Our Taste of Thailand: Day 9: Patara Elephant Farm & Songkran Festival

On Saturday morning we were picked up at 8 AM to go to Patara Elephant Farm in Chiang Mai to be an "elephant owner for a day." We were extremely excited to have this experience, especially because Patara Elephant Farm is the #1 thing to do in Chiang Mai. We got to interact with, and take care of elephants (including baby elephants) for the day, just like a mahout (elephant owner would). This was literally one of the BEST days of our lives! I think I will remember this experience for the rest of my life! This is a bit morbid but when I die, I hope this is one of the memories I remember and that will play back for me. It was literally the best experience ever!!! I have tears of happiness in my eyes as I am writing this!

If anyone travels to Thailand, I would highly recommend they go to Patara over anywhere else. Patara Elephant Farm is highly recommended for these reasons:

1) They adopt/rescue elephants from unsuitable living condition such as circuses and illegal logging camps.
2) They focus seriously on health recovery for elephants and natural breeding management to increase elephant population. (Nearly half of the elephant population disappeared in the last 40 years).

3) 17 elephants were born in the last 9 years and most of female elephants are now getting pregnant. (7 babies born in 2011-2012)
4) 10 years operation with 0 dead elephants.
5) 8 elephants from Patara Elephant Farm were set free into the natural habitat and all are living fine. (www.elephantreintroduction.org)
6) They provide more open land for each elephant than any other places. (Highest space per elephant population)
7) They are the only elephant place in Asia that, everyday, has less number of visitors than number of elephants in the population.
8) They provide upper scale of interaction with elephants in term of quality and flexibility in length of time for guests.

9) Their presentation is 100% self created while many other elephant places are just recently set up and try to imitate Patara.

For all of those reasons, we chose Patara! And boy were we not disappointed! I could say this over and over again, it was one of the best days of our lives!!

In the morning we arrived and we got to hang out with two mothers and their two baby elephants. We fed them and pet them.

From there we were taken to the older elephants where we got paired up with an elephant and a mahout. Both Jake and I got paired with two moms whose babies followed us around for the day. My elephant's name was "meytachang" and Jake's elephant's Name was "meychancee." It is really important to make friends with your elephant right away so they will trust you and vice versa. We were taught to say "BON" to get the elephants to raise their trunk and open their mouths for us to feed them sugar cane and bananas. We each fed our elephants a basket of these treats. We would then praise the elephants by saying "dee dee" which is like telling a dog "good dog."

After that we were taught how to inspect elephants for good health. The four signs are to check that they are flapping their ears and wagging their tails, show marks of sleeping (dirt marks on their bodies prove they have slept), sweat marks on their feet (they sweat like humans but only on their cuticles), and good poop (must be grainy, with a light smell, and when you squeeze it, water must come out - yes we had to do this!).

We then learnt how to command our elephant to "come" by saying "mamama" and "stop" by saying "how." We also learnt how to get them to lay down so we could dust dirt off their backs.

We then learnt how to get on our elephants. Normally tourists should not ride elephants since this normally means they are beaten and you will have to ride them with wooden crates on their back. Patara elephant farm doesn't even use poles or sticks to command their elephants, just the voice commands from their mahout. Since we wore the same outfit as our mahout, and since we spent a morning building trust with our elephant, we were able to mount them and ride them bare back like the mahout. Patara elephant farm knows it isn't good for an elephant to just sleep eat and poop, nor is it good for humans, so by riding them, the elephants are exercised regularly. To get on our elephants, we stepped on their trunk and they lifted us up. Then we were sitting backwards and had to turn around to face forwards.

Once we got on our elephants we went on one of the most breathtaking jungle treks! The elephants took us up and down massive hills with some incredible views! We learnt how to say "walk forward" by saying "pye pye pye" and stop "how."

After about an hour jungle trek, we went to the waterfall where we bathed our elephants. To get them to lay down so you can get off, you say "loook." We mounted them to scrub their backs and head. We then got down and splashed them with water to scrub the sides of their body.

Finally, we were able to clean ourselves off by taking a dip in the waterfall farther up stream (where the elephants don't go = no poo). Then we had one of the best lunches I have ever eaten! It was all traditional Thai food laid out on bamboo leaves up in a bamboo hut overlooking where the elephants were playing in the water. Once we were full, we took another walk with the elephants and finally had to say goodbye. I got choked up... These animals are one of the most amazing animals I have ever spent time with! They reminded me of dogs, especially Tobi with the floppy ears and cuddly personality.

After the best day, we sadly had to leave and were dropped back off at our guesthouse around 3:30. I was so sad to leave - the day was just incredible!!! I will post more photos with an update to this blog - they are all on our good camera, GoPro, and a DVD of photos and videos that Patara gives every guest.

Back in Chiang Mai city, they were celebrating Songkran (Buddhist new year) with the water festival! Our van going back to our guesthouse was sprayed with water from hoses and buckets! We got back to our guesthouse and got ourselves prepared = that meant investing in some water guns and buckets!!!

It's a mini-mouse water gun!

We braved our way into the streets and let me just say, Songkran is the most fun festival on the face of the earth (compared to the ones I have experienced anyway)! Everyone goes to the streets and fills massive buckets with icy water! You fill your guns or your buckets up and away you go! It's like being 8 years old in a water gun fight with all of your friends, except it's in the middle of city streets with people you don't know! It's all fun though! Everyone is happy and wishing each other "happy new year", even the motorbike drivers who you just dumped icy water on!

Here Jake is throwing water at the group in this pick-up truck!

And here is a pic of the favour being returned!

Happy new year! Here's how the preparations work (see big bucket of water = fill up station).

And here is how it works = throw bucket of water on motorcyclist, particularly if he is wearing a scream mask. :-)

People surround the moat that wraps around the old city. They also fill buckets with the dirty moat water. No, Songkran is not very sanitary, but whatever, YOLO!