Yay, I am at the point of our Thailand trip blogging where I can post about our wonderful three day experience at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center. It was definitely a most memorable experience, and we will always cherish our memories of the elephants and the camp.
When we first decided that we would go to Thailand last May, the only thing we knew that we wanted to do was to ride elephants. My initial research left me feeling uneasy, I guess I never realized that the number of Asian elephants was dwindling at an alarming rate, and many predict that many species have gone extinct already. I couldn't help but think that taking elephants out of their natural forest environment for tourists to ride, is not helping the situation either. So my mission became to find a solution,if there was one out there, that would allow us to ride elephants without exploiting them, or putting them in any danger. To my delight, I found more than I even bargained for.
Thai Elephant Conservation Center(TECC), is a beautiful establishment for preserving elephants, while enjoying them at the same time. It offers many services, from various training programs, to an elephant hospital, an elephant nursery, elephant shows, and elephant dung paper factory. The center occupies a large area in a green forest outside the city of Lampang. It is an easy one hour cab ride from Chiang Mai, and well worth the visit, whether it is for one day or multiple,like we did.
We signed up for the Three Day VIP Mahout Training Course, not knowing exactly what the difference was between the VIP or non-VIP courses, but the difference in price was thirty dollars, and we figured it would be only in Thailand that we could afford any VIP treatment. We were glad we had the VIP course; we spent more time riding the elephant in the forest(versus the show grounds) and we had more down time, where we could relax and reflect on the beautiful surrounding nature. The accommodation was another difference, we had a beautiful room, fully equipped kitchen and beautiful views in the Elephant Resort Center. Meals were prepared for us, and we really felt pampered.
To get to TECC from Chiang Mai, we took a cab that cost us 900 Baht(less than thirty dollars) for the one hour ride. At the camp welcome center, a van transported us with our luggage to the office where we could meet Supat,the VIP program coordinator, who will accompany us for most of our activities at the camp. We were handed mahout suits(it took us a while to figure out how to put the pants on), and a paper with commands that we needed to learn to communicate with our elephants.
Supat then took us to the show grounds,where we were introduced to our elephants and mahouts that each of us will have for the rest of the stay(he also took our camera to take photos of us). It was nice to ride the same elephant, and get trained by the same mahout, it helped us develop a nice bond and friendship.Tantawan would be my (huge) elephant friend for the three days, and when I first looked at her, a little voice in my head was doubting that signing up for this was a smart idea. Tantawan is a large,older elephant,a mother of four I believe, and as I learned from riding her, loves to eat. She is very good at taking trees down, even while I am on her back, or head I should say(Elephants need to eat about ten percent of their body weight, and drink about sixty gallons of water a day). She is also a very sweet friend, with a beautiful personality, something I could only experience after spending couple days with her. I should mention that in these mahout training program, we get to ride the elephants like mahouts do, on their head/neck area, versus the box on their back like most other tourist places offer.
My mahout demonstrated one of the ways to get on an elephant, where Tantawan lowered her head to the ground, and he jumped on it and climbed to sit. (Oh No, this was harder than I anticipated).After a couple failed attempts, I got it, well barley, it requires a lot of strength and a really high jump to grab the head and climb.
So my mahout showed me the other way to get on the elephant. I would hold Tantawan ear with my right hand, her excess belly fat with my left. At this point, I was using voice commands for her to left her leg for me, and I step on her foot with leftt foot, then place my right foot on her knee and with her helping pushing me up, I climb at her back, and move towards her head/neck area for a less bouncy ride. Does it sound hard? Well the first couple times it was, but after practicing ,it got easier, although I would not call it easy as getting on a horse.
My mahout then had Tantawan lay down, and invited me to sit on her leg. Okay, I was a little scared, I am like an ant to this gigantic beast, and she could easily crush me. But I did it anyway. It was fun!
Of course, all the practicing of getting on and off the beast, learning commands to steer and stop her, and then feeding her(lots of bananas and sweet corn) was more than enough for me to work out a sweat, and I was so involved that I don't think I saw Bill until we were finally ready to take the elephants to the forest. And there Bill was on his equally gigantic beast, looking all sweaty and happy, as I suspected he had to go through the same drills I did.
