2002-01-25

Riding an elephant

You can't appreciate how enormous elephants really are until you sit on one. Imagine riding on the roof of a small bus as it lurches slowly down a rough, bumpy road swaying sharply from side to side as it goes. That's about what it feels like. The only difference is the elephant has a mind of its own and I'm not entirely certain what it's going to do next.

The driver is perched on the elephant's head as if it were his favorite easy chair and he hasn't a care in the world. I found out that it isn't as easy as it looks. A little later he hopped off and offered to let me ride on the elephant's neck for the duration of the trip. It took some effort to stay balanced with my legs around its neck and my hands on its massive head. He could have thrown me off with a single sneeze.

You can't see it from the ground but elephants have hair on their head. It is short but firm much like a hair brush.

Each driver carries a wooden stick about two feet long with a large metal hook on one end. I was curious what it was for but I had no way to ask the driver. Eventually, I saw a driver use it to steer the elephant by wrapping the hook behind the elephant's ear at the point where it meets the head. A quick tug encourages the elephant to turn in that direction. The elephants behaved pretty well and little of this was ever necessary. Mostly, the drivers communicated with the elephants by simply grunting at them to indicate disapproval. The elephants and drivers seemed to get along well.

We paused to rest and I bought two bunches of bananas to give to the elephant as a treat. The elephant knew I was holding the bananas and arched his long trunk up and backwards over his head. I put a bunch of bananas on it which he grasped as easily as you would with your fingers. He gulped the whole bunch at once and raised his trunk to receive the second bunch which I also gave him. But now I was empty-handed and felt slightly vulnerable on the elephant's neck when he raised his trunk for another treat. I had nothing to give him but his trunk was waving in front of me asking for more bananas. Not knowing what else to do I grunted to him just as the drivers did and patted his head. It seemed to work.

I went for a ride down the river on a bamboo raft. There were two men handling the poles and all I had to do was sit and watch the scenery go by. That got boring after a while and one of them let me trade places.

These are people from a hill tribe village dressed in traditional brightly colored clothes. They are skilled at weaving and beadwork and make their own goods to sell. Botter is in the background of the photo. He just gave them advice on how to improve their sales by not storming the tourist all at once and scaring him away. I bought a couple of woven bracelets so it must have worked.

A view of the river. If you look closely you can see two men on a raft.