A Boy and His Elephant

There have been a number of times during our adventure in Asia that I will always remember and look back upon fondly. Driving go-karts around Tokyo, standing at ground zero in Hiroshima, and seeing the sunrise in Bagan are a few of the moments that I’ll always remember. However, spending a day with the Karen Tribe and their elephants in Thailand may have been the greatest of them all…which sounds ridiculous because we still have two weeks. But c’mon, how will anything from here on out top playing with a baby elephant?!The Karen Hill Tribe people invite tourists to come act as “caregivers” for the tribe’s elephants for the day. They purposely only permit a small group of tourists (~8 to 9 people) to come each day as opposed to the larger “sanctuaries” that bring in hundreds of people per day and overwork the elephants. According to their website, the tribe is striving to bring the elephants out of endangerment. They see it as their duty to educate visitors on what a proper environment for elephants looks like. It was obvious from the start that the main focus is on the elephants and their health, both physically and mentally. Not profits. The elephant population is dwindling in Thailand and village is doing what they can to help replenish populations to a normal level. A healthy elephant is a happy elephant!

The Karen Hill Tribe people live in a remote village about two hours outside of Chiang Mai. We were picked up quite early from our hotel by our guide Sun. He makes the four hour roundtrip five days a week and teaches english to children at the local school in the village. The drive was scenic (and bumpy) and before we knew it, we arrived to our destination. It’s not everyday you drive up and see elephants just chilling. Let alone A BABY ELEPHANT!The baby elephant (who is currently nameless) was six weeks old and full of energy. He was like a puppy except 300 pounds of course. His skin felt like a rough leather and he had little prickly hairs all over his head and back. After getting more comfortable with the little guy, I quickly found him sitting down in my lap like a huge lap dog.

All in all there are seven elephants that are cared for in the village. The tribe made it a point to tell us the importance of a healthy elephant and the signs that help trainers determine how healthy each elephant is. Here are some simple signs to look for should you ever find yourself in the care of an elephant.

Watch to make sure ears flap back and forth regularly
Look for sweat near the elephant’s cuticles
Elephants do not have tear ducts. Look for a trail of tears on both eyes and to equal length
They’re constantly eating. If the elephant isn’t even munching on grass, something’s up
Dust on both sides of the body shows the elephant is well rested. The elephant will roll over to one side and sleep for an hour and then roll over to the other side to sleep. Sick elephants won’t lie down on their sides.

Last but not least, you can tell a lot about an elephant’s health by looking at its fecal matter. Each elephant dropping is about the size of a large cantaloupe. A healthy quantity is no less than 5 or 6 droppings per session. An elephant eats all day so they poop A LOT. Healthy dung has a lot of moisture (you could ring the water out and drink it if you were stranded in a desert…ask Bear Grylls) and is threadlike from the grass they eat. The fibers tell us that their digestive system is functioning properly as opposed to large leaves that aren’t digested. Fun fact, after ringing the water out, healthy bowel movements have no scent. Alright, that’s enough poop talk, but now you are equipped with more elephant knowledge!Now that our education session was over, it was time to start the caregiving. The elephant that was chosen for me was a 17-year old stud, Poojung (pronounced Poo-chahn). Poojung is a busy fellow having already fathered ten children, including the six-week old running around. The boys got some swimmers. I needed to make sure my boy was well fed so I chopped up some grass and fed him some sugar cane and bananas. I fed the elephant by yelling “Bon!”. Upon hearing the command, Poojung rose his trunk and exposed his mouth, eager to get some bananas. Once he devoured the banana, I then told Poojung “Dee Dee”, which is similar to saying “Good boy” and patted him on the side of the head.

Meg had the joy of caring for Champoo, the baby mama of Poojung, and the little baby. She had her hands full as the baby required quite a bit of attention. At one time, the baby knocked Meg down while she was chopping up grass to feed the elephants (she was holding a machete however did not lose any limbs). When Meg was bathing Champoo, the baby was flopping around in the mud and clearly in need of a nap.

Once the elephants were fed and washed off, it was time to saddle up! One of our concerns was whether riding elephants was detrimental to their health. This seems to be the case based on what you read online. Sun assured us that riding elephants is not bad for their health as long as it is done properly. Elephants, when trained properly, are extremely smart animals. The Karen Tribe elephants are trained to help riders get on top of the elephant and into riding position. There are two ways to do this.

Slightly kick the front-right leg of the elephant and they will bend their ankle for you to step onto. Pull yourself up and you’re ready to go.
With both hands, tap the elephant right between the eyes. The elephant will lower their trunk. Step onto the trunk and the elephant will bring their head and trunk up which helps you get into riding position rather easily.

It was unbelivable to watch the elephant manuever to each cue. I chose option two, slapping gently on Poojung’s head as he lowered his trunk and brought me on up.Meg and I split our riding time with Poojung. I rode for about 20-30 minutes and then I climbed off and Meg got on for her time. There are few things I wanted more on this trip than me riding an elephant. Well, I got my wish and in the most humane way of course.Riding bareback on an elephant is an amazing experience and one I won’t ever forget. I also won’t forget how damn tired my legs were from keeping them in a bent position behind the elephant’s ears. Poojung spent most of our riding time pulling down tree branches with his trunk to munch on. Let the BIG DOG EAT!Meg was much more apprehensive then I was when she hopped on Poojung. When I was riding, we were behind a rather slow elephant however when Meg started her ride, Poojung had enough of this dilly dallying. Like a true gentleman, Poojung pulled ahead and let Meg lead the pack. Also giving her the best view. Meg did have one little mishap. She rode right into a big spiderweb which caused her to have a minor freakout. The spiders are quite large in Thailand (I came up close to one) so I can’t blame her. Our trainer quickly jumped up on the elephant and assured Meg that she did not have any spiders in her hair. After this incident, one trainer was nice enough to clear the rest of the way of spiderwebs with a long stick he was carrying.We finished our time with the elephants by giving them a nice bath. Poojung proceeded to take the big dump where we were bathing the elephants and peed as well (what a good guy) therefore we moved upstream a little and gave him a nice sponge bath. And with that, our time with Poojung was over. It was an unforgettble experience. I hope I get to see him again and he’ll probably out live me! Elephants can live up to 135-years old. Hopefully at the rate he is reproducing, he doesn’t burn out quickly.What a fantastic day we had with the Karen Tribe people and their elephants. It was an experience we will never forget and if you ever are in Chiang Mai and looking for a true elephant experience, look them up. The training staff is extremely professional and cordial. We would go back in a heartbeat and who knows, hopefully one day we will! The Karen Tribe’s website is located here: