Elephant Camp February 5

We are off to elephant camp where we will learn to ride and command an elephant. We were picked up at our hotel by our guide and drove about one  and a half hours into the mountains where the elephant camp was located. There was a couple from Holland who would be riding with us.

Dante Tour. Our guide's grandfather logged the area around the camp and when logging with elephants ended he needed to find a new way to earn a living so he started giving elephant rides. Our tour guide, his grandson, started working with him and has developed it into a successful business.

Denny (from Holland) and our guide carrying a basket of bananas over to the elephants. We fed the elephants bananas so they would get to know us.

Getting instructions on where you can hold on to an elephant. Ears were a good place.

Charlie feeding the elephant bananas.

The baby nursing from its' mother. In five years the baby will begin giving rides to tourists.

We learned how to get on and off the elephant, where to place our butts and legs, and how to hold on once the elephant stood up.  We learned to give voice commands to the elephants.

Charlie taking a practice ride. Check out our elephant riding clothes!

There was always somethere to help when the elephant decided to do something besides what I was trying to command him to do. We learned the elephant words for stop, go, back, turn left or right. You had to yell the words really loud so the elephant knew you were in control.  Ha! Ha!

I might join the circus and become an elephant rider!!

The baby was free to play with the other elephants and the humans.

The baby was trying to lay on the trainer.

After our elephant instruction class we had lunch.

Tofu and vegetables with rice curry and pineapple. This was one of the best meals we have had in Thailand. Lots of vegetables.

We were not able to start our elephant ride after lunch because there was a funeral going on in the field below us. Fire crackers are shot off during the funeral service and the elephants don't like the noise and can react violently. Therefore, we could not be riding the elephants when this happened.

We walked over to the funeral area. The 14 year old girl, who had died, had been performing in a school show using fire sticks. Some of the lighting fluid has spilled on her and when the sticks were ignited her clothing caught on fire.  The school band played music and most of the people in town were there.

The monks said prayers for the girl.

The casket and ornate covering were set on a cement pyre where the body was cremated.  Fire crackers that gave off white smoke were shot into the air and the final fire cracker traveled down a wire and ignited the funeral pyre. After this everyone left and we went back to the elephants.

Back at the elephant camp we had to put our cameras away and take off our shoes so we could start our elephant ride. We rode the elephants through the jungle and then down to the river. We rode them into the river to give them a bath. We were in the river with the elephants, scrubbing their backs with a brush and splashing them with water. Our guide took pictures and at the end of the day gave us a cd with all the pictures he had take of us riding on the elephants. 

While we were waiting to go back to town the baby elephant came into the restaurant looking for bananas to eat.

Our guide drove us back to town. He works seven days a week doing tours and has six elephants. It was a really great experience and the elephants seemed to be treated with respect and well taken care of and looked healthy.