I will write more about our experience in future posts.
Comments (9)
Wow Candi, that is just fascinating - and wonderful pictures. What a great place this is. I'm glad you found it instead of the exploitative touristy ones.
I'm really looking forward to reading more and seeing more photos!
Posted by Donna | July 9, 2009 3:10 PM
Posted on July 9, 2009 15:10
Hi Candi, what a great experience and I really liked how you found this beautiful elephant preserve for your wonderful experience. Your photos are fantastic. I had no idea that you had to climb onto your elephants the way that you did. And they seem so comfortable and gentle. And the last shot is a fantastic photo of you and your husband. I notice that they had you where uniforms of some sort. Btw, you both look adorable in them. I'm curious, is there some significance to that for the elephants benefit. I notice that even your manout had a similar clothing on.
Great post and photos! I'm looking forward to reading more about your 3-day experience here.
Thanks Candi!
Posted by Kathy (Trekcapri) | July 10, 2009 5:54 AM
Posted on July 10, 2009 05:54
What an incredible experience! They are among my favorite animals. Love your photos (you look so happy!).
Posted by Annie | July 10, 2009 7:09 AM
Posted on July 10, 2009 07:09
Donna,
Thanks for stopping by. I was very happy to have found this place too.We probably would not have ridden elephants otherwise.
Kathy,
Yes, I didn't realize either hat we had to climb on the elephant. I thought there would be a stand or something, because at other tourist places where you ride in the box on the elephant back, they have a stage where one just sits on the seat in the box, but our program was mahout training, so we did everything like a mahout would do.
The uniforms are mahout suits, I am not sure if they have specific significance other than the fact that they are so loose and comfortable, something we needed for climbing,riding and bathing the elephants.
Annie, they are among my favorite animals too! And we were very happy, I think the more time we spent with them, the happier we got.
Posted by candi | July 10, 2009 11:20 AM
Posted on July 10, 2009 11:20
Hi Candi, thanks so much for your additional comments on your experience and the manouts suits. Its all so interesting.
I had to look at your photos again and that photo with you sitting on Tantawan and touching her nose is so amazing to me. What a great experience that must have been. And I agree with Annie's comments, you both look like you are really enjoying yourselves.
Thanks again!
Posted by Kathy (Trekcapri) | July 11, 2009 5:05 AM
Posted on July 11, 2009 05:05
Amazing photos. Candi, have you read the book, Water for Elephants? The point about using voice commands made me think of the book. I really enjoyed it and if you haven't read it, I think you might too.
Posted by Kim | July 13, 2009 4:48 AM
Posted on July 13, 2009 04:48
Candi, what an incredible experience! I had no idea that you and Bill had the chance to ride elephants (and elephants are also one of my favourite animals/ mammals)
Your photos are fantastic, you and Bill must have been absolutely thrilled.
Bravo for doing your research beforehand, to find a humane centre where you could learn more about elephants as well as having the riding experience yet without exploiting them.
Have you read the novel The White Bone? (by Canadian author Barbara Gowdy?) It's told from the perspective of endangered elephants seeking a place of refuge. It's very interesting.
Posted by sandrac | July 13, 2009 1:57 PM
Posted on July 13, 2009 13:57
Kim,
That book has been on my list for a while now. Now that I have your personal recommendation, I think it just moved higher. Thanks.
Sandra,
Wow, another book recommendation. I don't think I've heard of this one before, but it sounds interesting.Thanks for recommending it, I will have to check it out.
Posted by candi | July 13, 2009 3:30 PM
Posted on July 13, 2009 15:30
I love the cute outfits! I never even gave it a thought as to how someone would climb up onto an elephant. It sounds incredibly difficult to me. Glad you got the hang of it. I might have needed a ladder!
Posted by girasoli | August 24, 2009 2:43 AM
Posted on August 24, 2009 02:43