The Trek Part 7: Elephants

Ar had told us before we went to bed that the roosters would crow at 4am. Okay, no big deal. What he didn’t tell us was that they kept up the racket until dawn. Fitfully we slowly awoke to start the day. The Chaing Mai nights are cold and misty. The fog still hung over the town when we awoke and the chilly air made us not exactly look forward to jumping in a river with the elephants. We were served toast and hard boiled eggs for breakfast, and then headed out to meet the pachyderms.
A short walk later we were waiting on a hillside, while the remains of a fire smoldered in a nearby firepit. The fog was only letting us see a few hundred meters still, and we heard the wooden bell on the elephant before we saw it, then out of the mist walked the elephant, with a young baby elephant in tow and its Mahout on its back. It walked over to the clearing we were in and the Mahout jumped down. Some time passed, and from a different direction, another grey behemoth emerged from the fog.
We were hopping to have 6 elephants, one for each of us, but Ar told us that one of the elephants got ill and had to go to a conservation center.
Soon a 3rd and a 4th elephant appeared. The Mahouts went out to find the fifth, but eventually we were informed that it had roamed too far away (yes, these were free-range elephants) to let us ride today, so two of the elephants went to get fitted with seats so that we could have two people on it, one on the neck, one on the seat attached to the back.
We walked with the huge mammals down to the river and tentatively entered the current. Predictably it was ridiculously cold. However, the fact that there were elephants in the water with us made it worth it. Water was splashed on the animals to clean them off and we got to sit on their necks as they stood up and that when it stood up in the water Will got a refreshing dunk as he fell off.

I was perched on the neck of my elephant when he stood up. I luckily, didn’t take a plunge, but I realized how at the mercy of this creature I was. When it was time to ride the elephants back to the village Ashton got into the seat behind me and we started riding. The elephants moved rather slow, which is not surprising for the size of the beast, but they did walk with a certain amount of grace and surefootedness on the mountain paths. The mahout in charge of my elephant informed me with a laugh that I was riding on ‘Katoey“. That translates into English as “Ladyboy”. From our elevated positions the backs of the elephants the scenery was even more epic than when we had walked through the same areas the day before. We could see over trees, and further into valleys to the rivers cutting through them. The only issue is that when you are perched on the neck of an elephant, the shoulder blades of the beast alternate digging into your bum, which for an extended period of time causes quite a bit of discomfort in the bottom regions. It was not unbearable however, and it was a bit of a disappointment when they delivered us back to the ‘hotel California’ so that we could start walking.