pachyderms in chiang mai

We'd planned to go to see an elephant camp on Mum's birthday, but unfortunately we were too busy with our exciting hospital tour to do so. Instead, Mum had to make do with a bag 'o pills and dinner at Le Coq D'Or (yes, the gold cock!), Chiang Mai's fanciest restaurant. The restaurant was so great that they even had their own pick-up service. We were whisked away by a uniformed driver in the gold cock van. What could be better than that?

The next day we headed out to the elephant farm with the guesthouse driver. 'Hm, how was the guesthouse?' I can hear you asking already. Well, the guesthouse was a top-notch guesthouse. Nice, friendly staff; clean bathrooms; air-con; a huge balcony. Buuuut due to the major health break-downs - and also since we had slept really, really badly the night before due to Ji's screaming and a very serious lack of pillows - Phet and I made an executive decision after going to the Chiang Mai Ram hospital. "Enough," we said, "Of guesthouses! Let us move to a 5 star hotel! It is our dear Mother's birthday and our son is in egregious pain! Quick, get out the gold Visa card!"

And thus it came to pass that the Sayo / Niedzwiecki / Dwyer party uprooted itself from the very pleasant Galare guesthouse and ended up at the Sheraton Hotel. After horfing down a massive buffet lunch I took Ji up to convalesce in our room. Ahh, what a treat when we stepped in! Little wee toiletries boxes. Fresh, vacuum-packed slippers. Robes. Satellite TV. A plethora of pillows. Lush sheets. A kettle. Free fruit. How delightful! Ji and I kicked back and watched Animal Planet and then napped.

Oh, yes, but back to the elephant trekking. So....we'd booked a trip to the elephant camp with the guesthouse, and after we moved to the Sherton they were still happy to pick us up and take us to the Mae Sa elephant camp. The tour turned out to be pretty great. The camp, while touristy of course, is really calm and quiet. There are no carnival barkers announcing what the elephants' next trick will be and the gift shops were pretty decent. Here are Ji and his Gramma dancing down the pathway to see the elephants:

Ah, so sweet. The first part of the tour was to watch the elephants taking their daily bath in the river rapids. The mahouts scrubbed like crazy and the elephants alternately lounged, swam, and sucked bananas out of the hands of visitors. Here's Ji, beset by three beasts clamouring for JUST ONE MORE BUNCH OF THOSE DAMNED DELICIOUS BANANAS:

After the feeding and washing frenzy, we went and watched the elephant show. It was nicely put together. No music, no announcer, just a big dirt ring and some cool elephant tricks. The elephants showed how they could lift logs, play soccer, and paint. The painting was pretty neat to watch. Using a paintbrush held in their trunks, the elephants were able to paint pictures of flowers - though the elephant in front of our section was apparently still in his abstract expressionist phase. Blob, blob, blob. We ate some tasty noodles after the show, and then went for our half-hour elephant trek.

I'd been on an elephant before in Laos and I knew the ride would be ka-plonky ka-plonky, but that had been on flat ground. Little did I know that on this trip we'd be going up a mountainous hillside with metre-deep mud "paths" for the elephants. Yeah, good ol' monsoon season. Ji and I somehow managed to get on the tallest elephant of them all. I kid you not, we were, like, 20 feet in the air. Our seat was comfy enough, but VERY easy to fall out of. As we started climbing up the mountain and teetering and tottering through the mud, I clutched Ji and my knapsack so that neither would fall out and become part of a disastrous mud-mush. I was really quite scared. See for yourself what the hike was like:

Not only did we get the tallest elephant, we also got the poopingest elephant. Phet and Mum, who were behind us, had a great time watching my elephant try to poop. It'd squeeze the poop out a few inches, and then the rope tied around its tail would force the poop back in. Then, it'd try a little harder, the poop would come out juuuust a little further, but then get mooshed back in. Finally our elephant stood stock still, let out an enormous pee, and squeezed the giant poop out, and then carried on. Ah, relief! You can see the poop under the tail:

Emma and Cathie had a white-knuckle experience as well, but felt fine post-hike:

Then, the highlight of the trip: seeing a WEEK OLD elephant. It was just too adorable. It was standing up, but kept snoozing off, and then swayed from side to side almost about to keel over. So cute!

Lastly but not leastly, for your anatomical edification and edumacation, check out this photo that was taken during the elephants bathing time:

[On The Road-13-October-2005]