An Elephant-Sized Adventure

Prior to last week, my elephant-riding experience was limited to sitting atop a pachyderm at the renaissance fair in Colorado while someone led it around in a couple of circles. Thanks to a visit to the Baanchang Elephant Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand, I can now say that I have ridden multiple elephants as well as bathed them and fed them. Yes, I have had a close encounter of the Dumbo kind.

Visitors to Thailand often have reservations about going to elephant parks due to inhumane treatment of the gentle giants. For example, some feel hesitant about riding them at all and some don't like the fact that parks often use chains on the elephants' feet. I admit I found it a bit jarring that the elephants were chained up despite reassurances that they got plenty of exercise multiple times a day and were all rescued from prior lives of logging and other poor treatment.

The park had over 45 elephants which we were able to feed mass amounts of banana and sugarcane. The hunger of the giant beasts never seemed satiated, their greedy trunks constantly reaching out to us as if magnetized, asking for more goodies. Their power as they ate became quickly apparent- their teeth crunched a bunch of bananas like it were a tiny marshmallow, swallowing it in one gulp. After feeding them, we learned how to ride them and each had a go taking them around a couple of trees with their trainers, called mahouts, nearby. I was grateful for the presence of the mahout especially when I forgot the commands for "go," "stop," "turn," and "lie down." I was surprised at the similarities of riding a horse and an elephant.

One massive difference, of course, was the size. The moment I mounted the elephant and sat in the area just behind its ears, I realized the ease with which it could buck me off if irritated, making it clear that I was at its mercy entirely. This made me a bit nervous as we didn't need to sign any sort of waiver.

After riding around on the elephants for about an hour, we dismounted with nice and sore legs and gave the pachyderms a bit of a wash. I was a bit skeptical about getting into a cold pond filled with elephant dung, but decided it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. At the end of the day, we ate some pad thai, said goodbye to our new friends and parted ways.

Orange Juice!

I was excited about the prospect of a little third world fun, which I hoped would be similar to my time in India. I enjoyed the politeness of the Japanese people, the cleanliness of their country and the similarities to America, but it was time for a change. Thailand provided just that. For starters, walking down a Thai street is completely overwhelming for your olfactory glands. The odors and aromas you smell literally change by the second and range from a delicious curry being cooked from scratch by a street vendor to the most heinous scent of excrement you can possibly imagine.

As I write this, I am sitting on a train bound for the Northern city of Chiang Mai. The train isn’t terrible- it is far preferable to the bus I took in India, but the bounciness and sudden stops most likely indicate a long night with little to no sleep. I’m getting too old for this….

However, there is one woman on this train who may singlehandedly have made this trip infinitely better just with her fantastic attitude. She is this large, boisterous Thai woman whom I can only hope to try and accurately describe. Throughout the train trip, she has been bumbling up and down the hallways asking if we want orange juice or other goodies. "Orange juice! You want some orange juice!" She clearly loves her job, or at least does a really good acting job that she does. When she took our dinner orders she came and sat beside us and struck up a friendly conversation. Wonderful woman.

The sad thing is that the little cots on these trains are far, far more comfortable than the bed I had in my Japanese apartment and the mattress on which I slept in the Thai hostel. There is a little curtain that wraps around each bed allowing for privacy, and an attendant made up our beds and provided each of us with a blanket. Considering each ticket cost less than 30 bucks that is quite a deal. 

My cozy train cot

My delicious train coffee

After the train ride up to Chiang Mai and its surprising degree of comfort, I was ready to enthusiastically recommend it to anyone taking a trip to Thailand. However, the ride back was...a struggle to put it mildly. I would say definitely go to Chiang Mai. There is no question. The moment you arrive you realize what a tranquil escape it is from the bustling sensory overload that is Bangkok. Chiang Mai is much more calm, cheap, and full of nature. 

However... do NOT do what we did, which was take two overnight trains in three days. I would say fly one way, if possible. The train back was a different model and not nearly as comfortable. The way back featured "charming" fluorescent lights blaring the entire 14-hour journey. Not ideal.