FOR ALL THE ANIMALS
connect with us!
  • HOME
    • NEWEST STORIES
    • Contact
  • BLOGS
    • BLOG by Porter
    • BLOG BY NORA
    • BLOG BY VARUN
    • BLOG BY BENDIK
    • BLOG BY KAILYN
    • Blog by SARAH H.
    • LIERRA'S BLOG
    • BLOG BY KABIR
    • BLOG by ZACH
    • ANNA'S BLOG
    • Thoughts by Helen Hu
    • BRAYLIN'S BLOG
    • SARA'S BLOG
    • Blog by Sara Jane
    • BLOG BY JASPER
  • OUR STAFF
  • WRITE FOR US
  • LEARN
    • PETITIONS
    • Cooper's Hawk
    • CLAY ORGAN-PIPE NEST
    • SETTING BULLS ON FIRE??!
    • MOOSE FACTS
    • THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SQUIRRELS & CHIPMUNKS
    • WISE ABOUT BEARS
    • ARE COWS SENTIENT
    • YOU BUY, ELEPHANTS DIE
    • GROW YOUNG WITH YOUR DOG - Best Selling Book
    • MY SCHOOL WON’T GO TO SEAWORLD
    • ALL ABOUT YAKS IN NEPAL
    • ABOUT CHICKENS
    • THE ART OF DECEPTION
  • STORE
  • FOR ALL THE BEES
    • PHOTO BOOKS by B.Seeton
    • TINY LIFE
    • BEE INSPIRED
  • PHOTOS
  • AT SEA
  • TIPPI DEGRE - GROWING UP AROUND EXOTIC ANIMALS
  • ANIMAL TRAFFICKING
  • PET SHOP HORRORS
  • FIGHTING AGAINST FUR
  • ARCHIVES
    • BLOG by ANNE
    • LIZZY'S BLOG
    • Blog by Abu
    • BLOG by Z.K.

CONNECTING WITH ELEPHANTS - Part 2

1/31/2015

2 Comments

 

A Day at Patara Elephant Farm

Picture
PictureSign at Patara Entrance
When we got back from the Thai Elephant Conservation Center in Lampang, we checked into a new hotel. But the very next day my mom and I woke up bright and early. We enjoyed a nice breakfast of tea and fruit while we waited for a van to pick us up. When the van arrived, I saw that printed on the side was a logo that said Patara Elephant Farm. Patara Elephant Farm is a place where you go to be an elephant caretaker for a day. You take care of and bond with the elephant you are assigned.

After we left Chiang Mai, the drive became very scenic. We headed into the mountains. We drove by lush forest and villages. We also passed by something quite interesting. When I was around 2 1/2, our family traveled to Thailand and stayed in a guesthouse in these hills. There we met a little yappy white dog named Rat. Now we passed by this very same guesthouse. I would not be surprised if Rat was still alive today. Down the road from the guesthouse was a family who owned two elephants, a mom and her baby. We would visit them every day. On the day we had to leave, we went to say goodbye to them, but then I refused to get into the taxi to go to the airport, because I wanted to stay with the elephants. We passed by that same place on the drive to Patara, and I could sense the elephants were near. Driving into Patara was magical. I saw elephants roaming around a field and on the hillsides. Mahouts were riding them bareback. We kept driving and we saw more elephants. We got out of the van, and standing before me were six elephants, three of them moms, three of them babies. We met our guide, who was a Karen man named Gao. The Karen people are a hill tribe from this area. Gao first introduced us to the moms and baby elephants. 
Picture
Patara Grounds
PictureMoms and Baby elephants
The first elephant mom and baby were standing in a little gazebo, eating sugarcane. People sat on the sides of the gazebo and pet the elephants. Gao said that the mom would give us a hug and a kiss, so I volunteered to go first. She came right next to me, lifting her trunk up, and wrapping it around my chest. She then put her wet trunk on my cheek and sucked in. An elephant’s kiss. We all had a good laugh. My mom received the same treatment. Elephant mom and baby number two were very nice, but the baby was very rough. The mahouts called him “Naughty Boy,” because he kept butting people with his hard head, and chased us around. He was truly a naughty boy. 

