Ben! Stay on top of the elephant!

Patara Elephant Farm (Chiang Mai, Thailand)

March 29th, 2010



As a parent you walk a delicate line between being too adventurous and too protective with your children. Since we're out on this global adventure we're tending toward the more adventurous side of the parental scale, but we still try to keep the kids safe. So it may seem odd that we let (encouraged) the kids to swim with elephants in a mountain water hole in northern Thailand. But I'm getting ahead of myself.



Our friends the Asels spoke so highly of the Elephant Owner for a Day program at Patara Elephant Farm that we knew we had to go spend the day with elephants in this beautiful region in northern Thailand. Patara Elephant farm provides rehabilitation and breeding services aimed specifically at protecting the Asian Elephants and they offer programs for tourists to have closeup encounters with their elephants.



We started our day by donning the traditional garb of the hill tribes and going out into the field to meet "our" elephant. Each one of us had been assigned an elephant that we would care for for the next six to eight hours. Jack, the head guide and translator, explained that the first five mintues with an elephant are the most important. I thought to myself, "No sh&%! If the elephant doesn't like you you'll be squashed like a bug in less than five minutes!".



Well the greeting turned out just fine and before we knew it we had unchained our elephants, checked their poops, and had each one by the ear (as if that would really restrain these freight cars on legs) and were giving them basic commands! We led them to the creek and asked them to lay down... (You don't really want to get too bossy with an elephant) Once we had our elephants laying down we brushed and splashed them with cool creek water until we had all of the previous night's dirt off their sides and backs. We then let them out in the field to graze on the tall grass while Jack prepared us for the day ahead. He explained that we'd be riding our elephant up river through the forest to a waterfall and water hole where the elephants would swim and we'd enjoy a special lunch of Thai sweet rice and chicken.



As planned we had a wonderful walk up river riding bareback, knees wedged smartly behind the ears of our elephants both for control and comfort. Jackie and I rode older females (35 and 28 years respectively), Amelia rode a young 11 year old female and Ben rode a five year old male that acted just like any other five year old boy you've ever met. We dismounted at the water hole and let the Elephants do their thing, which it turns out, is the same thing any self respecting mammal would do on a blazing hot day in the tropics, jump right in!



After a couple of minutes of rest, Jack asked if we'd like to "swim" with the elephants. "Sure" we said, momentarily losing all touch with reality. In a jiffy they had us back on our respective beasts and into the deep part of the creek to enjoy a communal bath. Now the 28 and 35 year olds that Jackie and I were riding were calm and cool, Amelia wisely chose to stay ashore with her elephant and Ben and his five year old steed began to behave just as young boys of any species would, splashing and shoving and causing trouble.



The guides made it clear, "Just stay on top of your elephant and you should be ok..." no problem if you're riding an old dame that's content staying still in the cool water, but try staying on top of a five year old that is too short to stand up in the deep pool. Very quickly it became clear that Ben and his elephant were in for a ride. His elephant became fully submerged, using his trunk as a snorkle, and then proceeded to roll around under water. Ben found it increasingly hard to stay on top of the squirming, splashing VW bug sized juvenile in the pool. I was riding the mother elephant and each time the baby shoved its back into mommy's side I was quick to get my leg out of the way! Sure enough, Ben eventually fell in beside and between the elephants, but amazingly escaped being crushed by the playful brute as all of the adults helpfully shouted "Ben! STAY ON TOP OF THE ELEPHANT!



All was well and after the elephants and their passengers left the waterfall and headed for home I had time to reflect on what we had done. Clearly we had had an experience none would soon forget. We had been blessed with an opportunity to spend a day up close and personal with the largest land animal on the planet. We had fed them, hands in their mouths, we washed them and rode them for hours and even went swimming with them in a cool mountain stream. True, it probably wasn't the safest thing we could have done with our kids, but if you'd seen the gleam in Amelia's and Ben's eyes as they dismounted their elephants at the end of the day I'm sure you'd agree it was the right thing to do.