We are officially "mahout" certified!! Eric and I just finished our 3-day elephant training course. We arrived at 6am on Monday morning to a beautiful elephant sanctuary in the jungle in northern Thailand. When we got there, we were each assigned elephants. My elephant was Gale, he is 10 years old and his mahout is Phum who has been with him since he was born. Gale acts like a teenage boy, he is rebellious, eats anything and everything and is always doing his own thing! It was crazy how we got to know all the elephants personalities in just 3 days! After we got to know our elephants, we learned different commands and how to act with our elephants. We learned different ways to get on and off, how to get them to pick stuff up and hand it to us...all sorts of things! This is me and Gale...
We got to take the elephants to a lake to bathe twice a day...the mahouts made it look easy, but my elephant didn't just stand there to let you wash him...he liked to go ALL the way under, head and all. He would just splash around with his trunk up like a submarine, and me getting soaked. My mahout taught me "bon-boon", which tells the elephant to suck up water into their trunk and then give you their trunk to point, and then they spray!!! I got Eric so good, his elephant wasn't nearly as cool as mine...he got drenched!!!
Every morning, we got to hike into the forest with our mahouts to find our elephants. This was my favorite part of the whole program. We got to spend a lot of time with them, clean them, feed them breakfast and then walk with them on a nice trek out of the forest. They were so helpful and pulled up their own chains and everything! It amazed me how intelligent these animals are!
This is one of the most beautiful sunsets from our camp. Our room looked out over a beautiful lake and we were able to see the elephants walking around all over the place. We actually stayed with the mahouts and really got to see their ways of life. It felt like we were living on a farm...only with gigantic elephants stomping around all over the place!...Katie
We got to take the elephants to a lake to bathe twice a day...the mahouts made it look easy, but my elephant didn't just stand there to let you wash him...he liked to go ALL the way under, head and all. He would just splash around with his trunk up like a submarine, and me getting soaked. My mahout taught me "bon-boon", which tells the elephant to suck up water into their trunk and then give you their trunk to point, and then they spray!!! I got Eric so good, his elephant wasn't nearly as cool as mine...he got drenched!!!
Every morning, we got to hike into the forest with our mahouts to find our elephants. This was my favorite part of the whole program. We got to spend a lot of time with them, clean them, feed them breakfast and then walk with them on a nice trek out of the forest. They were so helpful and pulled up their own chains and everything! It amazed me how intelligent these animals are!
This is one of the most beautiful sunsets from our camp. Our room looked out over a beautiful lake and we were able to see the elephants walking around all over the place. We actually stayed with the mahouts and really got to see their ways of life. It felt like we were living on a farm...only with gigantic elephants stomping around all over the place!...Katie
2 comments:
You two are sooooo amazing. So many exciting experiences. I am so proud of you both. Luv mom
Eric and Kate,
It is great to see how well you guys are doing. Katie seems to be able to aim the elephant's trunk better then she can throw a frisbee. Continue to enjoy!!!!!!!!
Love Dad
Post a Comment