Elephant Haven

There are lots of places in Thailand that offer the experience of spending time with and helping to care for elephants.  Some of the best are in the Chiang Mai area, and Judy REALLY wanted to do that while she was here this trip.  Unfortunately, by the time I checked, all the good ones were booked for our time in Chiang Mai.  A good one is one where you know they care more about the elephants than the tourists.  A good indication is whether or not they offer elephant rides.  The rides with the seats on the elephant's back is really bad for it.  There's one in Chiang Mai that the school uses for field trips, and when I looked at their website, I saw that they have a new one closer to us in Kanchanaburi, about a 2.5 hour drive away.  I booked it.

Judy was thrilled, but in order to get to the elephants early in the morning, we had to leave the house at 5:30am.  I hired a van, and we were all going to go, but mom and Jeff got sick, so it ended up being just me, Judy, my dad, and Vivian.  In a way though, it worked out really well, since we all had plenty of space to spread out in the van and go to sleep.  I had put Viv to sleep the night before in her outfit for the day, so it was really easy to transfer her from her bed to the van.

I tried to stay awake for a while on the drive down there.  It was dark when we left the house, but the sun came up as we were driving along.  We were out of the city proper by that point, and there was mist over the fields.  It was absolutely beautiful, but my eyelids were too heavy to keep open, and eventually I fell asleep.

We were meeting a van from Elephant Haven at the Kanchanaburi bus stop, so we got off of our first van and took a quick (and authentically Thai) bathroom break before getting on the next one.  I love that Vivian is completely unfazed at this point by switching out her shoes for "bathroom shoes", bringing our own toilet paper, squatting over a hole in the ground, and "flushing" the toilet using a bucket of water.

After our bathroom adventure, we got into the van, and it was a quick ride into the forest and Elephant Haven.  We pulled up, and there were elephants, hanging out and being fed by another group that had arrived a bit earlier.  We got assigned a guide who offered us tea and coffee, and then he took us over to some tables with buckets.  Inside the buckets was a big pile of sticky rice.  We each got several small bananas to peel and add in.  Then he gave us bunches of fresh tamarind (VERY sticky, but supposedly helps the elephants' digestion) and we were supposed to mash all of it together and then make it into balls to feed the elephants.  By the time I realized what a great photo op this was, my hands were completely covered in sticky mush, so, no pictures.  You can just imagine everyone's facial expressions as we mashed it all up with our hands.

The first group left with those elephants, and a new group of elephants came over for us to take care of.  We all fed them our hand made yum balls, which disappeared really quickly.  Then the elephant minders brought big buckets of cut up pumpkin and watermelon for us to feed the elephants.  I finally got my hands clean and started taking some pictures.

To be totally honest, I hadn't been super excited about a day with elephants.  I figured they would be smelly and too big to be cute, but it just took one bucket of yum balls for me to fall completely in love.  The elephants at Elephant Haven are all female.  They were big, but not intimidatingly so, and they didn't smell at all.  When you held out your hand with food, they would take it gently from you with their trunks, which almost felt the same as a hand.  We could have fed them all day.

I think the feeding was to establish that we were cool, because after that the guides took us and the elephants into the jungle for a walk.  We had one main guide who spoke English, and he was in charge of explaining things to our group.  Everyone in our group spoke English, but I think we were the only Americans.  There was a large group from Canada and a young man from Germany.  There were also a bunch of elephant minders with us.  Our guide explained that each elephant had one person who was in charge of taking care of her, and the same person and elephant were together every day.  You could tell that all the people who worked there really loved the elephants.

The walk part was fun.  We were getting used to the elephants, and they were getting used to us.  

It was pretty warm by then, and the elephants were thirsty, so we all walked down to the river, so that they could get a drink.

We did some more walking through the forest, so that the elephants could eat some greenery.  By this point, Vivian had become very attached to one of the elephants and decided to name her Ellie, even though she already had a Thai name.  It turned out that Ellie was a bit of a loaner, so she tended to lag behind the other elephants.  Vivian decided to lag along with her.

While they were hanging out, waiting for the elephant, the minder showed Vivian how to use a vine as a swing.

