Elephants outside Chiang Mai - Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2014

Alisa and I had our toast and Nutella, then were picked up at 8:30 and headed to the Elephant Nature Park. 

On the way, we watched a tv show that was partially filmed at the park. Lek, a Thai woman who grew up in a hill tribe, bought her first abused elephant in 1994 and it only grew from there.

I'm not sure what I was expecting - the elephant area to be on one side and the people area in another? But we left the car, and the open air structure was surrounded by fields dotted with concrete shelters... And elephants. Small herds of two to four just meandering about, with their trusty mahoots following behind. 

We fed them a breakfast (well, a meal - they eat for 18 hours a day, so there's no way that was their first meal) of watermelon, pumpkin, and bananas as all of us had our first of many encounters with elephants. Lucky was the name of one of the old ladies that we followed around for most of the day. She was blind, a former circus elephant. (You can read more here: http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/elephant-herd/lucky/)

We then took them for a walk, followed by a buffet lunch for us humans. We spent lunch chatting with the other Americans in our group about what to do in Chiang Mai, in Bangkok, while scubaing, while on the beaches in the south... Everyone had interesting tidbits to add. 

A documentary about the elephants (including the "spirit breaking" torture that many go through when they are young) was next. Alisa slept through it, so I couldn't commiserate with her on the horrors. I found a lot of similarities to how broncos used to be "broken" - hobbling, stabbing, forcing riders while withholding food, water, and sleep. I hope that elephant training can progress to where horse training is now - much more humane. 

The lifespan of an elephant, though, means that these practices are going to be slow to change. Some of the forty-odd elephants at the reserve are in their 60s and 70s. 

After the harrowing video, it was bath time! The elephant got the easy job - stand and eat and we'll throw buckets of water on you. 

Pretty much all activities were photo ops. The herd with the baby girl came over, and people lined up for pictures. Then, one of the adults balanced on a log, and people lined up for pictures. Then, with half a dozen elephants milling about, people broke off to ham it up with whatever elephant was closest. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent following this herd or that. We saw the old lady best friends - one was one of the original half dozen elephants, the other was blind and rescued a decade later, but found a faithful (sighted) friend in the first, and now they are never apart. See, best friends and best friends!

The two herds with babies (one an orphan, one that was accidentally conceived at the park) were eating together by the river, so we hiked over to them. The mahouts were playing with one of the calves, teasing it with a tire they found. 

At one point, she let out a bellow of fright, and the entire herd charged over and clustered around her to protect her. It was daunting to see their speed and their dedication to their young one.

It was one more trip to the river, then we popped back to the structure for a final feeding. 

We left at around 4:30 for the long, traffic-filled ride back into Chiang Mai. 

No joke, we did the exact same thing again. A little nap and relax, then a tuktuk back to Anusan Night Market. It was a pretty hoppin' ride - blue track lights and some techno bass beats. 

We had Indian food (super good Indian food) then each of us got our snack food: a waffle for Alisa, then mango sticky rice for me.

And then, we shopped. That second ATM trip I took yesterday isn't going to cut it...