Playday with the Elephants

In case you are wondering, we did make the trip outside the Old City. A tuk-tuk took us to the mall and a red, shared taxi brought us back! The mall would rival any mall I’ve seen anywhere in the world and, sadly, the prices were in line with US prices. Apparently American Eagle is not in vogue in Thai so the best deals were there. George purchased a few items necessary for immediate use! We found it interesting that there were Christmas decorations throughout the mall and the city itself although only 1% of Thais are Christians. Upon inquiry, we found many Buddhists do celebrate Christmas and view Jesus as one whose teaching compliments the teachings of Buddha, Interesting concept. We returned to the Old City for another great meal of soup and pineapple stir fry! We called it an early night, both trying to beat these nagging coughs and colds that we can’t shake even with all the meds from the Thai pharmacy.

We awoke to a nice hotel breakfast before the HAPPY ELEPHANT van picked us up for a play day with the elephants! What a day! Sandy, our guide for the day, made sure we had an amazing experience. The ride to the countryside was great to see. Tropical flowers, teak, mango trees, and bananas dotted the mountainous countryside. We spent the day up-close and personal to four Asian elephants. There were only 4 in a group so we each had our own! Dolo, the oldest, met us upon arrival. Later, three younger elephants, one only a 3 year old boy, met us! They’ll do anything for food so that’s what we did! We fed the elephants. First, though, we dressed in traditional Karen clothing, clothing worn by the indigenous people in the area. We cut our own sugar cane and went to work. Much like a tamed horse, the elephants would nudge and push, asking for the food. They were not threatening in any way. All were rescued from ‘ride farms’ popular over the past few decades. Elephants were overworked and abused at many of these tourist attractions and there is a push in Thailand now to provide humane care for the elephants. These elephants had scars on their backs from wearing the seats too long, one was blind in one eye from a hook, and another had holes in its ears where the hooks were placed to control her. Their only job now is to follow tourist around as they are being fed sugar cane. Only the little one got out of line a few times. Acting like a three year old, he would steal food from our bags. He pushed me once, as he was running by, not realizing his size causing me to lose my hat and almost lose my balance. We even got to swim in the river with the elephants! They love the water! The baby would go under and hold his breath for a long time. The older ones would spray water on the tourists.(Our camera battery died so we have no pictures here of the swim.) As an aside, you can buy a healthy adult elephant for $60,000US! By the way, these elephants have never been fed a single peanut and the workers say they only know about peanuts from the tourists that visit them.

We got to participate in making our own lunch, too. Sandy showed us how to gather the ingredients to make some pretty tasty soup consisting of egg noodles, chicken stock, meat of choice, bean sprouts, cabbage, chiles, onions, ginger and more. I’m getting better with chop sticks!

And…….drum roll, please……… George’s bag, missing in action for 72 hours, arrived at our hotel! We had already given up as the latest phone call revealed that it was being held in customs in Shanghai. All is well that ends well!

Dinner was at a fancier than usual restaurant, BAAN Landai Fine Thai cuisine. We shared 3 dishes: spicy mushrooms, coconut chicken soup and a fancy salmon dish that was seasoned just right. Even there, our meal was only $24. Yum! We are loving Thai food!