From the 10th Beth and I went to Lampang an hour southwest of Chiang Mai to the Thailand Elephant conservation center. We had signed up for a 3 day mahout (elephant driver) training course. It was an amazing 3 days we started early learning to give about 12 of the 60 commands that the elephants understand. We also participated in 2 of the 4 daily shows for the public – demonstrating the training techniques and the logging skills of the elephants.
After a days work we when with our mahouts to take the elephants up into the mountains of the park to leave the elephants in the jungle overnight where they can sleep and forage.
At 6AM we trekked back on foot to the jungle to retrieve our elephants and bring them back for bathing.
Click Below to watch a video of me washing my elephant in the morning
[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-1438794899849154315]
[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-2995775964448572157]
Looks like you guys are having a blast! Fantastic pics of you on the elephant, too funny!
How do your round up your elephants in the morning? Here kitty kitty kitty just doesn’t seem to cut if for me 😉
I also really like the picture of all the food piled up incredibly on the guy’s transport vehicle (whatever the heck it is).
I think I might have to go sometime!
Cheers!
Shamus
Amazing pics! Everybody at the office loved them!
See you Sunday, Love Mom
Just watched the video. Great expression on your face Chris!!!
You’ve got this combination of fear and excitement that I’ve never seen before 😉
Still looks like a fantastic time!
James
Hey guys!
Sorry, I put your email address on a piece of paper somewhere and completely lost it, but I googled bubblemakers and luckily came to the right place.
How is the travelling going? I have to say that I miss Look Khang. I got my painted hat back in one piece though, which was very important to me. I have a couple of photos of you guys, so we’ll have a to figure out a way to send them around.
Hope things are going well (ps, I got massacred by bed bugs on my last night in Bangkok… still have the bite marks. Nice).