Today was so unreal to be able to play, feed, groom, ride and bathe with elephants! We went with an organization that rescues and rehabilitates domesticated Asian Elephants. We were each assigned a particular elephant:I was given a young mother elephant, Sam was given a teenage girl elephant and Kendall was given a large male with big tusks. We first fed all the elephants with sticks of sugar cane and grass and bananas. The best way to an elephants heart is through their stomachs. They basically eat all day and consume tons of water. They would be impossible to have as a pet, sorry Sam ;) The then taught us how to size up an elephant to see if they are healthy and happy. Are their ears and tail tag wagging a few times a minute,? Do they have dirt on their sides? They sleep about 6 hours a night on average and a healthy elephant sleeps on the ground and unhealthy stands up because they aren't well enough to get up and down and they sleep and eat actually through the night getting up and down and they switch sleeping sides through their 5 hour sleep cycle. Are they sweating? They don't have tear ducts but they sweat through what looks like cuticle around their toe nails. How many piles of poop do they have on the ground and the consistency of the poop. They should have at least 5 round balls of poop each time and can see near them when they sleep. If they are healthy their poop has some water in it and should not smell too bad- the trainer made us each smell the poop and he squeezed it and water came out. He also showed us that you can look at their poop and a younger elephant has smaller fibers because their teeth are bigger and still sharp and all there. An older elephant has longer fibrous strands in their poop- teeth more worn down.
We learned to get on the elephant two ways. One from the front and up the trunk. I did this and it sure wasn't graceful, too nervous about putting my knee in the cranium of the elephant to climb all the way on- which Kendall did gracefully as can be done I might add. You pat on the top of his head and then he/she stiffens her trunk and you step up onto the trunk and they lift you up. The other way is pulling on their ear and saying the command Nalong for them to sit down and then you climb up their leg and on. Same ways going down. We then rode them bareback through the forests for about 45 minutes to our lunch spot. You sit way up on their head. Really cool but after about 20 mins my inner thighs were throbbing for clutching for dear life. Swear I was going to fall off, no harness but a rope to hold onto as you're leaning back when going down. I was sure if I wasn't clinging for dear life I would have tipped right off that elephant onto the rocky mountainous terrain we were climbing over- holy smokes! We would say "Bai" to go. "How" to stop. "Didi" for good job. Said those words a lot today :)
We enjoyed a fresh lunch all hand prepared where we basically ate with our hands food on banana leaves in the forest. When we were done the baby elephants literally charged the table and started taking all the food. It was hilarious. There were still some water bottles on the table and they knew not to eat those and left whatever was paper or plastic and just finished up the meal.
We climbed back onto our elephants and made our way to the waterfall. There we dismounted and changed out of our smocks and pants that we were riding in and took them to the water where we bathed them. They want to keep their elephants as healthy as possible so unlike in the wild where they can contract different parasites, they like to keep them clean and give them shots if they get sick. So they scrub then thoroughly. Into the brown waters below the waterfall we went with our 7 elephants and scrubbed every inch of them and then they lined them up to drink behind us and took some photos. While we were taking photos they sprayed us all multiple times. Really quite funny. Have to say ready for a serious shower after that! We did walk up to the waterfall and rinsed off a bit.
We said goodbye to our elephants and then off to see their baby elephants, part of their breeding program. They had 2 about 2 month olds and then one that was only 8 days old. They were so cute and so domesticated because although there were many around the mother and her new baby they were totally comfortable and we gave the mothers water and food and were able to totally interact with the babies. It was amazing really. So amazing that the gestation is about 2 years and the babies come out huge and then go right about walking around and are playful. The babies just drink mother's milk and so they are constantly going up to their mothers and nursing.
