift you on their trunk, some you climb on their legs etc. For our training we learned and practiced on two elephants that did it the same way. We used a command to get the elephant to raise her front left leg then we stood on it while hold tightly to her ear. After stabilizing we had to basically jump and hoist our self onto her neck then wiggle our way up close to her ears. It was frightening at first, but the Mahout and guide really helped us by boosting us onto their backs and holding on to us in case we slipped. Looking at the distance from the floor to the top of the elephant it literally seems impossible that we could somehow manage to be on top, but luckily our entire group was able to do it without too much problems. After making it on top of the elephant of course we had to get down, which was equally as challenging. Again, luckily the guide and Mahout were there to help us down. We each tried getting on and off three times, then it was time to move onto our second lesson.
Lesson II – learning how to use our commands
Knowing our commands in theory is different than actually using them practically. It seems when you are sitting on top of a huge elephant, your mind wants to go blank. After trying the commands a few times, we were tested by maneuvering the elephant around a tree and back to the beginning and stopping. It was so exciting to learn the commands and actually see them work. I never felt unsafe, as the entire time the Mahout was walking with the elephant. Mahouts train the elephants from babies, so the elephant listens and obeys them entirely. Even though the elephants know we are not their Mahout, they are use to being with different people… but on occasion we were told they can be naughty, that is why the Mahout is always near by.
Lesson III – riding through the forest
After a delicious lunch, our guide informed us that he had picked elephants for each of us. Luckily our group was only six people, so we were all able to get our own elephant. During our morning the guide has been watching and studying us so that he could pick an elephant that best suited us. My elephant was such a sweet girl. I was told that she is extremely gentle, walks very slow and carefully and doesn’t wander off to eat a lot. I guess the guide could sense that I was a bit nervous and could see I have terrible balance. Andrew was put on an elephant that was a fast walker… but always needed to go at the back of the group behind my elephant who slows her down. It was so fascinating to learn about all six of their different personalities. We learned that an elephant can sometimes not like a person, for example one of the elephants at the camp didn’t like the guide because he had a loud voice and once head butted him over two metres.
It was easy to get on my elephants back, she layed down and I climbed on her leg and shimmied up to her neck. The guide was right, she was such a gentle soul and immediately I fell in love with her. She never veered from the path and while going down muddy and rocky paths she would step with preciseness and it seemed that she would contemplate here every move.
The grounds for the elephant park were gorgeous, it was a huge forest with winding paths that went up and down with many trees. Some elephants stopped to eat trees and scratch themselves on the tree trunks. Half way through we dismounted our elephants to let the Mahouts take them for a walk to get water and food. The second half of the trek was even more spectacular, the terrain became steeper and a bit more challenging. Even though we all shouted out commands to our elephants and did the things we learned in theory, we knew they were truly being lead by our Mahouts who were walking next to us the entire time and by the fact they naturally follow each other.
Lesson III – bathing the elephants
After our two hour trek, we took our elephants to the pond for a bath and a scrub. We used buckets to throw water on their entire bodies and scrubbed their skin with brushes. It was our last time to be with them and I tried to soak up those last few minutes. My elephant was so cute and she layed on her side with her head under the water, when she needed to take a breath her trunk would pop out from beneath the water.
Oh my eyes are burning!!!
Just before lunch was served, we were washing up when the guide yelled “Come over look at this!” We all ran over and to our surprise there were two elephants trying to…. make a baby, mate, do the deed etc. In retrospect it was a privilege to witness such a thing, but at the moment it was… shocking!!! The whole scene was very “Animal Planet”
The entire day was such a great learning experience; it was great to be so close to them and to witness the bond between the Mahout and the elephant. We will always remember and treasure this day!!!
The following day after the elephant camp:
O U C H !!!
~ Nicola
Click on the picture below to see the album in Picasa
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| Baan Chiang Elephant Camp |
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