Giddey up you farang-tourists – we’re going for an elephant ride!!

November 3rd, 2001 at 12:00am

Second and final morning on the jungle trek. It’s 7am again and again have awoken from the incessant cackling of the many, many roosters in the village.

Yesterday was a great day though! We left our camp at 9am and hiked for 3.5 hours. The forest was really beautiful and it was actually not really that hot. In fact the Thai guides have been complaining that it’s been cold since “winter” began. Hard to believe that anyone would associate the word “winter” with this heat!

After the 3.5 hours we arrived at the small elephant camp in the middle of the jungle. When we started to see elephant footprints on the trail I knew we were getting close!! The “camp” consisted of a thatched shelter and a picnic eating area. Our guides prepared a lunch of noodles and vegetables and the elephant jockeys went out in the bush to round up the elephants. We heard the elephants coming with their beautiful bamboo bells making this really cool sound in the distance. There were 3 for us to ride, allowing 2 people to ride on each elephant. The bushmen washed the elephants with water from the stream then brought them up to the launch pad where they strapped blankets and then a seat for us to sit in. The “launch pad” was this ramp made out of a few precarious sticks that we had to climb before stepping onto the elephant’s head and walking onto the seat. It was a very strange feeling to actually STEP on an elephant’s HEAD!!! I have of course seen elephants before but believe me they are SO much bigger when you are actually climbing on top of one!!

Rebecca and I got on our elephant and the jockey guy sat on the elephant’s head with his legs behind the elephant’s ears and off we rode into the jungle. Soon after our jockey rolled a big fatty with a banana leaf and started toking away as we rode. Great for him but a little scary for us!

So the 3 elephants and 6 riders rode through the jungle for about 1.5 hours, and then we dismounted them and continued hiking towards the next camp with our guides. The elephants were taken back to their camp. It was an awesome experience! We watched the elephant behind us (with David and Lucy) eat the ENTIRE time – he kept ripping big plants out with his trunk and whacking them back and forth and back and forth and then shoving them in his mouth and eating the roots. Then the elephant in front of us (with Claire and Katherine) let one rip and we were discussing whether or not it actually farted when it stopped and took a dump and we just laughed!!

So yeah, another 2 hours of hiking, including a somewhat sketchy shortcut where we crossed a waterfall, scaled rocks and literally bushwhacked, and we arrived at the Hill Tribe village for night #2.

A couple of beers, some card playing, and an audience of villagers was the program for the evening…

Elephant’s shower

Nice elephant…

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Giddey up you farang-tourists – we’re going for a ride!!

Entry Filed under: North,Thailand