It kept running through my head, then I decided to drop both an email about my visit before making a decision. I made up my mind on the later as they seemed patient enough and did not rush me to make a booking. From what I read, Baan Chang is a smaller conservation centre and houses about 17 elephants.
Due to my burn, I postponed the trip to the second last day in Chiang Mai. I didn't want to cancel it as deep down I really wanted to do this, so I rang and asked if I could take part in things that wouldn't aggravate my wound. The person communicating with me was nice enough to suggest what I could do. But in fact I didn't skip any of the activities ;)
I was the first one to be picked up, and soon the van filled up and we arrived at the park about an hour later. We got a short briefing by the park owner. I am now confused who is the park owner, as this guy Pom says he is, while the lady on the phone talking to me named Tinar is too. Each of us pay 2400 bahts for it, its about S$100. The money as the owner said goes towards keeping the elephants full and happy and improving the home for them.
I was thrilled when I first saw the elephants. Since we arrived, we could see from afar they were swaying their trunks happily side to side. When we got nearer with baskets of sugar canes and bananas, you could see them dying to get near to you. But they were chained to the trees for safety reasons. I got to feed 3 different elephants and also got pictures taken. I did seem really delighted on the pictures.
After feeding, two elephants were brought up to demonstrate the bareback riding. We were taught simple commands to instruct them to sit, walk, turn and stop. We then each took turns to get on the elephant. After that, we were asked to get on a second time to make them walk a short distance and command them at the same time.
Doesn't the elephant look pretty happy? I don't know but it does seem like they really are. It's infectious and I am really glad I was there to spend time with them! They are not smelly like most people think! Even with their dungs in the bath pool, I didn't smell a thing. Probably I'm intoxicated by them, still am. :D
We had lunch after the riding lesson. After food, we were going to go trekking with the elephants! Two to one elephant, I shared Jumbu (her Thai name isn't spelt like this though but Woody, our trainer, said its the name of the fruit) with a 65-year-old American auntie. I sat in front, commanding the elephant on the way up, but Jumbu was always hungry, she kept getting sidetracked (by food of course). It took a while before we finally got to the destination then they had a rest before we made our way down. I decided not to ride on the way down so I walked between the elephants, and trying to avoid getting my face smacked by their wagging tails. LOL.
We walked them to their bath pool where they happily soaked themselves. Some layed down and gosh... pooed at the same time!!! The baby elephant (about 2 years) was sitting in the middle, getting scrubbed by the caretaker. So so so adorable! Auntie and I began to wash Jumbu too. Some of the people in the tour decided to just watch, they were probably afraid of the "dirty water". After a while, I got distracted and started splashing at the passing elephants. Most of them are older and ignored my splashing, I think they quite enjoyed the cool water getting on them. But the baby elephant was the most cheeky, he went around spraying water... and when I splashed on him, he made sure he had his revenge too!
Thanks to Woody who caught this funny picture! The elephants sure made my day and a fantastic end to my holiday. I would recommend anyone doing this if you're an animal lover :)
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