A day with Elephants

On Saturday the whole day is dedicated to elephants. At 8:30 they pick us up and we drive around one hour to the jungle and the Elephant care center. We are nine people, from Canada, Germany, Columbia and Australia. (Always funny to hear the Australians say „we go to Thailand quite often, it´s very near for us. Only 8 to 10 hours flight:)).

In Northern Thailand there exist now quite a few elephant care and rescue centers. They are either homes for old elephants or take care of elephants who were exploited in tourism or in a circus.

The place were we go is called the B.M.P. Elephant Care Project and there live four elephants. They are all female. One is 20 years old and pregnant and the others are still „babies“, two to three years old. It´s like that that the elephants´ owners need money and give their elephants away for riding, circus, begging with them on the streets and so on. So this center gives the owners of the elephantse money instead and they don’t have to work in tourism or in the circus any more and can lead a life in more dignity and at least a little closer to the life they were meant for. Still they do not live in the jungle, they wouldn’t even be able to survive there because they were born in the city. „Our“ elephants „worked“ before they came to the center in tourism, riding and in the circus.

After we arrive our guide introduces the center and the elephants to us and we learn a lot about elephants in general and Asian elephants in particular. Our guide´s name is Pong. He gives us the mnemonic aid to think of „ping pong“ and adds with a twinkle in his eyes and a smile to the young boys „but not the ping pong show.“ Then he distributes special „working clothes“ for changing and bags full of bananas to us. And then the adventure starts.

We walk to a certain place and then they call the elephants. As soon as they see us they start getting faster because they know bananas are waiting for them. Then we feed them the bananas. We were taught before how to do this correctly. We can either hand the banana over and they take it by trunk or can put it directly into their (big) mouth. The elephants´ names are: Full Moon (the pregnant one) and the little ones are Tip, Paco and Kaew Kalong. After they finished all the bananas we feed them with some special grass which looks like sugar cane to me, but according to them it was not sugar cane, however they said this special grass which elephants like very much was introduced from Brasil. After feeding we take the elephants for a little walk and watch them playing in the mud. Then it´s time for a swim. We take them to a natural swimming pool and there we swim together with them! What a great experience! I have never been swimming with an elephant before. They play with us and make fun of us by spraying water out of their trunk in the middle of our faces. We also pet their trunk and scratch their ears and neck and they seem to enjoy it. And we learn that elephants are - despite their thick skin - very sensitive animals and are capable of emotions and feelings like human beings and even can cry and weep real teardrops. I really enjoy being with this beautiful and wonderful animals.

After swimming with the elephants we have a little break during which we can use a waterslide and like little children we slide down and scream and have fun. Then lunch is served for us, Thai food and very delicious. After lunch we take the elephants for a longer walk in the jungle. There they also eat grass and we feed them a little bit as well. Then we learn how to prepare herbal balls, Thai herbal medicine for the elephants and we feed it to them. They enjoy this very much. And then it is time to say good buy to our new Thai friends, the nice guide Pong, the other nice helpers at the center and of course our new Elephant friends.

After a wonderful day we drive back to our hotels, all of us happy and content and a little tired as well. During this day I made friends with a very nice and friendly couple from Germany. We liked each other from the first moment and had a lot to tell each other and so we decided to meet in the evening again. When we drive back they ask me if I want to meet up with them for dinner and I gladly agree. We meet at the Chiang Mai gate and go to a very nice restaurant where we have delicious food. The two are psychologist and psychotherapists specialized in trauma therapy and we have interesting talks and fun as well and I feel very grateful that I had the chance to meet them. This was another beautiful day in Thailand and I am thankful for all the wonderful people - and animals - I had the pleasure to meet today.