PictureAn elephant's hug



The last mom and baby stood far away from the gazebo, and this mom was eating sugarcane. Gao told us that we could eat some of her sugarcane, but mom and I were the only ones out of our group who decided to. I did not like the taste of it too much, mostly because it was covered with mud on one side. The elephants did not mind though. This baby was even more playful than the last one. She charged almost everyone she saw, and I had to run away really fast to avoid being knocked over by her. She pulled on my mom’s scarf and tried to teethe on it. I did something that I kind of regret now, but the mahouts asked me to ride on the baby elephant, so I did. I don’t think it hurt her, because I’m only about 31 kg (68 lb), and this elephant was about 150 kg (330 lb). And she might have thought I was just playing with her. It was only for a few seconds, but it was an experience that I will never forget. 

Picture
Wrestling with the baby
Gao then took us up the hill, where we gave the elephant moms some water. We poured the water into the elephants’ trunk until it was full, and then the elephant sprayed it into her mouth. The babies didn't drink at all, but the mahouts played with them by spraying them with water. The babies ran away trumpeting excitedly. After we gave them some water, the moms and their babies walked down the hills with their mahouts. 
PictureElephant drinking
We went to a different gazebo, about 200 feet away from the elephant grounds, and we all sat down. We met one of the owners of Patara, named Pat, and he explained to us all about the farm. He talked to us about the elephant population going down in Thailand, and how this park was dedicated to breeding elephants and raising the population. He said this park is different from the others because instead of wanting to show you the elephants and how cute they are so you can just ride them and take photos, here you really get to learn about them and how to help them. You learn about them by spending time and getting to know them. Patara has 32 elephants, mostly moms and babies. The most important thing the owners have to think about is the elephants’ diet and making sure they have enough food. They grow their own food and they also have to buy food from the villagers and the market. Patara is a non-profit organization, and they don’t get money from the government or corporations. All the money they have is from visitors and their donations. They only take very small groups of visitors because a they want to have more elephants than people at the farm. There were 6 other people in our group.

 While Pat was talking, we saw two elephants on a little hill about 10 feet away. The younger elephant had her head stuck in a tree, and the older one looked at the younger one disapprovingly. Pat told us that the old one was the younger one’s grandmother. He also said when an elephant loses its mom, another female will come in and adopt the young elephant.

 Then we were given Karen mahout ponchos to wear, and we headed down to meet our elephants.

 Gao told us the first thing we had to do when approaching our elephant was give them food. He said if you give them food, they will be your friend your whole life. He asked my mom to demonstrate on her elephant, which was a huge, pregnant female named Mae Khwan. He taught us commands in the Karen language to give to the elephant when feeding. “Boun,” means “open your mouth.” You have to say this very sternly and say the elephants name afterward. “Dee dee,” means “good job,” and you pat them on their head to reward them. When you want the elephant to go forward, you hold their ears and say “Ma,” and tug. The elephant will go where you want it to. 

Picture
My mom feeding Mae Khwan
Picture
The herd
PictureMy friend named Puh
We were assigned our elephant, but Patara does not just randomly assign your elephant. Instead, it is based on your personality and age. I got a young, fit elephant, who was named Puh. He was a sevenyear-old male elephant, and he had tusks. Most of the other people there were in their twenties on their honeymoon, but my mom and I were the only younger and older people. That’s why my mom got the oldest elephant, and I got the youngest. This was a very cool way of assigning your elephant. My elephant, Puh, obviously loved to eat, because he ate about 11 pounds of bananas and sugar cane, and then I dragged him huge bundle of bamboo leaves, which he very quickly ate. He was a very obedient elephant, so I said “dee dee” a lot. Gao then called us back, and he told us we were going to give the elephants a health check. He said there were several steps to this, and some were a bit gross.

Picture
A very hungry elephant
If an elephant is healthy, it needs to be wagging his or her tail, and flapping its ears every few minutes. If this is not happening, the elephant is likely stressed or tired. Puh was neither of those things. He was restless. Item of business number two, see if the elephant got a good night’s sleep. A lot of people think that elephants sleep standing up, but that’s not true. An elephant needs to be sleeping down on the side of its body to be healthy and active. So if there is dust on the elephant’s stomach, ears, and cheeks, then you know it’s had a good night’s sleep.

