Adi Lady's Adventures: Swimming with Hephalumps

Day 2 of trekking in jungletons and today was spent with the elephants. With Teah as my guide, I hopped on the back of his moto and pootled off to the Bunong village to meet the mahout.

When we arrived Teah spent a while chatting to the mahout in the Bunong tongue, apparently the NGO's 'Elephant Project' had offered the village 100 dollars to part with their elephants. They were reluctant to do so as it wouldn't go far between 12 or so families, villages make more by working with the local tour companies. The Elephant Project seems to have cornered the tourism market and Teah expressed surprise as their prices are high. No surprise to me, I told him what the blurb said in the Lonely Planet. 'Local tour operators stress they only use humanely treated elephants but it is impossible to know the truth... Most elephants in the region are in a highly abused state... The local people see the elephants as a cheap tractor.' Teah was a tad pissed off, he feels the NGO are taking money from the local people by appealing to the sentimentality of tourists. The Bunong people do not have that luxury as they are poor and yes the elephants were seen as a working animals to help fell trees and carry wood. Now they are only used as a tourist attraction, the people have chainsaws for cutting and trucks for transporting now. The elephants I met seemed happy enough and there were no signs of mistreatment... Here are the photos.

Adi lady's first contact with elephants, this is Dring. The chain around her middle is used to tether her at night, otherwise she would probably wander up to 40 or 50 km.

If camels are the ships of the desert I guess elephants are the ships of the jungle. I rode a camel once, it was the second most uncomfortable thing I ever sat on, an elephant being the first. Handy tip from Adi lady, if anybody ever offers you a ride on a four legged mammal politely decline, I am totally fanny bashed. I'm also covered in scratches, elephants like to eat, in fact they should eat 200kg of vegetation per day. Dring regularly went off the beaten track in search of fodder which meant dragging me through the thick of the jungle ducking tree and branch.

After lunch it totally pissed it down, here are some pics of elephants snacking in the rain.

Then it was bath time, I don't think I've ever had so much fun (well with my clothes on lol). The elephants dip under the water and we wash them. The mahout but a layer of dirt on the elephant's back to act as sunscreen so they are pretty mucky.

So after the intimacy of joint bathing, I have some new friends.

The day finished with a long trek back to the village. Did I want to ride the elephants? Did I fook!!! Enough fanny bashing for one day thank you very much...