Because they are fantastic! More on this a little later.
The flight to Chiang Mai was interesting. I sat beside an American transplant to Finland who had just spent 4 days in Siem Reap and not seen a temple or a ruin or even left the area around his hotel. I asked him why not? And he said, "Because I've never heard of them. Why go?"
Chiang Mai on arrival was what I had imagined it to be. Temples everywhere and in general much more intimate than Bangkok. I found a tiny spot for dinner where I orders khao soi, a curry dish that is from this region and strolled to get my bearings.
My hotel was out of rooms with AC when I checked in. I never thought I would be thankful for my summer in Orlando without air conditioning (yea that happened. We were in college and trying to live off of a Disney salary.) but time and time again it has prepared me to sleep in ridiculous heat. The firsr win of the day was that I woke up this morning still surrounded by my mosquito net. I decided to find some breakfast ASAP. Chiang Mai is different from the other cities in that barely anyone was out and about. After some searching I found a place serving breakfast and got the soup (nothing like a good breakfast soup), met several groups of Californians, and then headed back to the hotel to be picked up for my day with elephants.
When the guy arrived to pick me up he informed me we had to get out of town fasr because they were going to close the roads due to the princess's imminent arrival. She was visiting a temple and is apparently 60 years old and very well liked due to her excellent use of social media.
The elephant reserve was about an hour outside of Chiang Mai. There were four of us in the group (me + 3 Aussies). The trip started with the guide telling us, "Today we are all going to love each other." He included the elephants in this sentiment which was a great way to begin the day. Baan Chang rescues elephants and currently has 47 in residence. All of their elephants are 6th or 7th generation domestic elephants and cannot be released into the wild.
Upon our arrival we changed into the standard issue "kicking it with elephants apparel". We then had an orientation about the elephants. Some things I found interesting: They drink around 80 liters of water a day and pee 40. Their trunk can hold two liters of water. They only sleep 4 hours a day (kind of like me recently. I will sleep when I am done with fellowship turned into I will sleep on the plane turned into I will sleep in past 6 on every day this trip has turned back into I will sleep when I get to San Diego (It was finally time to set a realistic goal.)). Their skin except for their ears is 3 inches thick. Finally they have 250 muscles in their trunk.
After learning about the elephants. We met our elephants for the day: Mae Noi, a 35 year old 10 year resident female and Tong Tip, a 7 year old playful and "naughty" girl. As calm as Mae Noi was is as spazzy as Tong Tip was. We were introduced to Tong Tip as she was lying on the ground, trunk stretched out trying to steal food. We also met the elephants Mahouts. Mahouts are men who are raised with elephants. All of the mahouts at Baan Chang are from a hill tribe that was initially from Nepal, then China, & now Burma (Myanmar). The mahouts themselves call their country Burma. They each stay with their elephant 12 hours a day at least and know the elephants better than anyone else. When they spoke to either elephant, it was very apparent that the elephant respected them and were paying attention.
After meeting them we went and were introduced to the 1 year old and the two 3 year olds. Currently They are so rambunctious, they are not ready to hang out with people without accidentally hurting them.
This was followed by a visit to the first aid area. Interesting medical info: To draw blood on elephants they use 18 gauge needles (I wonder if Jen, OR IV queen, could get a good stick on an elephant?). They also have spray bottles of biofreeze to make the elephants aching muscles feel better. They had two elephants in first aid both with feet issues.
Next up we got to wash our elephants. Followed by a walk where they got spooked by something so we came back out of the woods a little sooner than expected. We then made their vitamin supplements for the day and hid it in sticky rice, chopped sugar can and got bananas ready for our trek up the mountain. We bathed our elephants again and then had some lunch. After lunch we fed them the supplement which was made of tamarind, banana, rice, some type of tree branch, and a green thing that looked like a ramp. If anyone wants to be my business partner, I think this could be the next major health trend. Forget turmeric America. It's all about elephant sticky rice balls.
Finally we took our elephants on a mountain hike. Walking an elephant is much like walking a very large puppy who wants to do its own thing and has the power to rip down whole trees unexpectedly. When they stopped we had to say "Ma! Ma! Ma!" (Come! Come! Come!) and pull (good luck with that). When we wanted them to quit a behavior we were supposed to yell "Hao! Hao!" (stop). Really their mahout just had to look at them sternly and they suddenly remembered to behave. I walked Mae Noi most of the way feeding her sugar cane and bananas out of my bag, which is likely the only reason she followed me.
After the mountain trek we all got in a big pool and played. The elephants like being washed and spraying. We then said goodbye and took showers.
Upon returning to Chiang Mai I went to a restaurant called Cooking Love and had Mango Chicken Curry. So many things to eat. So little time.
The view from my roof
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