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| Taking a bath |
Of all the adventures I’ve had since leaving the States, my
trip into the mountains north of Chiang Mai, Thailand, was absolutely the best.
Among other things, I got to hug an elephant.
I’ve been in Chiang Mai for going on three weeks and have
planned on visiting an elephant camp all along but the time didn’t seem right.
Finally, I had taken a tuk-tuk to one of the big malls because I had a few
things to get and on the trip back to my hotel (guesthouse actually) I really
connected with the driver.
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| Me and Tony |
He is a very nice guy named Tony and I asked him
about the elephants. We arranged for him to pick me up the next morning at 8:30
and head into the mountains to his favorite elephant camp (there are quite a
few around this city).
After about 45 minutes of stunning scenery, passing
everything from Thai Army camps to the entrance to the five-star Four Seasons
Resort, we arrived – along with a couple of busloads of tourists. I am so glad
I went with Tony instead. I had a personal tour guide and someone to take my
pictures and someone to talk to about so many other things, like the history of
Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.
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| This one gave me a bi smackeroo! |
We watched the elephants bathing in the river, which was
extremely interesting because they choose this time to eliminate bodily waste
(there’s a pleasant way of putting it!) Downriver, ladies wait with plastic
laundry baskets to collect the dung, which is later turned into paper.
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| Dung lady |
However, before the bathing I was able stand with a couple
of young elephants and get kissed by one of them, a completely thrilling
experience. Boy do their trunks have a huge amount of suction. It was a bit odd
but wonderful at the same time.
While the tour groups stayed behind for the official
elephant show, Tony and I wandered off to find the nursery. There were no babies in residence but instead
this wonderful girl, Full Moon, who had just given birth to a stillborn and was
depressed. She needed full-time care and was isolated from the other elephants
and tourists. But Tony spoke to her mahout (care-taker) and he allowed us to
feed her some bananas and me to give her a hug. She was so gentle. I loved the
feel of her ears.
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| Hugging Full Moon |
It will take an entire other blog post to cover our
venturing into the Hill Tribes community, so I’ll leave you here with this one
– hugging an elephant.
PS – Should anyone out there need a good tuk-tuk driver in
Chiang Mai – Tony's the guy! I put a picture of his business card below.
PSS – The lovely young lady below is Ying, who I met yesterday at
7-11. She spoke pretty good English and I was so happy to speak with someone
who was so warm. She lost her mother
recently and I think I made her think of her. Anyway, I gave Ying my card with
the address for this blog on it and I hope she sees this. Hi, Ying! You made my
day.
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| Call this guy! |
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| Miss Ying |
It's cool that you have found such kind people along the way. I'm sure that it makes your experience even more memorable.
ReplyDeleteI was lucky enough to have an elephant experience, on a field trip. I think I was in the 4th-5th grade. (Only now as an adult, do I realize how lucky I was to have had that chance.) As elementary kids all we could say was eewww...especially when the elephant eliminated it's waste! LOL! We didn't get a hug, but we were able to pet it's side and watch the care taker feed it. :)
I think any chance to spend time with an elephant is just a gift. I will be returning to Thailand in a few months and plan to visit an elephant sanctuary in Chiang Rai, I'm so glad you had a chance to visit with one.
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