March 12, 2014
We are in Chiang Mai, Thailand right now and yesterday we took a van out of town and hung out with elephants for a day!!!!! First, they took us to see a baby and an adult elephant just to see how we should act around them and what the do's and don'ts are around elephants. Then we drove a bit more and met our elephants that we would stay with for the day. My elephant's name was Ban and he was really fun and energetic. For the first 10 minutes we "made friends" by feeding them a bucketful of sugar cane and bananas.  Next we were taught to check our elephant's health with the following steps:

1. To ensure they are constantly flapping their ears and moving their tails
2. To check for dirt marks on their ears and their bodies to make sure they are sleeping properly at night. The elephants lie down to sleep and change position every 40 minutes. It is hard on their organs if they stay in one position too long and need to switch positions often.
3. To check to see if the elephants are sweating. Guess where an elephants sweats? They sweat around their toes.
4. We had to check their poop... every time nature calls there should be 5-7 poop balls! The poop balls should show that the food is well digested and smell okay!!  And then, to check if they are drinking enough water, we had the delightful job of squeezing the poop and watching the green liquid run over our fingers.

The elephants throw leaves and dirt on their back throughout the day to protect it from the parasites and horseflies, so we got the elephant to lie down and brushed it all off with a special leaf brush.
To help keep the elephants clean and free from leeches etc. we scrubbed down the elephant with a scrub brush in the river (see video).  Click on any photo to enlarge it.

Finally we set out and rode bareback on the elephant's neck through the jungle. First we had to learn to mount the elephant. Through instructions, the elephant lifted his front leg and we used that as a stepping ladder to climb onto his back. Other riders mounted the elephant from the front by jumping onto his neck when the elephant lowered his head. Riding the elephant was probably my favorite part because it was like riding a horse but it is slower, you are higher up and it is way more enjoyable.