When you think Thailand, what comes to mind? Let me guess: pad thai, Buddha, and elephants. There’s nothing wrong with that! All three of those are important aspects of Thailand that you must experience while here. I’ve had my pad thai, seen billions of Buddhas, so it only felt right to find some elephants next. Elephants (chang in Thai) are on EVERYTHING here. My school’s mascot, t-shirts, pants, postcards, stickers, notebooks, keychains, purses, hotels… you name it. There’s even a beer called “Chang”. I have yet to go a full day in Thailand without seeing an elephant in some form.
But are elephants really everywhere? According to Elephant Nature Park’s website, there are less than 30,000 left in the world and under 4,000 in Thailand. More people equals less elephants, and the influx in human infrastructure in Asia has encroached on these mammal’s habitat. Their population has also plummeted due to humans capturing them and using them as entertainment. They are forced to do tricks in circuses and are often abused on trekking tours. They also have been hunted for their skins, ivory, and for sport.
When I decided to go to Chiang Mai to study, it dawned on me that I would have a chance to get up close to an elephant. Apparently about 20% of the elephants left in Thailand are believed to live in Chiang Mai province. The only problem I had was the moral struggle. I had heard rumors about unethical treatment of elephants in Thailand’s tourism industry, so I spent hours and hours researching the most humane way to interact with them. People will take baby elephants away from their mothers at a young age and break them so they will be submissive. The process is called Phajaan, or “the crush”. They confine the elephants in a small cage, use bullhooks, and don’t feed them enough (full grown can eat about 300 lbs. a day!).
After all that depressing research, I was even more determined to find a reputable company to do my elephant touring with. That’s how I came across Happy Elephant Home. The elephants are all rescued from trekking tours and circuses, and they are able to live a free and healthy life at Happy Elephant Home. The mahouts (elephant caretakers) ensure the elephants are well-fed, walk them to the river to cool down and drink water, and give them plenty of love. I learned so much about elephants from my amazing tour guide, Omo: they can smell up to 4km, and they eat pretty much all day. The adults only sleep 3-4 hours a night because the rest of the time they are eating! They use their noses to grab things and put them in their mouth (food, water, and the occasional camera if you’re not careful).
On 7 October 2015, I had the opportunity to feed, bathe, and just BE with three of the rescued elephants (two adults and an 8-month-old baby). I signed up by myself, and I joined a small group of travelers: a couple from China, a couple from Israel, and a young woman from China traveling solo. The six of us went along with the mahouts for their daily routine. We wore traditional clothing so that the elephants would feel more comfortable with strangers in their environment. First, we used a mini machete to chop big sticks of sugarcane to feed the elephants. Our guide made it look super easy, but when I tried it took several hacks to get through one pole. Once we had our bags filled to the brim, we walked to a large open field right next to a thick jungle incline. The elephants were roaming around in the hills about 100 yards away from us. The mahouts called out to the elephants using grunting noises accompanied with their names and the word “ma”, meaning “come”. We all tried calling out to the elephants: “Ma! Ma! Ma!”, but they didn’t seem to care much about us. Eventually they lumbered towards us, and my heart nearly stopped. They were so big. And they were right in front of me.
We all offered them sugarcane, and it didn’t take long for the elephants to catch on to the process. We reached into our bags to grab a stick, so they tried to reach into our bags immediately after! I vacillated between excitement and nervousness as the creatures leisurely reached their strong trunks toward my outreached hands. The mother elephant was very handsy. Or I guess it would be “nosey”: she kept wrapping her trunk around my hand despite it being empty, looking for more of the sweet, fibrous treat. She was the one who kept prodding at the bag I was carrying even as I walked away from her. We also brought some longer sticks (~7 feet) for the adult elephants. I was thinking back to how difficult it was to hack through the cane when she casually grabbed one with her truck and snapped it like a twig, shoved it into her mouth, and pulverized it in seconds. I could hear her chewing from 5 feet away.
Their skin was rough and thick to touch. They had hair covering their bodies, but not it wasn’t dense. Each individual hair was thick, maybe 2 inches long, and a rubber-like texture. Their patchy grey and pink ears flapped when they moved, and their strong tails whipped about as we fed them.
Elephants can’t sweat, so we led them down to the river to play in the water. They knelt in the river as we splashed them with the cool brown water.The baby, named Mee-nah (“March” in Thai) kept diving under the water and popping up near her mother’s side. The way she acted made her seem like a human child. She was goofing around and playing with her mom in the water. At one point she got a little too enthusiastic and tried to run down a muddy hill and ended up tripping and sliding down on her knees. Her enthusiasm was that of a child; she was excited to experience the everything.
Our guide, Omo, was just as amazing. She explained to us how they care for elephants in the humane ways, and how much she loves them. She spoke in a soft, tender voice to the baby, and gave her lots of kisses and hugs. She treats the animals like they are part of her family. She works there every day, but loves every minute of it. She stressed the point that they do not use hooked sticks to train them, just voice commands. "Bai bai", for, "go go" and "ma ma" for “come come”.
I was grinning ear to ear the entire time. As each moment passed, I became more excited about what I was actually doing. I was touching an elephant! I was playing with one! And at one point I even kissed her. The guide from another group jokingly said, “You kiss her I kiss you!”. No thanks, random Thai guy. He was obviously joking around, and it added to the bubbly environment. Even now, a week later, I am smiling as I think back to this life changing experience. I know this is a longer post, but I just can’t get over how incredible it was. I could gush for hours about it, and it still wouldn’t feel like a detailed enough description. If you are ever in Thailand, you HAVE to experience it; it’s the only way to really understand.
-Rebekah