Elephants trumpet and fill the air with their amazedly loud vocalizations-they are so happy to be going down to the watering hole and their flapping ears and joyful calls show it. The mahouts, all small, reddish brown men from Burma, sit on top these huge beasts, some smoking and some calling out to their friends, teasing and laughing-it's a scene I feel lucky to witness from up above, on the deck of my rustic quarters at the Baan Chang Elephant Camp. I wasn't sure what to expect coming here, but after reading and studying information from many of the elephant camps now dotting the Northern Thailand jungles, (click to continue reading) I picked Baan Chang. They not only had a program in training as a mahout and being able to work side by side with the real deal and their elephant buddies, but overnight accommodations (most are day camps). Staying multiple days seemed to me the best way to really get into the business of what it takes to manage and care for such a large, complex and intelligent beast, who at 2-3 tons can easily pick you up and toss you quite a ways like yesterday's bad tomatoes.
Some of the herd at Baan Chang (Elephant Family) Camp
One of the first things I learned at Baan Chang, day one, was never, ever go near the elephants unless their mahout is present. Apparently elephants aren't like horses, which once trained can be handled by just about anyone. Elephant training involves one handler (mahout) who lives, eats, sleeps and cares for his elephant-for as long as he's able. Our guide told us elephants are big animals with little hearts-meaning they are scared of many thing-snakes, dogs, mice, thunder, etc. The mahout becomes the "babysitter, brother, mother, father, boss and let's the elephant know what is good and bad-like not tossing someone to the ground, or to not be afraid of strangers, and the elephant will listen only to him. So our training, as much as we'd all like to think was going to make us mahouts, was just to show us an experience. "Tourists sometimes say, once I finish the training, I want to take my elephant on a ride alone." Not only a dangerous proposition, but you wouldn't get far. The working elephant, and these are all healthy, mid-age working elephants, knows one boss and one boss only. You may be on top of the elephants, but the mahout is nearby, and the elephant looks to him all the time for confirmation, and security.
Two mahouts and their elephants hanging out at the camp. The mahouts are never far from their ellies.
My days pretending to be a mahout began as soon as I got up. First thing is to put on the blue "mahout" clothes, for several reasons. One is, association. The elephants associate people in the dark blue outfits as "good", we bring bananas, and other treats, thereby lowering the risks and law suits should an elephant decide he doesn't like you (and I saw some elephants who definitely did not like some of the local staff, even picking up little rocks in their trunks to toss at them!) Second, the heavy cloth offers protection from all the ellie work you do during the day, one chore which is picking up elephant poo, with your bare hands. Because the great beasts eat fibrous corn stalks, sugar cane and fruit, their poo is amazenly dry, has a pleasant odor and stays in these nifty compact balls, about the size of a baseball.
Once cleaning up the poo is over, we take the ellies down to their watering hole for a drink and a morning bath. I climb up on the back of the my ellie of the day and ride her (they almost all are female) down with the rest. Into the water they charge, so happy to be getting wet and a good Thai elephant massage. We scrub them from top to bottom, ears, trunk and even around mouth and eyes. The mahouts stands by to keep the ellie down (they tuck their legs under and lay in the water so you can climb around them and get all the dirt out of every one of their cracks.) This was always a special time for me, because there would only be me, one or two others who spent the night, and the mahouts. It really felt like you were one of the gang, and the mahouts are more relaxed and love to tease each other and the "guests." There would usually be at least one water fight, with everyone getting drenched.
Mae Coup seems to smile as I give her a back rub with the scrub brush
After that, the elephants have their second meal of the day and we eat our first, usually fresh pineapple from the garden, eggs, toast and some kind of weird looking Thai sausage that was pretty tasty! Then it was back to elephant care, this time exercise.
By now, the day guests arrive by van, and get the basic training I had day one-how to mount, turn your elephant right and left, stop and the most important "down!" as in "non long" said very loudly, which means, 'get down' in Burmese. It is the only way up and off your elephant here-no ladders or platforms are used, and riding is done only bareback.