What an eventful afternoon. We enjoyed it so much. As we left and were headed back into town we asked to stop by and see an active Buddhist Temple.. Wanna our guide took us to one that was covered in little shrines and decorative flowers and where they were about to have a service. Several elderly men and women were inside the temple preparing to worship and meditate. Here is what I have learned about Buddhism from Wanna:
Buddha was a man that lived about 2500 years ago. He lived in India and he was a crown prince with all the luxuries not afforded to almost all of India. He chose to leave his family and retreat into the woods and live among hermits that meditated on their Hindu faith and philosophies and there he developed his own philosophy separate from his Hindu faith. He separated himself from Hinduism that spends so much of their effort worshiping so many gods and giving so much time and attention to these gods and giving offerings and not enough he felt to others. He created his own beliefs and moved to Sri Lanka, an island south of India where he grew his philosophy and became a monk. He had several followers and later there were missionaries of Buddhist faith and they wrote a written record of Buddha's beliefs. He did not intend to be worshiped, but as one that directs others how to reach Nirvana- the place where you stop being reincarnated. You can only reach there by being a monk and keeping the 227 rules/commandments. Those that aren't monks are expected to keep the basic 5 commandments of their beliefs: :no killing any being, no lying, no stealing, no intoxication, and no adultery. These were established by Buddha again to lead you to Nirvana and to the final place- like Heaven- Nirvana. All those that are monks and devote their lives to being a monk will reach Nirvana in the next life and end their reincarnation. Everyone is expected to help support the monks and they walk through the neighborhoods early in the morning with their bowls for people to give them food. They only eat 2 meals a day and don't have dinner. Everyone can do their part in being a better person by giving food to them. Our guide says she does but often can't get around to it, so on all special holidays she brings a lot of extra food to the temple for the monks.
All very interesting to me, I love to learn about other faiths and what directs and motivates people's faith and lives.
In the evening we went to a performance of Thai traditional dances and dinner. We sat on the floor of the dining hall, theater and ate and then watched the dancing. The women moved slowly and most of the dance was in their hands. The opening dance they had the silver or gold tips on their fingers which elongate their hands and make them even more intriguing to watch. After the main show we moved into another amphitheater where many tribal dances were performed, really more of a show of their cultural costumes and the variety of people and performance. It was very interesting and authentic actually and then after the dancers were selling some things from small booths and I purchased a really cool vest of one of the tribes and hat. When my daughters were young I would always bring home costumes from the countries I was visiting and they would wear to International Day. I loved doing this and miss collecting them. Tonight I got myself one. So fun although when I finished making my deal they had literally turned off the lights at the place and our van was the last one in the lot :)
The van driver dropped us off in the center of the Night Market for us to poke around and try and find Sam an artist he liked to paint him a parrot for his room. Of course we didn't find one but we had fun wondering around and guess who came home with a large elephant painting?! So excited about it and just a total deal. Had them take off the canvas and wrap it and put in a scroll that I will send home tomorrow from the airport.
We made it back around 11:30 p.m. and were exhausted!
We learned to get on the elephant two ways. One from the front and up the trunk. I did this and it sure wasn't graceful, too nervous about putting my knee in the cranium of the elephant to climb all the way on- which Kendall did gracefully as can be done I might add. You pat on the top of his head and then he/she stiffens her trunk and you step up onto the trunk and they lift you up. The other way is pulling on their ear and saying the command Nalong for them to sit down and then you climb up their leg and on. Same ways going down. We then rode them bareback through the forests for about 45 minutes to our lunch spot. You sit way up on their head. Really cool but after about 20 mins my inner thighs were throbbing for clutching for dear life. Swear I was going to fall off, no harness but a rope to hold onto as you're leaning back when going down. I was sure if I wasn't clinging for dear life I would have tipped right off that elephant onto the rocky mountainous terrain we were climbing over- holy smokes! We would say "Bai" to go. "How" to stop. "Didi" for good job. Said those words a lot today :)
We enjoyed a fresh lunch all hand prepared where we basically ate with our hands food on banana leaves in the forest. When we were done the baby elephants literally charged the table and started taking all the food. It was hilarious. There were still some water bottles on the table and they knew not to eat those and left whatever was paper or plastic and just finished up the meal.
