Tuesday, May 7, 2013

For the Cost of a BMW...

At the equivalent of about $68,000 apiece, Thai elephants might certainly be perceived as expensive.

But that's before factoring in a life span of 80 years, literally tons of fun and adventure - and a lifetime of companionship.

We started our adventure by stopping by the Chiang Mai banana market to stock up on some "fuel" for today's major mode of transport: Asian elephant.

Dozens of banana bunches on board, we headed out to the town of Mae Wang, To the southwest of Chiang Mai.



Once there, we were given Thai language instruction for critical elephant directions like "forward", "left/right"(while kicking your opposite leg behind your elephant's ear) and the critical to know "stop!"

We then were led to an open area where we each boarded our elephant -either over the lowered head or via a leg assist - and slowly directed our elephant twice round a large circle.






We then had a communal lunch before we spent a truly amazing hour with each of our elephants, trekking up and down a sylvan path with amazing views of the Thai countryside.



Finally, we arrived at and entered a river where we dismounted and spent time frolicking with "our" elephants in the muddy but wonderfully cool stream.

That concluded our day of getting to know our Thai "transport" most intimately.

And let me assure you: no BMW could ever compete with this particular driving experience or match that return on investment!


4 comments:

  1. This is awesome! Never thought i would see the day that you and Erik were riding elephants! And who knew elephants liked bananas? Very cool photos. Can't wait to see what adventure comes next!
    - Mike

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    1. Never thought I'd see the day either!

      The trek was really something; up and DOWN hills.

      We've a CD of this. Can't wait to see those photos!

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  2. Wow, that is very cool! So you did not say what happened to the bananas...did you share them with the elephants? Did you have to give them bananas as you give gasoline to the BMW? Did Erick ate them all? Were you attacked by a monkey gang?

    Just kidding!

    Nice pictures in your blog, I been enjoying them

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    1. Yes. We've photos of feeding the elephants as a warm up exercise. Those trunks are all muscle. The elephants preferred two bananas at a time but I saw a few put a whole bunch in their mouths.

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