NON LONG! The only way to get on your elephant is if it gets down, then you grab the ears and climb aboard.
It's easy once you get the hang of it-what's not easy is getting used to the height!
Once everyone is on their elephants, we set off for the jungle-mahouts walking along, to "exercise" the elephants, and see the beauty of Thailand's green forests. One day, our guide "Nai" took me and a couple from London, since we were the only over night guest that day, on a jungle picnic. We rode our elephants up and up, into a dense forest, then the mahouts made a fire. Nai took banana leave packets out of his backpack and placed them on the fire. While our ellies roamed to eat and scratch, we ate a hot Thai rice and mixed veggie lunch, with chunks of chicken. It seemed surreal to be sitting on giant banana leaves for seats, and just feet away stood our elephants.
One of our elephants takes a moment during our picnic to have a scratch attack!
Mahouts make a fire for lunch, elephants roam around to find their own lunch...
Once back the elephants head straight to the water hole again, with riders on board, the fun part is sliding off into the water with your ellie.
Afternoons are amazing Thai food lunches, laying around in hammocks and then taking the ellies down to the water hole-again (elephants need ALOT of water!). There are babies here and they love water play, squirting, trumpeting and getting everyone wet. I never got tired of the water hole, and often jumped on a baby's back to get a free ride.
Me and "Fah sai" or 'Blue Sky'-a 5 year old male.
Nighttime at the camp were simple pleasures: a campfire made by the mahouts, guitar playing, the elephants snorting and eating their 8th or 9th meal of the day; one night we lit paper laterns and let them go with wishes, and made a sticky rice dessert by roasting it inside a bamboo stick. I feel asleep sore and exhausted each night, and tried to get up early enough each day to help the mahouts take the ellies down for their first morning drink, but usually didn't roll out of my bed up on the hillside until 8 or 9. Taking care of elephants is a huge job! I discovered it not only takes a lot of trips to a water hole, bushels and baskets of food, picking up after them and exercise, but you have to pair an elephant with a full-time bodyguard if they are going to be ridden or do any kind of work.
As I write this, now comfortable in a well-padded bed in a guest house in Chiang Mai, my back, shoulders and bum sore, I wonder what the ellies are doing tonight. And I really do wish I was still with them, but so grateful I had a chance to play at being a mahout for a little while. I've had two very different experiences here with elephants, and both have opened my eyes to the complexities of elephant management. One facet I hadn't thought much about are the mahouts. My next blog I will attempt to share the knowledge I gained talking to mahouts, and the little known side of choosing to dedicate your life to one elephant.
Two of my favorite buddies at Baan Chang Elephant Camp
One of the first things I learned at Baan Chang, day one, was never, ever go near the elephants unless their mahout is present. Apparently elephants aren't like horses, which once trained can be handled by just about anyone. Elephant training involves one handler (mahout) who lives, eats, sleeps and cares for his elephant-for as long as he's able. Our guide told us elephants are big animals with little hearts-meaning they are scared of many thing-snakes, dogs, mice, thunder, etc. The mahout becomes the "babysitter, brother, mother, father, boss and let's the elephant know what is good and bad-like not tossing someone to the ground, or to not be afraid of strangers, and the elephant will listen only to him. So our training, as much as we'd all like to think was going to make us mahouts, was just to show us an experience. "Tourists sometimes say, once I finish the training, I want to take my elephant on a ride alone." Not only a dangerous proposition, but you wouldn't get far. The working elephant, and these are all healthy, mid-age working elephants, knows one boss and one boss only. You may be on top of the elephants, but the mahout is nearby, and the elephant looks to him all the time for confirmation, and security.