For the next part of the health check up we had to look at the elephant’s eyes. Elephants often look as if they are crying, but they have no tear ducts whatsoever, and their eyes only produce liquid to clean out dirt. But if you see an elephant with one eye more runny than the other, that means that it probably has an infection. But luckily none of the elephants here had any eye problems. The next thing you need to check is the elephant’s sweat. Elephants, like dogs, pant to reduce body temperature, but there is one place on an elephant's body where they do sweat. Above their toenails. We had to check for sweat above our elephant’s toenails. Puh's were very sweaty, which meant he was healthy. 
PictureSmelling the elephant poo
And finally, we had to check the elephants’ poo. It only takes an elephant two minutes to turn this into that, and we had just fed them, so it was a good time to check the poo. First, you have to see how many pieces the elephant has pooed. If it‘s three or less, then the elephant may have a digestive problem, or maybe ate too little. Puh luckily had seven pieces. Next, you have to pick up the poo, open it up, and check what color it is. You may think it’s kind of gross to pick up dung, but elephant poo is actually very clean because of their short digestion period. What goes in comes out pretty much the same. If the poo is brown, then it is unhealthy, and the elephant probably ate something it wasn't supposed to. But if the poo is a nice lime green color, then it’s healthy. Next, you must take the elephant poo and use your fingers to check the fiber. The more fiber, the healthier the elephant. Then finally, we had to do the juice test. This one I had to do for every piece of Puh's seven pieces. I picked up the poo, wrung out all the juices, and let the greenish pulpy water run down my arm. The more water, the better.

Picture
Gao doing the juice test
PictureBrushing Puh
After the health check, I washed my hands thoroughly. We then had to clean our elephant’s back of dust. The reason we needed to do this was because of mites. Mites will often get stuck under the folds under an elephant’s skin, so a cleaning is not just brushing the back to get the dirt off. You need to brush really hard to brush off those mites. To do this, we got a bunch of bamboo grass tied together, acting as a huge whacker. To get the elephant to lie down, you say, “Nolo.” You say “nolo.” Puh liked the back cleaning, because for him it was like a back scratch. After the cleaning for mites, I gave the brush to Puh, which he gladly ate. We headed over to a concrete circle, where we gave our elephants a shower. The transformation of elephant color is amazing. When an elephant has nothing on its body, it is grey. Some are light grey, some are dark grey. After a dust or mud bath, they turn brown. But when they get wet, they turn pitch black. Some Asian elephants, unlike African elephants, have pink spots on their forehead, trunk, and ears. I used the hose to wash Puh and get every bit of dirt off. This was pretty much useless, because as soon as he got out he threw dirt on his back and rubbed his body in the mud wallow. But it was time for lunch, so we said bye to the elephants, but we told them we’d be back in an hour.

Picture
Puh's shower

Our lunch was very nice. When we got back to the gazebo, there was a huge banana leaf covering something on the table. Whatever it was, it smelled amazing. When Gao pulled off the banana leaf, on the table lay fried chicken, grilled pork, about a jillion types of fruit, sticky rice, and Thai donuts. Even the cats who walked around thought it was good. They kept begging for some of the meat that was lying on the table.
Picture
Lunch
Picture
My artwork after made from lunch leftovers
After lunch, we changed into our bathing suits and headed back to our elephants. We were now going to ride the elephants bareback on their necks, a process that does not hurt the elephant. At Patara they don’t think heavy elephant saddle, or, “howdah,” is good for the elephant, but they have nothing against riding elephants bareback. They said it’s only okay to ride on the neck, because if you ride on the back your legs dangle in the way of the leg joints, making it hard for the elephant to walk. 

