Our Elephant Camp Trip

The picture of the welcome sign didn't come up and I'm working against the clock to leave for Mandalay. We left Yangon at 5am and only stopped once for a rest stop and some fuel. We wondered if this trip was wise because of the time it took to get there and we were traveling at the hottest time of the year. We learned when we got there, that the elephants are on "holiday" during the hot months of March through May, but we were able to have a ride for about an hour in the afternoon we got there and the next day see how they were trained and how they worked.

Here the elephants are coming into camp for our rides. There is a young man who sits on the top of the elephant's head and a kind of "saddle" is behind him.

The elephant comes to a stand with his head under the stand. There are about a dozen steps up to the stand and then we climbed down. At first we both were on one elephant, but we were really uncomfortable --no place for legs as we can't sit cross-legged as the natives can-- so more elephants came and we each had our own elephant.

We were given cushions to sit on but the ride itself wasn't very comfortable. But the trip was very interesting as we went along a nearly dry river-bed and through a village where the people who care for the elephants live.

Dad really enjoyed talking to the master trainer, who with one "barked" order could get the elephant to obey. I think he will write and tell you some of what he learned.

On Tuesday morning we were invited to sit on the elephants leg or stand by it.

This is the elephant that I rode the night before. The young man is 17 years old and looked about 12. They are trained for several years and when they are 22 or so go with the elephants to work the teak logs.

We watched them perform several "tricks".

Here they were all sitting with front legs extended.

Here they had all four legs on the stump of a log.

Then we watched two big elephants nudge these logs down the hill and then this one picked up one end with his trunk.

Holes are drilled in the end of the log and a chain attached to the log and the elephant to drag the logs to where a truck would be.

When we were riding, the elephants walked across this log too.

The generator wasn't working so we slept very warm. Because it had been so dry we were told that there were no misquitos, but since we had also been told that the area had malarial misquitos, we took the antibiotics before we went and slept with the misquito netting down.

All in all, a very interesting trip, despite the hours in the car and the heat. We were all glad we went. Now off on another one.