The Adventures of Beauty and The Beast: A TRULY AMAZING DAY WITH THE ELEPHANTS!

While Marc and Rosalie ditched us, Dominique and I planned for an amazing day with the elephants at the Patara Elephant Farm in Chiang Mai…..it was truly a once in a lifetime opportunity to interact and be so close to these gentle giants for the whole day. This farm rescues elephants from unliveable conditions such as circuses and illegal logging camps….and because the population of the elephants have disappeared by 50% in the last decade they are focusing on breeding as well. They now have 55 elephants on the farm (5 babies born in the last couple months). Upon arrival we sat down with one of the caretakers 'Art' where he educated us about their farm, the elephants, and what it's like to take care of them everyday. While that was happening the other elephant handlers were "sizing" us up and deciding which person would be best compatible for their elephants.

SIZING US UP AND GETTING EDUCATED!

Discussed feeding, elephant health care, bathing, etc.

Did you know elephants only sweat from one part of their body?? Do you know where?

Let my assistant Vanna show you….between their toenails! Dom is doing the health-ckeck..all is good! There is moisture between the toes! Great job Doms

Next comes the……..

POOP! Yes, Vanna is carrying Elephant Poop…She must inspect it, make sure elephant is healthy!

Rip it in half, study the fibres and SQUEEZE! Ah, what do we have here? Drips! That's a good sign, means elephant is hydrated and drinking water! Yay for Lucky! Not so good for Doms!

AND Last but not least….

we must smell the poo…hmmm?…smells kinda grassy, not bad, but I can definitely tell it came from inside!

Dominique was placed with 'Lucky' for the day. Lucky was born and raised at the farm, she is now 14 years old and is pregnant for the first time. She is currently 12 months prego and has another 8 months to go. I was matched up with 'MasseyNoi' for the day. She is the first elephant they received on the farm, she is 45 years old and very gentle. She is the mother of 'Lucky'…..I guess they wanted to keep moms and daughters together for the day :)
It's quite easy to make friends with an elephant….just bring a huge basket of bananas and approach it with a friendly smile and call their name…..so Doms walked over to Lucky and called her name and said 'BON"…….instantly Lucky's trunk went up and she opened her mouth for Dominique to feed her. They became best friends after that! :)

Before bathing we had to clean off the elephants as they spray their back with dirt debris to help keep the bugs off their back.

WHACK….."Harder" they were saying to Doms

Our next task took a little longer….the gentle giants take awhile to scrub down!

scrubbing carefully around the eyes

Lucky likes her head scrubbed

Don't forget the tail

or the trunk!

One final last rinse for them !

And ours!

After the bathing of the elephants we changed into our 'Mahout' outfits…... next was how to get on your elephant (no platform allowed here) 3 options….by the trunk, by the leg or get elephant to lay day and straddle it (that's the easy way…no points)!

Dom getting on via trunk

almost there

Sawatdee Kaa!

AND, now my turn. Art told me I could not get on MasseyNoi the 3 ways, I had to run and jump on her….so I waived my hand in the air and said "no problem" and we laughed. I approached MasseyNoi and Art said ok, you have to jump…..no shit!?!….I really had to jump…and…white girl can't jump!