Gao told us there were three ways to get on an elephant. For the first way, the elephant raises one foot slightly, you put one foot on the elephant’s foot, the other on the elephant’s leg, you hoist yourself atop the elephant back, and then you scoot up to the neck. This is what I did. The second way is for the elephant to lie down completely, and you get on to the back from there. The third way is the elephant brings his head down, and you step lightly on the upper trunk, and when the elephant lifts its head up, you scoot up to the neck. My mom did it this way, but she got stuck on the way up. My mom was suspended on Mae Khwan’s forehead. She eventually got on the neck, but she was facing backwards, and struggled the whole way around to face forward. When she did, everyone cheered.
Picture
Step 1
Picture
Step 2
Picture
Step 3
Picture
On top!
PictureRiding Puh in the jungle
Up on the elephant was really high. When I looked down, I felt a bit scared of falling off, but my mom was on an elephant 3 feet taller than mine. Yikes. Gao told us some commands for the elephant when riding. “Pai,” means “go forward.” “How,” was “stop.” You had to say “dee dee” a lot to let the elephant know he was doing a good job. “Janna,” was very important. It means “do not eat that,” because the elephants would constantly eat during the walk, stopping the elephants behind them from moving, and some plants aren't good for them. When we learned all these commands, we said “Pai,” and we were off into the little forest. The elephant ride was about 1 hour. I prefer this to riding in a car any day. The elephants were slow, calm, and made journey so much more interesting. On the ride one of the baby elephants that followed the elders ran around, knocking over small trees and uprooting them like it was nothing. In some places the hillside was very steep, and some trees were hard to squeeze through. The height of the elephant helped me reach up in the trees and get a nice ripe branch of leaves for Puh. At the bottom of the hill, there was a road we had to cross to get to the river. The mahouts directed the traffic, and when the elephants crossed all the cars had to stop. I waved to people in their cars from on top of Puh.

Picture
The road to the river
When we got off our elephant, my legs were sore and stiff. We left the elephants with the mahouts for a while, while Gao showed us to the river. A different group was with their elephants, washing them and splashing them, and we watched them take a group photo. While their backs were turned, the elephants sprayed them with water. Now we knew what was to come. I dipped my foot in the water, and it was freezing cold. My mahout and Puh were already in the water like it was nothing. After getting used to the water it was not that cold. My mahout told me to get on Puh’s back and start scrubbing behind his ears. But as soon as I got on his back, he turned over and lay on his side under water, which pulled me neck deep in the water. Puh was very playful in the water, and he would spray me and pull me under water. I washed his head, eyes, tail, and even his tusks. I took some sand and rubbed it up and down his tusks, making them gleam like marble. Being in the water with the elephants was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. And sure enough, the elephants sprayed us with water at the end. 
Picture
Tusk cleaning
Picture
Scrubbing Puh
Picture
Puh spraying us
 It was time for us to leave, but before we left we had a four-minute elephant ride to the van pick up. I thanked my mahout very much, and gave Puh a big hug and kiss. I would miss him, but I’m going to come back next year. Gao gave us a DVD with all the pictures on it. It had been a great experience that we will have again. But our Thai elephant expedition was not over yet. We still had one more sanctuary to go to. As we drove back to Chiang Mai, I saw all of the elephants waving at me, and I saw Puh giving me a huge smile.
Picture
2 Comments

CONNECTING WITH ELEPHANTS - Part 1 of 3

1/20/2015

12 Comments

 
"When we got out for a minute to stretch our legs I suddenly froze. I saw a huge female elephant eating grass. I stared straight into her eyes, and suddenly I didn't care about a thing in the world. "
I have loved elephants all my life. That’s why over this Christmas holiday I got the best present of all. I got to go to Chiang Mai, Thailand, to see elephants. My family and I spent time at three different elephant sanctuaries. In my next three blogs I will tell you about each of them so if you decide to go to Thailand you will know where you would like to go. I have also included links to their websites in case you would like to know more or make a donation. (I will continue my series of blogs about dogs in Vietnam after I finish my elephant series.)
PictureTaking the tuk-tuk
After a two-and-a-half-hour plane ride from Malaysia, where we spent Christmas, we arrived in Chiang Mai. Even at the immigration counter, I could tell that the people here liked elephants. There was a big poster telling people not to buy ivory, and there were statues and paintings of elephants everywhere. We went outside the airport, and for me it was like heaven. Everywhere I looked statues or something that looked like an elephant looked right back at me. We grabbed a taxi, which in Thailand is called a “tuk-tuk.” A tuk-tuk is a sort of half motorcycle, half car, where the driver sits in the motorcycle front and two or three passengers sit at the back in a covered cabin. It was the coolest taxi ride ever. They drove us right to our hotel, which, with no surprise, had lots of elephant stuff around it. 