Vivian was the only child in our group, and, in typical Thai fashion, all the people there gave her lots of attention.  There was one older guide, who didn't speak much English, but he kept telling Vivian, "no danger, no danger" and pointing at the elephants.  He even photobombed her picture once she got comfortable being close to the elephants.

Another one of the elephant minders made Vivi an elephant princess crown out of banana tree leaves and flowers.  He presented it to her when we stopped for a rest on a shaded platform.

We sat up there and watched the elephants wander around the field.  It wasn't long before Vivian left her crown behind and went to wander with them.  The grass was pretty tall though, so you can only see the top of her hat peeking out to the left of the elephant.

Judy and Dad decided to borrow the crown and pose for pictures with the elephants.

By that point we had worked up an appetite for lunch, so we headed back to the main area.  They had tables and benches under a thatch roof equipped with fans, so it was nice and cool for lunch.  There was a buffet of Thai food laid out.  Only a few things looked familiar, but everything I tasted was delicious.  I had figured that lunch wouldn't work for my picky eater, so I had packed a sandwich and some snacks which Vivian was perfectly content with.

After a leisurely lunch, our guide told us that the elephants were going to go play in the mud, and we could come along.  

Of course the only person who wanted to get in the mud with them was Vivian.

Even she had an ewww moment, but she still managed to convince Judy to get in with her.

The elephants seemed to get great joy from flinging mud and dirt onto their backs.  I think it can work like a sunscreen, but I also think they were not averse to tossing a little playful dirt at the people around them.  Basically, we were all pretty dirty by that point in the day, so it was time to go back to the river for washing up.

As we walked back towards the main camp, we went by a house where puppies had recently been born.  Of course, we had to stop and visit, and, of course, Vivian had to hold one.

During lunch, Vivian had made friends with two of the Canadian guys, so she ditched us to walk with them for a while.  Luckily, they were amused by her and had no problem with it.

We got back to the camp, picked up some life jackets, and then headed to the river.  The elephants wandered in, and the guides gave us buckets to throw water on them.  Judy and Vivian plunged in with gusto, despite an initial bucket malfunction.

At first, my dad wasn't going to participate, because he hadn't brought a change of clothes, but he couldn't resist, and after a few minutes he waded in and starting throwing water.

He didn't say anything about it, but I think even he developed a soft spot for the elephants.

After a lot of splashing and fun, the elephants headed back up the hill, and we followed.

They had all flung dirt on themselves by the time we got back to the camp, but I don't think the river break was as much about getting clean as it was about cooling off.

Vivian was completely soaked and pretty dirty herself, so I took her to the showers, rinsed her off, and put on a new outfit.  She launched out of the shower area, and went right back to the elephants who were getting a sugar cane snack.

Then it was time to say good bye to the elephants.  I was worried that Viv would have a tough time, saying good bye, but luckily her new friends helped soften the blow.  After the elephants left, we had time to hang out with more coffee and tea and chat with the rest of the group and our guide before our ride back to town.

Our regular van driver had coordinated with the Elephant Haven driver, and they exchanged us at a gas station outside of town to avoid extra traffic.  After that it was a smooth ride back home, and we all napped a bit.  We got home in time for dinner.  It was an absolutely wonderful day.

The next day was New Year's Eve.  We had debated doing something downtown, but everything was ridiculously expensive.  I also doubted our ability to stay up until midnight, so I decided we should celebrate the new year when 2016 actually started, at 5:00pm Bangkok time.  I knew the Sydney fireworks would be at 8:00pm Bangkok time, so that seemed like a good bedtime end point.  We planned to celebrate with some friends, and one of my friends with a bigger house offered to host and cook up a mass of barbecue.  More people were invited, and it turned into a huge party with more kids than adults, which was fun for everyone.  Our hostess even armed the adults with wine sippy cups to avoid spills.

Each family brought a dish or two, so we feasted, watched fireworks, and then went home at a reasonable hour.  New Year's Day was pretty relaxed.  The only major events were meals.  We had a big, late breakfast, and I made a big pot of pasta for dinner.  We did farewell massages, and my family left the next morning.  It's always sad to see them go, but we had such a wonderful time with them while they were here.