11/27-Mae Taeng Elephant Camp
Poi, our guide greeted us at D2's ultra modern lobby 8:30 sharp. The tour we arranged via the hotel originally only included the elephant ride, bamboo rafting and visiting the Lisu hilltribe village. I wanted to see the long neck tribe so we added extra to the day's event.
The first stop was the orchid and butterfly farm. Poi said it had over 500 species of orchids. The orchids were hanging in mid air, roots dangling without being planted in any soil. Water was sprayed on them six hours per day, three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon. That was why they did not need any soil to grow so gorgeously. I skipped the butterfly portion of the visit as I could only imagine -- where there is butterfly, there would be caterpillars.
We soon arrived at the Mae Daeng Elephant Camp. It was about 40 minutes away from Chiang Mai. As soon as we approached the camp ground, I was overwhelmed by the stench. It took me a good five minutes to get used to it. Elephants, young and old were walking, sitting or rolling their trunks to reach for the bananas and sugar canes in the vendor's hands across the fence. I bought a bunch of sugar canes for 20 bahts and walked towards the elephants. She rolled the cane from my hand effortlessly and was almost too quick for the camera.
The elephant show included elephant lifting the lumber, dancing, playing soccer, shooting basketball, picking up flower basket and putting on/off hats from the trainer's head. The most ingenious of all was the elephant painting. Two elephants each was given the paint brush. Using different colors, they painted branches and heart-shaped flowers. They also signed the painting and one of them said I Love (a heart) U. It was absolutely amazing. Supposedly elephants have great memories. They drew the pictures purely out of memory. It was intriguing to see their huge trunk holding a tiny brush and creating such wonders.
After the show, we went on the ox cart to go to the Lisu hilltribe village in the forest. The oxes were white and strange looking. I always thought they would look like a bull but they were nothing like that. Our driver graciously motioned to Mike and gave him the whip. Mike happily crossed over the seat and went to the front to drive the cart. The road was bumpy and dusty. Near and far in the jungle, elephants passed with passenger atop.
At the Lisu village, there were bungalows built for people to wait for the elephant ride. It was like a bus stop except that you stepped onto an elephant. Elephants carrying other tourists would come by, drop off the passengers and pick the next ones up. I was counting down to our ride and thought we'd go on this really gigantic male elephant. But a man in front of us took him. The next one was a female elephant and a bit shorter. We stepped on. The elephant "ride coordinator" snap closed the metal bar (simply a nail holding the bar in front of our belly). Off we went and I almost threw myself off the bar since I did not expect the ride to be so bumpy. We joined the convoy of elephants. I noticed that a baby elephant was following us and it actually sneaked out of the group and went to a Lisu bungalow. He stuck his trunk into a hole of the bungalow and apparently found some food and took it into his mouth. Our rider stopped the elephant and let everyone else pass us. I could not get it until I realize that we were riding the mama elephant. Mom would not move until the baby was around. The rider was yelling at the baby to come back but it was enjoying its freedom. It was quite amusing. The entire ride was a tug of war between our rider and the baby elephant. The mom would stop so she could feed the baby. At one point, the baby completely went to a wrong route and led the mom to frantically follow him into the narrow leafy path. On the way, there were "rest stops" for the elephants - bungalows selling sugar canes and bananas (20 bahts for a stack). Most of the time, before the tourists consent to pay, the elephants already took the bananas with their trunk and put them into their mouth. Too late!! We fed our mom and baby about three times until we used up all the change.
The first stop was the orchid and butterfly farm. Poi said it had over 500 species of orchids. The orchids were hanging in mid air, roots dangling without being planted in any soil. Water was sprayed on them six hours per day, three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon. That was why they did not need any soil to grow so gorgeously. I skipped the butterfly portion of the visit as I could only imagine -- where there is butterfly, there would be caterpillars.
We soon arrived at the Mae Daeng Elephant Camp. It was about 40 minutes away from Chiang Mai. As soon as we approached the camp ground, I was overwhelmed by the stench. It took me a good five minutes to get used to it. Elephants, young and old were walking, sitting or rolling their trunks to reach for the bananas and sugar canes in the vendor's hands across the fence. I bought a bunch of sugar canes for 20 bahts and walked towards the elephants. She rolled the cane from my hand effortlessly and was almost too quick for the camera.
The elephant show included elephant lifting the lumber, dancing, playing soccer, shooting basketball, picking up flower basket and putting on/off hats from the trainer's head. The most ingenious of all was the elephant painting. Two elephants each was given the paint brush. Using different colors, they painted branches and heart-shaped flowers. They also signed the painting and one of them said I Love (a heart) U. It was absolutely amazing. Supposedly elephants have great memories. They drew the pictures purely out of memory. It was intriguing to see their huge trunk holding a tiny brush and creating such wonders.
After the show, we went on the ox cart to go to the Lisu hilltribe village in the forest. The oxes were white and strange looking. I always thought they would look like a bull but they were nothing like that. Our driver graciously motioned to Mike and gave him the whip. Mike happily crossed over the seat and went to the front to drive the cart. The road was bumpy and dusty. Near and far in the jungle, elephants passed with passenger atop.
At the Lisu village, there were bungalows built for people to wait for the elephant ride. It was like a bus stop except that you stepped onto an elephant. Elephants carrying other tourists would come by, drop off the passengers and pick the next ones up. I was counting down to our ride and thought we'd go on this really gigantic male elephant. But a man in front of us took him. The next one was a female elephant and a bit shorter. We stepped on. The elephant "ride coordinator" snap closed the metal bar (simply a nail holding the bar in front of our belly). Off we went and I almost threw myself off the bar since I did not expect the ride to be so bumpy. We joined the convoy of elephants. I noticed that a baby elephant was following us and it actually sneaked out of the group and went to a Lisu bungalow. He stuck his trunk into a hole of the bungalow and apparently found some food and took it into his mouth. Our rider stopped the elephant and let everyone else pass us. I could not get it until I realize that we were riding the mama elephant. Mom would not move until the baby was around. The rider was yelling at the baby to come back but it was enjoying its freedom. It was quite amusing. The entire ride was a tug of war between our rider and the baby elephant. The mom would stop so she could feed the baby. At one point, the baby completely went to a wrong route and led the mom to frantically follow him into the narrow leafy path. On the way, there were "rest stops" for the elephants - bungalows selling sugar canes and bananas (20 bahts for a stack). Most of the time, before the tourists consent to pay, the elephants already took the bananas with their trunk and put them into their mouth. Too late!! We fed our mom and baby about three times until we used up all the change.
posted by Koshka at 12/05/2007
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home