Patara Elephant Farm

 

 Aside from seeing my dear friend and her family, Patara Elephant Farm was the highlight of our trip.  I had done quite a bit of research many months ago because I wanted to find just the right place to visit with elephants in Chiang Mai.  In my opinion (as well as thousands of others on TripAdivsor, etc.) this is the best place.  The owners are Thai, and they started taking in abused/neglected elephants 14 years again, but only started having people come and visit, and thus generate income 8 years ago.  The vision of the owners, Pat and Dong, is for the 'elephant owner for a day' program to be education focused.  In fact, I had to send an email several months outlining why I was choosing their organization to visit.  They only want people to visit who truly want to learn about the animals.  Only 16-20 people visit per day, despite the fact that they have more than twice as many elephants.  In the past 14 years, they have successfully integrated 8 or 9 elephants back into the jungle, and 8 or 9 babies have been born.  The group of 16 was broken into two, so we were with only 6 other people which was really nice.  We each had an elephant trainer with us, just in case, and also to help with commands, etc.  Also, to make sure we were doing a proper job!

 The first step was to greet our elephant.  Because I knew that I did not want to ride the elephant through the jungle, Sergey and I shared.  Everyone else had their own. 

 Above is our elephant, pronounced Make-a-poe.  She is a 35 year old female.  She was great!  Before greeting her, Ben, the Thai head trainer/vet extraordinaire told us to make sure that her ears were waving and her tail wagging.  He said that this means happy, healthy elephant.  We went close to her face, so that she could see us.  (by the way, an elephants eyes are so much like a human's...it's obvious that they are looking into your eyes to sense if you are safe)  We fed her loads of bananas and a tamarind as a treat.  We had to touch her face and say "Didi Make-a-poe."  Good girl, Make-a-poe.

 After making friends with her, Ben taught us the 4 ways to check if an elephant is physically and mentally happy.  First, check to see if she is happy.  (ears and tail)  Next, check to see if her toenails were sweating.  This is the only place an elephant sweats.  Inspecting both sides of the elephant came next to see if both sides were dirty.  If yes, that is a good indicator that she is healthy, as it means she slept lying down on both sides in the night.  A sick elephant sleeps standing up, and if an elephant lies down and cannot get up, it will die within 24-48 hours.  I think because they have to eat so often.  Ben said "elephant like little machine.  Eat, eat, eat, 3 hours go by, then poop!"  On the left is the last of the 4 steps...poop inspection.  It should not smell bad--it doesn't, smells like fertilizer.  Then we had to count how many, "Only 2 or 3 overnight, sick elephant.  5 or 6, healthy elephant."  Next, we had to squeeze it to see if water came out.  "No water, elephant not drinking enough."  Finally, the fiber check, to see if the fibers flaked off easily.  One more thing to check is whether both sides of the elephants face have equal tear stains.  If not, the elephant is not well.
 
 

  After making sure that she was healthy, we had to wash her.  First, brushing off dirt and leaves, etc.  and then scrubbing her in the water.  It took about 45 minutes.  Domesticated elephants have to be cleaned, just like domesticated dogs.  It is hard work!  Wish I could get Sergey to work so hard on something I ask him to do!

 Above is Cha, our elephant trainer.  He was really great.  Young guy, maybe early 20s or late teens. 

 

 

All clean!  Ready for some exercise...elephants need a lot of exercise in order to properly digest their food every 3-4 hours.  If you see an elephant in the zoo swaying back and forth, it has digestive problems and is trying to simulate movement, since it doesn't have much space to walk.  After living like this for a while, Ben said they become mentally unhealthy and often unfriendly. 

Sergey climbed up on Make-a-poe like a pro...made it look so easy.  Most of the adults had difficulty. 

 

 

 Success!!  Sergey and the others then went on an hour long trek through the jungle.  I went with Ben to where the babies and mommas are.  I played with a 4 month old girl named Harah (rhymes with Sarah).  She was too funny!  I didn't have my camera with me, but she was so playful.  A man was bathing her mother, and Harah kept walking underneath her mom, rolling on the ground, scratching herself against trees, and plowing into me to test her strength, knocking me on the ground several times!  She kept curling her trunk around my arms and legs too. 

 

 

 

 

 

 Two water buffaloes, completely covered in mud.  I'm glad we didn't have to clean them!  When was finished, we fed Make-a-poe some more bananas and bamboo leaves, and bid her farewell.  I forgot to mention that before the jungle trek, we were served a traditional Thai meal, Thai style, on the floor. 

 
This is definitely a day we won't soon be forgetting!