Nelly the elephant

Breakfast today was eaten at a little cafe round the corner from our guesthouse. I had a Thai dish which was fried egg with peppers and carrots and two types of sausage topped with spring onions. It was lovely and served in a cool metal dish which made it look extra special. I also had a banana shake to get in one of my five a day. We'd woken up a little later so by the time we hit the road it was nearly 11. I navigated us down the back roads of Pai to an area with lots of elephant places. We'd chosen one with a good reputation so stopped and asked how much it would be to do something with the elephants. I didn't really want to ride one as I've read loads of stuff saying they don't actually like to be ridden but that was the only choice we had. When in Thailand we felt we had to do something with elephants. 

We had to wait until half 12 as the elephants and the mahouts (elephant trainers) were having a rest. This meant that we spent a good 40 minutes giving the elephants bamboo canes and just watching them. I find them fascinating and incredibly beautiful. At this elephant park there was only three females who I think had been there all of their lives. The owner of the place has dealt with elephants all her life as well as four generations before her so she knew what she was doing. A place across the road had their elephants tied up with a chain around their ankle which I didn't like. These ones were in stalls which weren't very big but at least they had a little freedom. My favourite one was trying to tell us she was thirsty in a very humurous way. There was a pipe that she knew, when turned on, would supply water so she tried breaking the pipe with her trunk and bending the nails that were holding up the pipe to tip it and see if water would come out. We informed the owner so she turned on the tap and this elephant filled her trunk before tipping all the water into her mouth. She danced around a bit whilst doing it which apparently means she was happy. 

When it came time for us to ride an elephant they got the youngest one out (23 years old) and we climbed up. Elephants are huge and the climbing up part was really hard. They have been trained to lift their foot so you climb up their leg and pull yourself up by a rope that is round their belly. I thought I might hurt the poor elephant (we later named her Nelly even though her name was Tutdao) but I realised when I was up there how thick and strong their skin is. They're also 3500kg so two people won't seem like much weight. We set off walking, both holding on as Nelly's back moved from side to side as she went. Her mahout came with us (each elephant has its own mahout) as well as a camera guy who took pictures and videos of us along the way. 

I spent the whole experience being slightly terrified. I felt like I might fall off at various occasions and when we got to the river, Nelly didn't seem to want to go in. I tried telling the mahout that if she didn't want to go in that was fine by us but he didn't know much English. Instead he used his little hook her carried to hit the elephants legs and called for her to move. He started by using the stick end which would only feel like a pat to her but when he used the hook end I couldn't watch. It probably didn't feel like much to Nelly but I still felt it was cruel and unnecessary. We did finally get in the river and were squirted with water from the elephant's trunk. I thought she'd maybe do that because she liked to play but the mahout had certain demands that he'd call out and she'd have to obey. One of the commands, which we didn't realise until it happened, was to roll sideways and throw us off. The river wasn't deep and was mostly sand covering the bottom but the occasional stone was quite sharp. When we were rolled off I moved as quickly as I could incase the elephant were to roll onto me. This was a little silly as Nelly was trained so wouldn't but elephants are huge. We were told to get back on which was slightly easier this time as the elephant was lying down in the river. Matt still had to help pull me up though. Another command (again we didn't know) was to shake and throw us off. As both of us didn't realise we held on to the rope quite tightly but still flew off. I got a nice bit of rope burn. Our elephant seemed to be a little stubborn so the mahout hit her far too much. It made the whole experience more stressful and unenjoyable for me. Matt and I started to discuss the way horses are whipped, which surely hurts more, so in a way is it bad? 

We walked back to the stables and were able to climb off Nelly on a platform; a nice simple way. We went and sat in one of their hot tubs to wash off the river water. These hot tubs were apparently filled with hot spring water as there was a hot spring near by. I wasn't exactly sure if this was true but it was slightly like sitting in a bath so I was content. We ate some fried rice with pork at their restaurant (it was the only food they had left) before going to give the elephants some bananas. They like bananas and it was nice to see them happily eating them. We were given two postcards with pictures of us on the elephant as well as a DVD of our experience. I don't know what to think about elephants and tourism but I know I'll never ride one again in my life. I'd much rather watch them or play with them. 

We were finally back on the road and continued through Pai and further west towards a place called Sappong. The roads wound up and down the mountain again so it took us a couple of hours to get there. When there, we didn't think much of it. There was a cave nearby that was meant to be good but at this point it was about 5pm so the cave would be closed. We could have waited around until the morning but we knew we'd get bored so we continued on another 65 kilometres to Mae Hong Son, stopping occasionally to check out the views of the national parks that we drove through. 

When in Mae Hong Son we drove around its little lake before stopping at a cute looking guesthouse. The lady that owned the guesthouse was the nicest person ever. She showed us the rooms and let us take a room with two beds and a fan. She then offered to supply breakfast the next morning which we agreed to and gave us a snack of water and fruit (mango and watermelon) right then and there for free. A room and breakfast for £2.50 each ain't bad. With the addition of a super nice host we were extremely pleased with our find. 

The guesthouse lady advised us to go to the market for some local food so we did but only got a couple of snacks of some deep fried ball things which had an after taste similar to soy sauce; I hadn't a clue what they were. We also had a small bit of a cake that we shared. We didn't realise it was a cake until after we bought it but it wasn't very sweet. It was apple (I think) with some kind of frosting and the cake itself was so moist; I was impressed. 

We found a restaurant for tea and I chose pad Thai to see if it would be better this time. I've noticed that adding a squirt of lime to it makes it a lot tastier. However, we had to wait an hour for our food so by the time it came both of us were a little grumpy.