Elephants Are the Only Ones Who Need Their Tusks
Sugar cane, banana stalks, and elephants, oh my!
In Chang Mai, a city located in Northern Thailand, we went on the Majestic Elephant Tour. After an hour van ride into the hills and a journey in the bed of a truck, we made it to our destination. In the van we watched a very encouraging video to prepare us for our visit, which consisted of a cartoon guy doing all the things he shouldn’t do when interacting with the elephants, and getting launched into space by the elephant’s trunk. With bags of sugar cane over our shoulder, we started walking up a red dirt hill. Within a minute we saw two elephants walking towards us. You have no idea how big they are until you see their massive trunk coming at you demanding food. They could smell the food we had for them. At first there were two elephants, one was old and sweet at age 55, while the other was 35 years old and always hungry. If you’d give her one piece of sugar cane she wouldn’t eat it until she had several more. She became known as the “hungry” one or the “greedy”one. After a few minutes another elephant came down (they were all girls because males can get aggressive to people and the other elephants, so they are kept in a separate section of the park. The separation is not only because they are aggressive, but the park doesn’t want to over-breed the elephants. The last one that joined us was the youngest, around age 35 years. She had a loose rope around her neck because she had a rough abusive past. If she becomes disturbed, the owners will grab the rope collar and talk to her to calm her down.
After convincing the hungry elephants we had no more sugar cane to give them, we slowly started walking along the trail. It was like walking a little kid, a few yards at a time; they would stop to eat by tearing down bamboo or a banana tree or throw dirt on their stomach or back with their trunk. They were easily distracted. After walking about a mile in 2 hours, we stopped at a building on a hill, maybe a hundred yards from the river. There, our guide showed us how to make the famous Thai dish of pad thai. The meal was complete with a muffin, rice and an orange. Oh and how could I forget, some green beans with something that I think was meat of some sort. At lunch he told us more about the park and the elephants in it. He also talked about when he was a kid living in a small village, on rare occasions he would eat cat, dog, snake and squirrel. Now before you go rant about how wrong that is and how you would never eat those animals, let me explain it for you. There are lots of places around the world where people can’t drive to Harris Teeter or Whole Food to get their food. People eat what they have, and yes that may mean cat or dog. In fact when I was in Kyrgyzstan, you could find horse meat in the store or on the menu. If you were wondering, no, I did not eat horse (well, that I know of). There are people who do, because that is just what they have. Our guide told us it was only a few times and how he couldn’t imagine doing it now. Also he said that sometimes people would eat their neighbor's dog!
After lunch we walked down to the river. In a gazebo-like structure we made a meal for the elephants. Hidden under a tarp in the gazebo was a huge basket of sticky rice. On a plate we mixed together papaya, banna and tamarind fruit and lots of salt. We added this salty fruit mixture to the rice. After mixing that we rolled the rice into baseball-sized balls. I got to feed the old elephant the rice since it was made special for her. She was missing half her teeth and it was difficult for her to chew the plant foods they regularly eat. I’m not sure if you know but elephant mouths are SO WEIRD! They are a diamond-shaped of mouth tissue and tongue. I was told to put the rice into her mouth instead of her trunk. At first I had no idea where to put the rice since I wasn't sure where her throat even was! I finally figured it out and could perfectly throw it in her mouth. She loved the food!!
At last came the most fun and exciting part of the tour, giving the elephants a bath. We walked a few steps into the river. We were given buckets to throw water at them once they joined us in the water. The “hungry” one loves the water, while the old one didn’t get in, and the young one was only in for a few minutes to cool off. Meanwhile the “hungry” one would dive underwater and was in the water about 20 minutes splashing away.
Alas, we had to say our goodbyes to the elephants. After putting on helmets and life jackets and a very vague demonstration, we floated down the river in a rubber raft. Luckily we came in the summer, not the rainy season since the water was really low and the “rapids” were few and not that hard or long. The raft ride was only 20 minutes and after that we got back in the van and rode home. If anyone asks me what I did this weekend I can casually say “I gave an elephant a bath, how about you?”