PictureKabir with elephant
The first sanctuary we visited was the Thai Elephant Conservation Center, a government-run project that trains and looks after elephants of all ages. My whole family stayed there for three nights. The second was the Patara Elephant Farm, where only my mom and I went. At Patara you get to be an elephant caregiver for a day, and look after and bond with the elephant you are assigned. This is a farm mostly focused on breeding their elephants and raising the population. The last sanctuary is probably the best known out of the three of these. It’s called the Elephant Nature Park. They have rescued abused and hurt elephants and given them a safe place where they can heal and relax. Here we mainly just watched the elephants, and could not be too active with them because some of them had very sad pasts. Today I will tell you about my adventures with the elephants of the Thai Elephant Conservation Center.


PictureKabir drawing


The next day after breakfast, we went out to look at some Thai temples. There were more elephant monuments than I’ve ever seen in my life. In Thai culture elephants are very important. It is believed that the Buddha's mom dreamt of a white elephant when she was pregnant with the Buddha, which was a good omen. Also, apparently elephants helped to build the cities of Thailand. They are creatures of good luck and prosperity. There was one monument that was dedicated to elephants. All around the perimeter were statues of elephants.  I spent about 45 minutes sitting sketching it.


Picture
by Kabir
PictureKabir's photo
Then finally the day came. We got a big taxi and headed off to Lampang, to stay for three days at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center.  We drove for about one hour. But once we reached the center, our taxi driver accidentally drove us to the elephant hospital instead of the center’s resort where we were staying. When we got out for a minute to stretch our legs I suddenly froze. I saw a huge female elephant eating grass. I stared straight into her eyes, and suddenly I didn't care about a thing in the world. I was just amazed. I didn’t want to leave, but we got back in the taxi. Then our taxi driver got lost again, and we ended up at the top of a steep hill. My mom my sister, and I decided to walk down the hill so the taxi could turn around more easily. But once the taxi driver got down the hill he just drove away with my dad and forgot to pick us up at the bottom of the hill. So the three of us ended up walking 1 ½ km to the resort, but I’m glad we did.  On the way we passed by the elephant nursery. Four big wooden pens stood in a row, each with a mother elephant and her baby. Each of them had lots of open space and a big thatched section for shelter and shade. There was a bamboo stand in the middle of the four pens where the mahouts (elephant trainers) hung out. They were selling baskets of food for people to feed the elephants. I wanted to feed the elephants immediately, but my mom said we needed to check in at the resort first. But even on the walk on the concrete road we saw elephants in the forest roaming free down by the riverside. It was heaven.

We found the resort, which was just a few simple wooden cabins on a small hill. We walked down to the nursery about half an hour later. For the next three days, I would spend most of my time at the elephant nursery, but the Elephant Conservation Center has various other attractions. One of the things they have is their mahout training course. There are 1-, 2-, 3-, 10-, and 30-day trainings. You get to be the mahout, sleep in the mahout village, and take care of your elephant. Next year I will return and do the course with my mom.  The Thai Elephant Conservation Center also has a hospital just for the elephants. It is Thailand’s first and only elephant hospital, so if an elephant in another park is hurt or sickened, they get to go there. Feeding elephants is very difficult, so the park has made a plantation center where they grow all the elephant food. But even that whole garden could not feed all the elephants, so they buy fruits and veggies for the elephants. One day when I was there I saw a huge truck, all full of bananas. There must have been over a ton! And that was just for the eight elephants in the nursery! Outside the resort was a small elephant herb garden, used to make medicine for the elephants I suppose.
PictureKabir's photo
There is a visitor center about a kilometer from where we were, where most people go. There you can do much more touristy stuff. I preferred the gentle peace and quiet of the nursery than the noisy sounds of people. At the center the most popular attraction is the elephant show. The elephants demonstrate logging techniques, paint pictures, make music, and display agility. This is how the center makes most of its money so they can afford to keep the elephants. But we didn’t really like the idea of the show, so we did not go and see it. At the center you can also take an elephant ride on a traditional saddle called a “howdah” in English and a yaeng in Thai. We did not do this either, because we didn’t like the thought of the elephants having to carry the heavy howdah, which might hurt their back, feet, and tail

