It's time to leave the farm, but not before one final breakfast. And what a breakfast it is. Fresh cabbage salad. A fruit plate with passion fruit, watermelon, and husk cherries. Chicken soup with rice and hard-boiled egg. With some fond hugs, we say goodbye to our hostess and new friend, Nikul.
Our route this morning takes us down the other side of the mountain. If I thought the road coming up the mountain was insane, the road going back down is absolutely ludicrous. Mandy says it's curvier than Lombard St. in San Fran. I've never driven a road where you're literally going lock-to-lock on the steering wheel under power. If there was a dash cam on me, it would look like the worst fake driving from every police show in the 1970s. Halfway down, we find a Karen owned coffee stand. Basic in its construction, but with lots of design style. We sit admiring the view in our funny little camping chairs sipping coffee and eating a bag of the Thai equivalent to Bugles. (editor’s note: Of course, Bugles are the undisputed champ of travel snacks globally, and these are a fine representation of that art.)
Now properly caffeinated, it's about another half hour until
we come upon the Elephant Freedom Project, a humane Pachyderm sanctuary,
dedicated to the rescue and care of these regal beasts. Today we get to spend
some time up close and personal to get to know three of the sanctuaries heard. Mae Kum Chan is the matriarch, strong willed
and with an unstoppable appetite. Pang
Pak Dee, the playful and mischievous teenager.
And Pak Dok Koon, the curious and willful baby, still learning from mama
and his siblings. Pat, our host for today is the sanctuary’s
Mahout, The elephant’s protector and guardian.
Pat has a quick wit, an easy smile, and his own vein of mischief.
The rest of our group arrives, and we're briefed on safety
and caution around the animals. Next step is preparing lunch. This involves
chopping long bamboo stalks into 18-inch chunks using a machete. Mandy is a
quick study with the big blade, which worries me a bit. We add dozens and
dozens of bananas to each feed basket then grab the meals and take them across
the street.
It's there we meet the three elephants in person for the
first time. We may not know what to expect but they certainly do. We spend
about half an hour feeding them by hand. We’re amazed at how gentle the
elephants can be, and how dexterous they are with their trunks. Mama Mae prompts us to give her two or three
pieces in the curl of her nose which she then sorts out. Bananas in her mouth,
bamboo on the ground in front of her for a second course. We were warned about
this behavior ahead of time. Just
because an elephant puts a piece of food down, does not mean they don't want
it. Once you hand it to them, it's theirs, and they will Muy Thai sucker punch
you if you try to take it back.
We’ve done plenty of other animal interaction experiences in
our lifetime. 25 years ago, when we
certainly didn’t know better, we separately did swimming-with-the-dolphins in
the Caribbean. Both of our experiences
left us dissatisfied, understanding intrinsically that those creatures did NOT
want to be there or be with us. Last
year in the Galapagos, we got to experience the best version of animal
interaction, with the least possible impact on the fauna and environment. Carefully researched, today is way closer to
the Ecuador encounter. No, we are not
seeing these animals in the wild. Unfortunately,
over the last few hundred years these animals were hunted to near extinction
and worse, captured and abused. To this
day, poachers have a voracious appetite for elephants left unprotected. These sanctuaries exist because they have to. I step back midway through feeding to observe
the staff interactions. Each elephant is
assigned a Mahout, a one-to-one relationship, and these are lifetime bonds for both
parties. When the teenager get a little
anxious, her Mahout lets her wander away.
No stick, empty handed, and in fact, his arms never leave his side. He simply speaks to her in measured, assuring
tones. No raised voice. When she tries to back into the nearby dirt
street, he simply stands behind her. As she
backs up to him, he holds his ground, still only speaking in the soothing, but resolved
voice. His calm demeanor eventually carrying
the day, her pulse and breathing normalizes.
Instead of being a big to-do, the Mahout made it just a momentary lapse. No problemo.
The baby is a bit finicky.
She tries to eat only the bananas, but eventually mama intervenes. Mama literally starts taking the bananas out
of baby’s mouth, forcing the switch to the fiber rich bamboo. There is plenty of food and plenty of time,
so all ten of us had ample unrushed interaction with each of the three animals,
plus time for all sorts of pix and vids.
When the baskets are finally empty, the staff brings 4-foot sections of
palm tree, each a full 20” in diameter, over to each elephant. They happily get to work on this third
course, the two older individuals working their tusks and jaws to split the
logs into smaller, more edible pieces.
Baby doesn’t have tusks yet, so she demonstrated an elephant’s use of
tools by dropping the log into a channel of metal near feeding station and using
that metal to rip the wood into splinters.
Adapt, overcome, eat!
The next part of our day is taking the elephants for a
walk. No leashes, no cajoling, just time
for a hike into the narrow valley nearby. This is a bit of a hangout for us and our
three companions, and the elephants do what the elephants do, mostly wandering
back and forth finding stuff to put in their mouths. At one point Mandy and I are talking to
another guest when baby decides to “slip by” behind us, trying her very best to
be polite. She barely grazes Mandy and me,
but even that most gentile of swipes nearly knocks us to the deck.
A few minutes later, Pang, the teenager come up to me
completely unprompted…
Yup, still got it!
Our time with the elephants over, we drive back into Chiang
Mai for a quick lunch at SP Chicken, another recommendation from our restauranteur
friend. Birds for miles, but we like the pork even better. Then it’s on to the
airport for a 2 hour flight to Krabi.
It’s dark and past our dinnertime when we land. We head straight into Krabitown, the central business
and walking district. On our way, we see
a brightly lit street festival and decide to check it out. It turns out to be a
Ramadan festival with several blocks of food vendors. We pick from a few different stalls then head
on to our final destination.
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