An Elephant is Faithful, 100%

In Chang Mai, Mary and I decided to do a two day elephant trip. We spent two days with a group of elephants just playing with them, feeding them, training them, and bathing them. It was amazing tosee our elephants and run up to them and give them a hug or just climb up on their backs without hesitation. That was how comfortable we were with them. Spending two full days with them was so special. Elephants are such amazing creatures.

Some fun facts:
- Elephants eat 200kg/day and drink 200kg of water/day
- They are born at 90kg
- Elephants on average live to be 80 yrs old
- Starting at 18 their trunks can hold 6L of water at a time

We spent most of our time with two elephants: Cham Pu (Mary's) and Lucky (mine). We learned how to climb on the elephants with them picking us up on their trunks or with their back legs. They could all do tricks and we learned the commands to direct them on where to walk and what to do. Our favorite part was bathing them in the river. We went into the river on their backs with their mahoot. (A mahoot is someone who stays and trains an elephant from birth and often an elephant will have the same mahoot their entire life.) We would hold onto their ears and they would swing into the water. They would twist from side to side in the water and we had to hold on tight to their huge floppy ears to not get knocked off into the water. Many times we would get totally submerged as the elephant went under. The elephant would suck up water with their trunks and spray us. Even the baby came out to get washed. Bathing them was like a roller coaster ride and it was such a blast!!

I don't know exactly how to describe the elephants treatment at the camp. They did have chains on their legs so they couldn't run away and a set area that they were confined to live in. In Thailand there are no more 'working elephants' (elephants that work to tear down the jungles and trees) so most elephants are used for tourists purposes. Our elephants were also taught tricks for the benefit of tourists. They would bow their heads down when we said hello to them or spinning a hoola hoop on their trunks. But overall they seemed fine, well cared for, and they were clearly well loved by their mahoots and all the staff there.

We spent the night at a 'local' village camp nearby which consisted of other tourists groups that were on 2 or 3 day treks so there was no local aspect to it. We were bunked with some crazy Irish guys that had quite a bit to drink and began speaking in Gaelic as the night went on. Overall, we had a great time with the elephants and they have officially become my favorite animal of all time (outside domestic dogs and cats).