What an adventure

Ever since we arrived in Thailand, Arran has been asking when he could ride an elephant and we decided that today would be the day. The friends we are visiting here have very kindly let us use their car when they have not needed it, which has made a huge difference for us. As we were looking at the map to try to decide where to go, the decision was made to go to a non-touristy elephant camp, because after all, we were not going on an organized tour and could go wherever we wanted. So off we set for Mae Wang Elephant camp, we drove and drove and drove. The roads did not seem to match the map too well and James stopped on a number of occasions to double-check that we were still on the right track. Amazingly we only needed to turn around once!

We finally arrived...in the middle of nowhere. I am serious. We drove all the way down a mud track to find a couple of shacks and the river with some elephants doing their thing. A little man ran up to us, with his own hand rolled leaf (as in a green leaf from a tree) smoke of some sort, looking slightly glazy eyed.

This obviously was not a big tourist destination, which normally would not be a big deal, had it just been James and I, but to be there with our three precious little ones, did not feel quite so comfortable. Anyway, I decided to trust my husband as he made all of the arrangements. We were quoted 800B to ride two elephants between us. I later, when we got back home, found out that James had also felt rather uneasy with this guy, and had taken all of his cash out of his pocket and put it in the boot of the car,

"Just in case our rider decided to rob us half way"!!!!!

Yes I am glad I did not find this out at the time as it was hard enough for me to fully relax.

As our guide was busy preparing the first elephant, James decided to ask for us all to ride one elephant instead of two, but he offered to still pay the original price. So we clambered aboard and started our trek, straight down, down into the river. I was holding on for dear life, with one hand I was clutching Bryttain in my lap, and in the other my precious Nikon D80. I suddenly had a paralyzing fear as I pictured in my head, our elephant deciding to take a swim. I held on for dear life and literally started praying out loud! "Jesus please protect us!" I was deathly serious, not one to pray much aloud or in public, at times of great need, I know where to turn to first :)

Our guide actually turned out to be a nice guy and between his basic English and James' Thai we found out quite a bit about him. He has a ten year old son, but his wife died in the Tsunami so his parents look after his son, so he can work. He loved the kids and was concerned, especially about Asia being hot, with her fat rosy cheeks and intermittent crying. Every now and again, our guide would wack his poor elephant with his very mean looking stick with a spike on the end and as we gasped each time he would laugh and say

"It no hurt! Elephant like Thai massage"

then he would prod and poke the poor elephant as if to prove to us the truth in his statement. The elephant never flinched actually, but it did seem harsh to us. Of course, as he reminded us, elephants have very thick skin.

A baby elephant had been born just twenty-eight days prior, so the two older kids got to go see that too, which was very cute, although it did involve James having to wade across the river with them both. And the one other down side was the fact that the air is so polluted here right now and everything everywhere is totally hazy.

Taking photos was almost impossible as it was a one-handed job, I could not risk loosing my hold on Bryttain for one moment as there was no bar or reinforcement in front of us at all and we were tipping slightly from side to side with each lumbering step. They DID do one touristy thing for us, which I actually did appreciate and that was to take a photo of us all on the big girl, which I will post at a later date, as I of course do not have a scanner with me.

These really are such magnificent creatures and it is such a privilege to see them so close and personal and outside of a sad zoo setting. We talked with the kids several times today about how fortunate they are to be doing these things. How many kids by the time they are five or three can say that they have lived in the United States, visited England, Mexico and Thailand and have ridden an elephant?