An Elephant Tale

So much of travel – and for that matter, life – has to do with expectations. Your initial desire to travel is often based on the expectation of adventure or freedom. Many of your destinations are chosen based on expectations real or imagined. And many of your decisions on the road – where to go, where to stay, where to eat – are based on expectations obtained from information given by fellow travelers or handy guidebooks. We’ve all heard or told the classic ‘did not live up to my expectations’ tale: the temples that were simply old instead of excitably ancient, the restaurants that were crude or flavorless, the guesthouses infested with nightmarish inhospitalities. But rarely do we take the time to tell the tale of expectations exceeded. This is such a tale.
It’s an elephant tale really. A tale of larger than life proportions. It’s the tale of two travelers who happened upon an extraordinary place with some extraordinary inhabitants. It is a tale of knowledge gained on the banks of a muddy river. And, like all of my modern gypsy tales, my limited talent does it little justice.
It is a tale that begins on an early morning in Chiang Mia, Thailand. Like so many excellent travel adventures, it starts with a long ride out of town and off the beaten track. But, unlike many of my adventures, this one included a stop at the local market to pick up food for one of the world’s largest – and apparently hungriest – creatures: the Asian elephant.
Now most every traveler (or Discovery Channel enthusiast) can tell you that there is an epic and ancient link between Thailand and elephants. They adorn temples and royal seals. They wander the streets of Bangkok and roam freely in the jungles and mountains. Like America and its symbolic bald eagle so Thailand loves and reveres these majestic beasts. And beasts they were in my mind. Docile and dumb like cattle with a Dumbo-like goofiness and a humorously long memory. I had thus put little thought and assigned very unimaginative expectations into our trip to the Elephant Refuge Camp. I figured we would feed a few old decrepit animals and maybe see a few carnival tricks. How did I ever underestimate these lovely creatures?
Well, to begin with, they aren’t must to look at. Upon arrival at the facility, we were introduced to the staff and then led to a viewing room to watch a heart-wrenching video about the mistreatment and abuse of these animals before being led out to a “feeding platform” to meet the stars of the show.
Seeing an elephant face to face is always shocking even if you did pay $80 and boarded a bus labeled “Elephant Camp.” The dang things are enormous! Their legs look like the trunks of age-old trees. Their skin is a bulky armor of dusty, grayish pink. Their ears are oddly small unlike their famous African cousins, and their trunks are an absolutely ingenious tool unmatched in all of nature. Their eyes are kind yet mischievous, their smell unmistakable. And all around there is an air of intelligence and commitment. These are no docile creatures, awkward or lazy. These are individuals, wonderful and beautiful in a ‘boulder-esque’ kind of way. Their enormity, their strength, their movement was expectation shattering. But we did much more than meet face to face.
Mealtime at the Elephant Camp is a happy occasion. Each elephant, I discovered, had a mahout or owner/caretaker. A mahout is with an elephant for life – an intimate friendship that lasts longer than many we have with our fellow man. Twice a day, the mahouts call and lead the elephants to the platform where sweet, unsuspecting tourist like myself hand feed them whole watermelons, entire bunches of bananas, and various other fruits. Their dexterous trunks easily pluck each gift from your hands with pinpoint accuracy. Occasionally you move too slow and they simply reach over and grab an entire basket of food. Hey, the creature weighs several tons! It can take whatever it wants!
Feeding time also allowed us to “meet” the elephants. The organization was started by a tiny Thai woman named ?? who began rescuing mistreated and malnourished elephants in ??. She started out with one elephant and now houses and feeds over 30. Each member of this herd has a story and each story is one of sorrow and despair That large male, for example, was hit by a semi-truck and both front legs were badly broken. That’s why he stands so awkwardly. And that little female with the weeping eye? She’s blind. Both eyes were poked out or otherwise mangled by her owner as punishment for not working. Her constant companion, an older female, guides her everywhere. They are seldom seen apart. No, no one taught her to do that. It’s instinct. Or, as we human’s call it, kindness.
And on and on it goes. Gentle giants mauled, mistreated, and made to beg in Bangkok’s streets. Like slaves of an era past, their majestic shadows cast sorrow across a once proud legacy.
And so amidst the “Elephant Rides” and Bangkok begging there stands one woman fighting for an animal who cannot fight for itself. She feeds the hungry, cares for the sick, educates the masses and she does it all out of love for one of God’s greatest creations. Now if that isn’t saintly call me a sinner.
Our day was far from done. Following a wonderful lunch of our own, we wandered down to the river accompanied by the bulky masses of our happy hosts. It was bath time and an undeniable excitement filled the air.
I have had the pleasure of doing many things from swimming in glassy waters to catching amazing waves by beaches I felt certain only existed in surfer’s fairytales but that humid afternoon sharing a river with those bulky beasts will always hold a special place in my heart. It was the kind of experience that just reeks of happiness, that drips joy and wraps you up in a big blanket of amazement. Bathing an elephant is like flying back in time when absolute joy was nothing more complicated than a run through your mom’s sprinkler on a hot summer day. I sprayed – and got sprayed. I laughed and smiled until my smile muscles ached. And I realized after the bath was over that I hadn’t helped them at all. After all an elephant can bath himself. No, it was that big hunk of skin and muscle that had helped me. His slow movements and easy manners had erased at least a year of stress from my mind.
We would meet the two newest additions to that lovely family – a 15 week old and a 2 week old – a little later that afternoon. As their mommas corralled the tiny creatures (if you can call an animal the size of a cow tiny), I would smile knowing that the traditions of love and kindness was continuing in the form of this new generation.
It was, by all accounts, an expectation shattering day. A good dose of knowledge will do that for you – and so will a 2 ton animal with enough brains to leave behind a hopeless past and enough heart to continue into a bright future.