Nongtao Part 2: The Elephants

A cacophony of crowing cockerels breaks the morning silence of this remote Karen village, the mountain air still fresh, and then the booming sound of the Thai National Anthem is played through loudspeakers throughout the village, it’s clearly time to get up! School starts at 7am preceded by this tribute to their King, it happens every day, you really couldn’t oversleep here. 

It’s time to see the elephants, we take the 15 minute drive in the back of a pickup truck to Elephant Freedom Village and spend a while with Nongchai who explains about the elephants and the difficulties the Karen tribespeople have encountered, even to this day, it’s all very interesting, disturbing even.  Now it’s time, our adventure begins,  no sign of the elephants yet but we have work to do, we make protein balls from an assortment of ingredients, grinding them into a paste in some sort of foot operated wooden pestle and mortar then rolling it into balls leaving them to bake in the sun. With baskets of fruit it is time to meet our elephants, a short stroll and there they are heading towards us knowing what is in store for them. We offer them one piece of fruit at a time and although they take it gently our hands almost disappear into their cavernous mouths.  We can’t feed these huge animals quickly enough, there is a sudden feeding frenzy and we find ourselves encircled by these giants, searching trunks from all directions stealing the fruit, our baskets empty in no time and they continue to munch on the bundles of leafy stems deposited on the ground. 

We spend an hour or so getting to know the four elephants, these intelligent animals all with different personalities.  The youngest is just 2 years old and just starting to become independent, such a little character. One is hugely pregnant, we can see the baby move, we feel on her belly, she doesn’t mind and we feel  the baby push against our hands, incredible feeling.  It’s quite daunting at first standing next to these giants, their feet so big they could crush you without realising but with the encouragement of Nongchai and his partner Carmel we are encouraged to walk amongst them, cuddle them, pat them firmly, we soon become relaxed around them. We get kisses from them, their trunks pressed up against our cheeks as they suck, its such a funny feeling. 

Time to walk with our elephants, we head off through the jungle, nothing rushed, the elephants dictate the pace, they trundle along, sure footed down a narrow dusty track, trunks reaching out to grab leaves as they go, we reach a stream, they briefly linger for a drink then amazingly one of the elephants crosses the stream carefully using the stepping stones not wanting to get her feet wet, how can a creature of this size do this with such grace?! The youngster tries to follow in her footsteps without success and amusingly slides into the water, he still has a lot to learn. We sit on a log and watch them head off into trees, devouring leaves as they go, we are fascinated at how dexterous they are with their trunks, pulling up plants with their trunks and expertly bashing the roots on their legs to shake off the soil. They clamber over fallen trees using their knees and the climb the steepest of slopes to get at the most succulent leaves, we are truly in awe of these majestic creatures.  

Time for a bath, we follow the elephants into a deeper part of the stream, they lie down and wallow in the cool water, armed with bowls and brushes we scrub hard along the contours of their skin, how is it possible that these thick skinned animals feel let alone enjoy us scrubbing their bodies like this. A water fight begins, the keepers start it then encourage the elephants to join in spraying us with their trunks, we are soaked and giggling, this is such a fun experience.  Our day with the elephants is almost over, we walk them back to camp, they cover themselves and us in red earth as we go, we feed them the protein balls we made earlier, they devour them as if it is their favourite food of the day. 

We feel privileged to have shared such a wonderful day with these majestic animals, they are intelligent and even graceful for their immense size. They are simply wonderful to be around and they appeared to love being around people, however, whilst gentle they are still a wild animal and deserve respect from everyone. We are very pleased and impressed with Elephant Freedom Village; Nongchai clearly loves his animals and this is just the sort of caring establishment we had hoped for. The elephants have space and are not mistreated in any way.

We are the elephants’ only visitors today: for several hours it’s just us, Nongchai and Carmel, three keepers, and the animals. Over lunch we chat  at length with Nongchai and Carmel, and mention our travel philosophies, particularly learning different cultures and cuisines. Carmel looks up.

“I might be able to help you there”, she says……