One thing I found very fun at the visitor center was watching the elephants bathe with their mahouts. The elephants would spray themselves with water, and go under water, only sticking their trucks above. One of the elephants looked like he was especially having a good time, swinging his head up and down in the water and splashing it all over himself. The mahouts were quite agile. They could stand on the elephants’ submerged bodies without getting wet above their ankles. And when it was time to get out, some of the elephants who did not enjoy bath time ran out and shook their bodies, while the others tried to stay in, and would even spray their backs with water after they got out. After the all the elephants left and visitors were gone, a man on a little raft came with a net and scooped up all the elephant poo from the water.
As I said earlier, I spent most of my time at the elephant nursery, where all the moms and babies lived in their wooden pens. I would wake up every morning, go down to the nursery and be with the elephants, feed them, draw them, and talk to them. I got to know the mahouts and met the dogs that hung around the pens. Balloon was a very cute, chubby lab-beagle mix who belonged to one of the mahouts. He did not mind the elephants at all. He would walk into the pens and play with the babies.

The first pen had a mom and her baby, Wassana and Malini. Compared to the other elephants Wassana was a small mother. She was only about 7 feet tall, and she was very dusty. Her baby named Malini was a sweet elephant. She was 1 year and 11 months, the same age as most of the other babies, but she really bonded with us, especially with my mom and me. Malini would reach her trunk out through her pen and kiss my mom’s hand.  

Picture
Picture
Kabir
PictureKabir
The second pen contained another mom and a two-year-old baby, Poompuang and Khai Wan. Poompuang had a very interesting past. She has had two daughters, two sons, one stepdaughter, and right now is looking after her stepson, Khai Wan. Khai Wan was by far the most greedy of all the elephants when it came to food. Of course, when I walked by the elephants with any kind of food they all looked over at me, but Khai Wan would stop his mom from getting any food just to feed himself. He would try to climb up over the pen so could grab the food first. None of the elephants ever got full, especially one time when we gave them sunflower seeds. That was these elephants’ favorite food. 


Picture
The third pen also contained another mom and baby, Poun and Poun San. Poun was often swaying back and forth, an elephant’s sign of distress, because she had an eye infection. Apparently she had thrown a lot of dirt in her eye, which was causing it be very runny, and she appeared to be crying. I stayed next to her every day and talked to her to help her feel better. I petted her right on the forehead, even though she got lots of elephant snot on my leg. She was a sweet old elephant. Her daughter, Poun San, loved food too, but she was very feisty. One time I was feeding her food, but there was nothing left in the basket. To make sure, she pulled the basket away from me. And she was really strong! She was only two years old and she was already stronger than my dad. She grabbed the basket away from me and when she realized there was no food inside, she crushed the basket with her foot. Her mahout had to run into the pen and take the basket away from her.

Picture
Picture
Kabir's photo
The next elephant did the same thing, but she was fully grown and did not succeed in pulling it away from me. Her name was Boon Mi. She was a huge mother elephant, but like Poompuang she was an adoptive mother. She was looking after a two-and-a half-month-old baby elephant named Sri Kham.
Picture
Sri Kham was born in the wild  the  middle  of  October,  and  her mom died about two months later  from  snakebite.  We  saw  her about ten  days after  her  mom  died. Sri  Kham was  not 
Picture
allowed to be fed by visitors because she was so young and was very sensitive after losing her mother. Elephant babies stay with their mothers for at least three years, and if an infant loses its mother, it’s not likely it will live for a week. If it does, it is very lucky.  Boon Mi was very loving and protective, and the mahouts were constantly playing with Sri Kham and trying to cheer her up. I could tell she loved the mahouts. All of the elephants did. The mahouts were family to them, and they did everything together. The mahouts hugged, kissed, and loved the elephants like their own children.   After a few days we could see that Sri Kham was very happy. This was good because I could draw pictures all of the elephants being happy. See the slideshow below.


