Elephant Evangelism

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What does an elephant eat? 200 kilos of food a day.  This is why our tour group with Eddy's Elephant Preserve stops by a banana market. We each buy a 50 baht ($1.70) 10 kilo bag of bananas for the day.  Our van group is Lea and Deanna, USA Fullbright teachers working in Korea, Joyce and Jespar from Amsterdam, and us.  It is a super group and we get acquainted on the hour long drive to the countryside to meet the elephants.

Eddy runs this tour business with an emphasis on humane treatment of the elephants.  He only owns one elephant, Susie, who is 24 years old. He bought Susie several years ago for $60,000.  The other elephants we will meet belong to other men in the area, so there seems to be a co-op type arrangement.  Elephants are extremely important to Thai culture and they are revered and beloved.

We are given clothes to change into because we are going to get dirty and wet today.  We will soon find out how it is to be slimed by an elephant.  In the meantime, we review the schedule for the day.

Soon Eddy has us learning elephant commands, which must be grunted with force to earn their respect.  We are a wimpy group when it comes to shouting, "Whuh, Whuh!", but we get better with practice.  Eddy urges us to take notes.  These won't survive wet bananas long.

We have no banana porters.  

We meet Susie who loves bananas.  However, her friend Jenny distains them in favor of sugar cane.  She tosses the bananas on the ground as soon as they are handed to her.

Lea tries to get Susie to pick up bananas from her neck.  

We all take a turn climbing up on the elephants that we will ride bareback.  The key is to sit high on her neck with your knees squeezed behind her ears.  In theory, you are supposed to lean and squeeze like on horseback.  Susie scoffs at me.  I, meanwhile, am thinking how much it is going to hurt if I fall off.

We meet Baby, a six year old elephant.  She is not yet well trained,so she does whatever she wants while her mom hovers around her and we try not to get stepped on.

My natural fear of heights and being crushed underfoot by huge creatures is not helped when Eddy tells us about musth, or elephant madness.  Male elephants, and occasionally females, go through a month-long period of extreme hormonal stress about once a year.  During this time they secrete a

sticky liquid that runs down each side of their face from adrenal holes.  This is a period of temporary rage, and elephants who are normally docile and friendly can become violent and dangerous.  There will only be one male in our group and he is fine at the moment.  

Now, that he has alarmed at least me, Eddy also tells us that Thai people take abuse of elephants very seriously.  He tells a story of a kid who was captured in a You Tube video beating an elephant.  The whole country was so outraged he had to apologize publicly.

After lunch we all mount our elephants in pairs.  I am on the front and Ben is spread eagle on the back, trying hopelessly to fold his legs back as Eddy instructs.  His legs just won't bend.  This adds to my worry since Eddy has told us the elephants hate legs hanging over their middles.

We head off for our 20 minute ride, that feels twice as long.  Every time we go downhill, I clutch Susie desperately with my legs and shout "Hoo hoo!" For all the good it does.  I bail off before we get to the river.  I am done with elephant riding for life.  However, most everyone else makes it to the river, where the fun begins.  

The elephants roll and splash about with humans tickling them with scrub brushes

Joyce shows Susie some big love.

Everyone gets a turn for an elephant cold shower.

The whole group is soaked and giddy.

The elephants and their handlers line up to see us off.  The elephants seem happy with this end of their work day.  They have to get back to eating, their main occupation.