Elephants

We went to see the elephants yesterday. Northern Thailand is famous for its elephants, and there are a number of sanctuaries (and "sanctuaries"). I think we may have gone to the latter. The jury is still out, and our feelings are mixed.

The place is called Ruammit village, and we mainly went because it's so close. It was a five minute bike ride down the road to the pier. Well maybe not THE pier, but A pier. It was basically a dude's house with a few boats on the river. He knew exactly what we wanted though, and his price matched what the Internet had said. Off we went, after we ogled the tiny puppy and kitten in the yard, and his (wife? mother?) chatted to us in Thai and gave the girls big hunks of pumpkin from her lunch bowl.

The boat ride was loud (careful of your volume at the 10 second mark!) but just gorgeous. Lush and green and beautiful, and we waved at all the women fishing on the banks. I texted Nick "THIS DOESN'T SUCK!" Below is a video clip of the day, basically.

It doesn't show the ride back, where Sophie wailed at the rain and howled at wanting a snack because she hadn't eaten enough at lunch. (Lunch, by the way, was at a local shack where the four of us ate delicious slow-cooked pork and greens over rice with bottled water for three bucks. Total.) It also doesn't include when our boat hit something in the water and temporarily broke the engine, so we had to pull over while the dude waded into the water and fixed the engine in the rain.

But it is basically the day.

I spent a lot of time debating whether to post about it, knowing that I'm friends with many animal activists. You can decide for yourself, but I will at least plead our case in our decision to visit this camp.

I did a lot of reading online that basically said that: you have to make that decision for yourself. Some people thought the elephants were treated badly, some thought it was no different than having dogs on leashes. Yes, they were chained up, but I studied their ankles closely and didn't see any sign of wear and tear on their skin. The elephants were all friendly and didn't seem agitated. The one story that sealed the deal for me was this: elephants there were once used in the logging industry, which was banned 25 years ago. The village needed some kind of income, and the elephants had already been trained and sort of domesticated. Going there helps keep the village going, and keeps the elephants fed and cared for, because their care would be the first thing to go if they had no source of income. The rides are short, it gives them exercise, and the elephants are allowed to snack along the way. I didn't see any mistreatment, the saddles were well padded on their backs, and the elephants seemed clean, happy and friendly.

That said, I don't think I would go back. I didn't like seeing them all tethered like that, even though they are huge and (ultimately) unpredictable animals. There is a place in Chiang Mai, three hours down the road, that is a bona fide sanctuary. They don't do rides, which I'm fine with-- the ride was surprisingly rough and uncomfortable. I had much more fun down on the ground petting and feeding them, which is what people do at the Chiang Mai place-- hang out with them and help bathe and feed them. We will probably do that over Christmas, if not sooner. It's just a little pricey.

So there's our elephant story. Their skin felt nice, like old, rough magic. They smelled good, that clean damp manure-y smell. Some of them had really long eyelashes. I hate to use the word amazing, but the experience really was just that.