Bathing Baby Elephant

Chiangmai, Thailand -- Day 4

Hi, it's Dex today.  We got up early to get to the elephant center, where we would wash, feed, and play with elephants.  Our van was supposed to come at 8:10, but it wasn’t until 8:40 that a pickup truck with benches in back arrived. We met two nice Swedish girls, Cecelia and Louise, that were also going.  They were traveling until Christmas and had hiked in the nearby hills the day before, which they said was fun but tiring.

About an hour later, with about 10 people crammed into the truck, I was now in a bad mood; we were told the trip was one hour, not one hour just to start the ride.  One boring hour later, we made it and had to change clothes so ours didn’t get wet.  My shorts were huge and my shirt was two sizes too small, but, nevertheless, they worked.

Start of the truck ride

Louis and Cecilia

Our new "duds"

When we finally saw the first elephant, my mood changed.  We got to pet and feed a baby elephant that only weighed a ton.  She was five years old, her tusks were just a few inches long, and she ate the small bananas and pieces of sugar cane almost as fast as we could hand them to her. While we were feeding the “little one,” mama elephant and 72 year old grandma "Miguel" came.

Baby elephant

We also mixed up some "medicine balls" for the elephants made up of rice, bananas, salt and tamarind.  It was awesome to see how strong and dexterous their trunks were. Not only that, they were very smart.  Baby elephant refused to eat one of the green bananas we gave her. No matter how many times we handed it to her, she always tossed it to the ground.

 

Next we went to the river to collect a vine that acted like an antibiotic soap for when we washed the elephant. By the time we were done, we were really hungry but luckily got some great Pad Thai wrapped in a banana leaf.  When we were done, our guide showed us how to pound the vines on rocks to make a scrubbing wash cloth for the elephants.

Before we left for the river, the woman showed us three baby puppies in the nearby shed.  They were really good and didn’t nip or bark at all.  I especially liked the little brown one that let me hold him. When I put him next to my face, he would lick it.  I thought he was really cute.

Finally, it was time to wash the elephants.  We took another truck to the river, but there were a couple of other people there.  When they left, it was our turn!!  Baby elephant lay down in the water, and Kylie and I started patting and scrubbing her with our vine, wash cloths.  Everyone else scrubbed grandma elephant who towered above us.  She lathered up when all of the sudden, one of the trainers said something and she sprayed me with her trunk.  It was really cool to be sprayed by an elephant.  

Soon we were changed and waiting at the little hut when what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a silvery van, with nice seats and cool air.  The ride back to town took forever, but it was nice to be inside and on comfortable seats.

Once at the hotel, Mom and Dad announced that they still had some errands to do. So, leaving us a phone, they left with instructions to meet them at Beast Burger for dinner, a twenty minute walk away. Forty five minutes later, like they asked, we left.  To Kylie and my surprise, we had to walk along the highway with no lights or sidewalk.  We got a few odd looks, but finally got off the big road and five minutes later we were at Beast Burger.

The Beast Burgers were great. I also had some cheesy fries -- the fries were great, but the cheese wasn’t.  After we left, Dad decided to order a Thai shaved ice at another place.  Well, that was an adventure.  The person at the counter looked sad when we asked for the Flower Blossom, and we didn’t know why. Maybe because it took almost ten minutes and required many steps and ingredients.  We were all joking that when she finally finished, we should ask for two more!  After squirting on stuff from ketchup and mustard bottles, adding "green beans" and loads of other colored, jelly stuff, it was finally done.  On the whole, it wasn’t that good, but the condensed milk on top and Corn Flakes on the bottom were my favorite part.  It was definitely worth the experience.