We climbed back onto our elephants and made our way to the waterfall. There we dismounted and changed out of our smocks and pants that we were riding in and took them to the water where we bathed them. They want to keep their elephants as healthy as possible so unlike in the wild where they can contract different parasites, they like to keep them clean and give them shots if they get sick. So they scrub then thoroughly. Into the brown waters below the waterfall we went with our 7 elephants and scrubbed every inch of them and then they lined them up to drink behind us and took some photos. While we were taking photos they sprayed us all multiple times. Really quite funny. Have to say ready for a serious shower after that! We did walk up to the waterfall and rinsed off a bit.
We said goodbye to our elephants and then off to see their baby elephants, part of their breeding program. They had 2 about 2 month olds and then one that was only 8 days old. They were so cute and so domesticated because although there were many around the mother and her new baby they were totally comfortable and we gave the mothers water and food and were able to totally interact with the babies. It was amazing really. So amazing that the gestation is about 2 years and the babies come out huge and then go right about walking around and are playful. The babies just drink mother's milk and so they are constantly going up to their mothers and nursing.
What an eventful afternoon. We enjoyed it so much. As we left and were headed back into town we asked to stop by and see an active Buddhist Temple.. Wanna our guide took us to one that was covered in little shrines and decorative flowers and where they were about to have a service. Several elderly men and women were inside the temple preparing to worship and meditate. Here is what I have learned about Buddhism from Wanna:
Buddha was a man that lived about 2500 years ago. He lived in India and he was a crown prince with all the luxuries not afforded to almost all of India. He chose to leave his family and retreat into the woods and live among hermits that meditated on their Hindu faith and philosophies and there he developed his own philosophy separate from his Hindu faith. He separated himself from Hinduism that spends so much of their effort worshiping so many gods and giving so much time and attention to these gods and giving offerings and not enough he felt to others. He created his own beliefs and moved to Sri Lanka, an island south of India where he grew his philosophy and became a monk. He had several followers and later there were missionaries of Buddhist faith and they wrote a written record of Buddha's beliefs. He did not intend to be worshiped, but as one that directs others how to reach Nirvana- the place where you stop being reincarnated. You can only reach there by being a monk and keeping the 227 rules/commandments. Those that aren't monks are expected to keep the basic 5 commandments of their beliefs: :no killing any being, no lying, no stealing, no intoxication, and no adultery. These were established by Buddha again to lead you to Nirvana and to the final place- like Heaven- Nirvana. All those that are monks and devote their lives to being a monk will reach Nirvana in the next life and end their reincarnation. Everyone is expected to help support the monks and they walk through the neighborhoods early in the morning with their bowls for people to give them food. They only eat 2 meals a day and don't have dinner. Everyone can do their part in being a better person by giving food to them. Our guide says she does but often can't get around to it, so on all special holidays she brings a lot of extra food to the temple for the monks.
All very interesting to me, I love to learn about other faiths and what directs and motivates people's faith and lives.
In the evening we went to a performance of Thai traditional dances and dinner. We sat on the floor of the dining hall, theater and ate and then watched the dancing. The women moved slowly and most of the dance was in their hands. The opening dance they had the silver or gold tips on their fingers which elongate their hands and make them even more intriguing to watch. After the main show we moved into another amphitheater where many tribal dances were performed, really more of a show of their cultural costumes and the variety of people and performance. It was very interesting and authentic actually and then after the dancers were selling some things from small booths and I purchased a really cool vest of one of the tribes and hat. When my daughters were young I would always bring home costumes from the countries I was visiting and they would wear to International Day. I loved doing this and miss collecting them. Tonight I got myself one. So fun although when I finished making my deal they had literally turned off the lights at the place and our van was the last one in the lot :)
The van driver dropped us off in the center of the Night Market for us to poke around and try and find Sam an artist he liked to paint him a parrot for his room. Of course we didn't find one but we had fun wondering around and guess who came home with a large elephant painting?! So excited about it and just a total deal. Had them take off the canvas and wrap it and put in a scroll that I will send home tomorrow from the airport.
We made it back around 11:30 p.m. and were exhausted!
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