Bathing with the Elephants

I thought, being in a nice hotel, I would have slept like a baby last night but the air-con kept coming on and off at intervals which meant I kept hearing the start-up motor which kept disturbing me, so when the alarm went off this morning, all I wanted to do was go back to sleep.

We got down to breakfast and I had an egg sandwich with chips which tasted absolutely disgusting as apparently, they prepared it at 7.00, so it was stone cold, but I still ate it as I was hungry. We then got in this truck to drive us the 90 minutes to the elephant village. When we got closer, we could see elephants just being walked around the streets and in peoples back gardens. In this village, the elephants are treated as one of the family; they bathe them, spend most of their day with them and take them for walks. The elephants seem to adore the mahouts (their trainers) as even when they aren’t tied up, they just follow them.

When we got to our home stay, I was in a room of 4 along with Claire, Lucy and Hope. The beds were just a mat on the floor, there is a duvet but I cannot see me using it; there are two fans in the room as well but the heat in this part of Thailand is so much that they do not do anything and I am dreading trying to sleep tonight. The accommodation was very clean though despite being very outdated, by this I mean the toilet does not have a flush and there are no showers, everyone is going to stink by the time we get back to our hotel in Surin in 3 nights.

The first activity we would be doing today is getting in the back of a pick-up truck and driving round to a crop field to cut down the sugar cane plants which we could later feed to the elephants. The sugar cane plants were very easy to cut down using a machete, then we had to peel the brown leaves off before carrying them to the truck. Once we got back to the elephant village, we were able to feed the sugar plants to them; they were so gentle taking it from our hands with their trunks and the baby elephant was so clumsy taking it though and just kept trying to steal his mums instead. This led us to lunchtime which was cooked for us and was a Thai green curry with rice and it tasted incredible, if I was not so full, I would have gone up for seconds. We had a bit of free time before our afternoon activity so we all just tried to drink as much water as possible and stay in the shade, although I am sure this didn’t help as we were still all so sweaty. I should have brought

more clothes with me for these few days.

After lunch, we were going to walk down to the river with the elephants; there were 10 of them in total. They all just followed the path knowing their way to the river, next to them I felt so small, they must have been around 12 feet tall I guess. They were very curious creatures that liked to touch you with their trunks and the baby, we were able to feed bananas to as we walked. Although walking next to these gentle giants was incredible, I was slightly worried about my feet getting crushed as they were easily less than a metre away from me. The walk took around 20 minutes across some fields and I was surprised how the elephants could walk on such small paths. When we got to the river, the elephants ran into the water with glee with their mahouts close behind them; as the elephants got in the river, they started blowing the water over each other and themselves. The mahouts said to us we could come and join them in the water, so we stripped down to our bikinis and made our way to the waters edge. As we got closer, we realised the edge of the water was covered in elephant poo and everyone cringed but we knew that the chance to wash the elephants would make it worth it. As we walked into the water, you could feel the ground squelching beneath your feet and the poo going between your toes; it was so difficult to convince myself it would be worth it, but it certainly was. The elephants laid in the water, rolling over and squirting water over all of us; we were given some brushes so we could brush the elephants skin', their skin felt so rough and was also kind of hairy beneath my fingers. One of the best parts about the river though was seeing the baby elephant keep running away from his mahout and playing with the other elephants and us, the elephants are just big puppies. The water felt so refreshing to be in though despite the dirtiness of it as in this heat, I think you just appreciate any mode to cool you down; the strange thing was that even though the water was so dirty, it was the cleanest I had felt all day as it managed to get the sweat off me. We must have stayed for around 45 minutes in the water with the elephants before we began our walk back to the camp. When we got back, we had enough time to just basically have a brief foot wash before we all hopped in the back of the pick-up truck to go to a local market. The market was very big and varied with lots of food – both cooked and uncooked – toiletries, clothes and appliances. I got myself some more elephant trousers which have a slit in them down the side, so in a way they are like a maxi skirt. We also tried some odd Thai pancake things that were made with coconut and are hard to describe but I enjoyed it either way, although I seemed to be the only one that did. The ride back was so much bumpier as for some reason, there seemed to be less room in the truck which meant we were perched on the side; I will be surprised if I don’t end up with a bruise on my bum. When we got back, it was time for dinner which was a different type of curry with stir fried veg and once again, I felt so full by the time I had finished as I just could not get enough of it. My only complaint is that the rice was sticky, but I guess I have been spoiled in the past with Richard’s fluffy rice that he does so well. After dinner, it was finally time for a wash and I have never been so excited in my life, although when I got there, it was basically a bucket of water that you had to tip over yourself. It was freezing but after the heat from the day, it felt refreshing and I didn’t want to stop. Another reason I did not want to get out of the shower as I have been eaten alive today despite wearing bug spray - I have 3 on my right arm, 5 on my left, 2 on my hand, 1 on my eyelid and 2 on my back; I am so done with being bitten, I am sure by the end of these 4 weeks I will look like I have chicken pox from the number of bites I have got. We are going to spend the rest of the evening outside (potentially being bitten even more) with some music and the rest of the group.

Tomorrow we will be doing a few fun activities such as making paper out of elephant poo, visiting an elephant graveyard and then some water activities in the afternoon which will be so refreshing. This trip is a never-ending experience of new things.