Elephants We'll Never Forget

Mahouts are elephant keepers and trainers. Having signed up for a 2 day training course on how to be a Mahout at a sanctuary for retired elephants we wondered whether we would spent 2 days shovelling elephant poop in the cold in a camp in the forest about 30 minutes outside of Luang Prabang via minibus and boat.

Things started well when the weather turned sunny and much warmer as we approached the camp with 6 others (4 canadians, a german and a dutch). We were shown to our cabins which were quite ritzy despite having no heat, hot water or inside shower and toilet.On the bed were our Mahout uniforms, denim blue shirts and trousers which made us all look like prisoners on chain gang duty as we walked up the road to our elephants.
There were six elephants, all retired from active duty and living out their lives being patiently manhandled by idiot tourists. For some reason we were assigned to the biggest (45 years old, 12 feet high and at least 5 tons) and were shown how to ride in the seat with a real mahout sitting on the neck.

Then we got to ride on the elephants neck which was actually quite comfortable apart from when we were both on the neck and the one behind got to sit on the elephants shoulders which gave a fairly deep massage to the inner thighs.Then we learnt our commands: Pi (go forward), cua (right), si (left), hao (stop), map (sit down) , Look (get up), bon (spray yourself (and me into the bargain) with water) and jap-ow (take the food).Once the initial shiock was over that we were in charge of the elephant, we throughly enjoyed riding them through the forest. They know the forest well so getting them to listen to us was the hardest part along with staying on when deep ravines were to be crossed.

Our elephant was so much taller than the others that when they went under the branches we went above so we had to be alert to avoid getting a branch in the eye or knocked off.

Although the elephants look huge and solid, they are quite bony and their muscles are very fluid so that when they walk you are not so much sitting on a solid object but trying to remain fixed to a rippling force 12 feet off the ground.

They eat constantly and this was a big difficulty getting them to not stop and eat leaves. Apparently they only sleep 3 hours a night as they need at least 21 hours for eating (250 kilos of food a day). They also had magnificent poos which were like loaves of bread emerging from the bakers oven. The correspondent from the regularity report was very impressed.

Once we had learnt our commands, ridden them and fed them, we got to bathe them. This involves riding the elephant into the river and then yelling "bon bon" which is the command for the elephant to spray water and wash itself. Our elephant was the only one to give a good spray soaking us both much to the delight of the watchers from the shore, who delighted in yelling "bon-bon" every two minutes.
All in all, a great time because of the elephants. They are wise, careful, seemingly thoughtful, spritual and prehistoric to our modern eyes. A really good memory.