My days pretending to be a mahout began as soon as I got up. First thing is to put on the blue "mahout" clothes, for several reasons. One is, association. The elephants associate people in the dark blue outfits as "good", we bring bananas, and other treats, thereby lowering the risks and law suits should an elephant decide he doesn't like you (and I saw some elephants who definitely did not like some of the local staff, even picking up little rocks in their trunks to toss at them!) Second, the heavy cloth offers protection from all the ellie work you do during the day, one chore which is picking up elephant poo, with your bare hands. Because the great beasts eat fibrous corn stalks, sugar cane and fruit, their poo is amazenly dry, has a pleasant odor and stays in these nifty compact balls, about the size of a baseball.
Once cleaning up the poo is over, we take the ellies down to their watering hole for a drink and a morning bath. I climb up on the back of the my ellie of the day and ride her (they almost all are female) down with the rest. Into the water they charge, so happy to be getting wet and a good Thai elephant massage. We scrub them from top to bottom, ears, trunk and even around mouth and eyes. The mahouts stands by to keep the ellie down (they tuck their legs under and lay in the water so you can climb around them and get all the dirt out of every one of their cracks.) This was always a special time for me, because there would only be me, one or two others who spent the night, and the mahouts. It really felt like you were one of the gang, and the mahouts are more relaxed and love to tease each other and the "guests." There would usually be at least one water fight, with everyone getting drenched.
After that, the elephants have their second meal of the day and we eat our first, usually fresh pineapple from the garden, eggs, toast and some kind of weird looking Thai sausage that was pretty tasty! Then it was back to elephant care, this time exercise.
By now, the day guests arrive by van, and get the basic training I had day one-how to mount, turn your elephant right and left, stop and the most important "down!" as in "non long" said very loudly, which means, 'get down' in Burmese. It is the only way up and off your elephant here-no ladders or platforms are used, and riding is done only bareback.
NON LONG! The only way to get on your elephant is if it gets down, then you grab the ears and climb aboard.
Once everyone is on their elephants, we set off for the jungle-mahouts walking along, to "exercise" the elephants, and see the beauty of Thailand's green forests. One day, our guide "Nai" took me and a couple from London, since we were the only over night guest that day, on a jungle picnic. We rode our elephants up and up, into a dense forest, then the mahouts made a fire. Nai took banana leave packets out of his backpack and placed them on the fire. While our ellies roamed to eat and scratch, we ate a hot Thai rice and mixed veggie lunch, with chunks of chicken. It seemed surreal to be sitting on giant banana leaves for seats, and just feet away stood our elephants.
Mahouts make a fire for lunch, elephants roam around to find their own lunch...
Once back the elephants head straight to the water hole again, with riders on board, the fun part is sliding off into the water with your ellie.
Afternoons are amazing Thai food lunches, laying around in hammocks and then taking the ellies down to the water hole-again (elephants need ALOT of water!). There are babies here and they love water play, squirting, trumpeting and getting everyone wet. I never got tired of the water hole, and often jumped on a baby's back to get a free ride.
Nighttime at the camp were simple pleasures: a campfire made by the mahouts, guitar playing, the elephants snorting and eating their 8th or 9th meal of the day; one night we lit paper laterns and let them go with wishes, and made a sticky rice dessert by roasting it inside a bamboo stick. I feel asleep sore and exhausted each night, and tried to get up early enough each day to help the mahouts take the ellies down for their first morning drink, but usually didn't roll out of my bed up on the hillside until 8 or 9. Taking care of elephants is a huge job! I discovered it not only takes a lot of trips to a water hole, bushels and baskets of food, picking up after them and exercise, but you have to pair an elephant with a full-time bodyguard if they are going to be ridden or do any kind of work.
As I write this, now comfortable in a well-padded bed in a guest house in Chiang Mai, my back, shoulders and bum sore, I wonder what the ellies are doing tonight. And I really do wish I was still with them, but so grateful I had a chance to play at being a mahout for a little while. I've had two very different experiences here with elephants, and both have opened my eyes to the complexities of elephant management. One facet I hadn't thought much about are the mahouts. My next blog I will attempt to share the knowledge I gained talking to mahouts, and the little known side of choosing to dedicate your life to one elephant.
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