Each of these eight elephants loved food, but some of them were very picky. For starters, the two-month-old only drank milk. The formula was made by the mahouts, since her adoptive mother couldn’t produce enough milk. Most of the elephants loved sugar cane, because it’s like a candy for them. When they bite down on the cane, it makes a huge crunching sound. But because the younger elephants have small or no teeth, it’s hard for them to chew, although greedy Khai Wan loved it. He put the sugar cane under his feet to break off the husk, then sucked the sweet gooey inside. Khai Wan’s mom hated corn, because whenever I handed it to her she threw it on the ground. Khai Wan would then reach his trunk out to grab the discarded corn. He is the greediest elephant I’ve ever met. One time in an attempt to get some food, he stuck his head out though the fence. We thought he was stuck, but his mahout said he did it all the time. When he finally got his head out, it was about ten minutes before he did it again.

Picture
We even spent New Year’s Eve with the elephants. We came down at 11:50 p.m. from our cabin and watched the elephants sleeping. Elephants sleep for four hours, from 11 pm to 3 am. While we were walking by, three of the dogs started barking and then came running to greet us. We ended up waking up Poompuang. As the clock turned to 12:01, we whispered “happy new year,” waved bye to Poompuang, and went back to our cabin.

Picture
On the last day we were there, I gave them one of these elephants their favorite food, sunflower seeds. I asked the mahouts how much these elephants eat, and they said 590 pounds of vegetation a day. They drink 50 gallons a day, and the mahouts give the water in a really cool way. The elephant holds its trunk out and the mahout turns on the hose. Then they pour the water down the elephant’s nostrils, and wait for the elephant to bring its trunk to their mouth and spray. It’s so cool! The mahouts let me do it myself, and when the elephant sprayed the water in its mouth the water sprayed everywhere, including on me.

It was finally the day for us to leave the elephants. We only left at 2 o’clock on January 1st, so I had some time to be with the elephants. I bought all the elephants some food, and I especially spent a lot of time with Malini and Wassana. Usually visitors aren’t allowed to go under the rope surrounding the elephant pens, but that day the mahouts let me go in so I could play with the elephants. I got to give Malini and Wassana big hugs, quench their thirst, and spray them with water. Wassana loved being scratched being her big, big ears. She leaned over to the fence to give me a type of nuzzle. I had to pull my hand away or not it would have been squashed between an elephant and the fence. I spent lots of time brushing dirt, rocks, and hay off of Malini’s back. She loved to put all these things on her back, but she loved it even more when it came off. It was sad when I had to say goodbye, but I was happy that there is such a place where the elephants were so happy. And I also knew would get to go to two more elephant sanctuaries. I will tell you about my other two adventures next time. But for now, ciao!

12 Comments

    KABIR'S BLOG

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    My name is Kabir Kukathas, and I am 12 years old. I live in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam. I am originally from Seattle, but in 2013, I moved here.  I love to draw, sketch, make cartoons and comics, make stop motion, and I especially like to draw elephants. I love all animals, but elephants are my true passion. I am writing a book about a elephant, and am giving the proceeds to elephants too. Around my house live lots of small animals, as well as my cat, and I like to observe them when they appear.
    Picture

    Archives

    February 2016
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014

    Categories

    All
    A DOG'S LIFE IN VIETNAM - PART I
    AN ELEPHANT SANCTUARY
    CONNECTING WITH ELEPHANTS - Part 2
    CONNECTING WITH ELEPHANTS - Part 3
    Island Of Sri Lanka
    LEARN HOW VIETNAM IS ACTIVELY WORKING TO HELP MARINE LIFE
    Local Environmental Awareness Foundation
    My Trip To Cambodia
    Thai Elephant Conservation Center
    Yala National Park

    RSS Feed

    Subscribe to BLOG BY KABIR by Email
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.