I rode an elephant!

High up on my "to do" list for Thailand - ride an elephant. Yes, I know, it is touristy, and there are probably a million humanitarian reasons to not do so. But, elephant treks are a full fledge industry here in Chiang Mai, so I could rationalize that it was helping support the local economy and providing protection for the very animal that was about to haul me around a Thai forest for an hour.

I booked a full day trek with my hotel upon arriving in Chiang Mai. The package included an hour elephant ride, hiking, visiting with local indigenous people (the Karen weavers), hiking some more, and getting taken down the river on bamboo rafts. There were 8 in our tour. We drove for about an hour, somewhere southeast of Chiang Mai. The elephant ride was first up. But first, we had to walk across a rather precarious looking rope & bamboo bridge hanging about 50 feet over a very muddy, fast moving river, to get to the elephants. I'm not crazy about that sort of thing, but hey, there are elephants on the other side. I'm crossing the damn bridge.

We rode 2 to an elephant, in a basket right above the elephant's shoulders. Each elephant had a guide, who pretty much sat on the elephant's head and steered with his feet. I rode with Molly, another American from Seattle. As soon as the elephant started moving, it felt like a wild roller coaster ride, but with nothing to strap you in. We both held to the sides of the basket, and braced our feet on the elephant's neck. It took a little getting used to, and our elephant started moving down a path, up a hill into the forest. We were first in line, and our elephant took advantage of the rest of the group lagging and would stop for snacks, pulling leaves off bamboo shoots, shoving it's head further off-path to get some more.

At a certain point, the guides let one person on each elephant slide down off the basket onto the elephant's neck. Molly took that option (I stayed in the basket). But then our guide hopped off, leaving Molly as the driver. Again, our elephant saw this as a snacking opportunity. We finally got back on trail, the guide eventually hopped back on, and our trek ended with crossing the same river we took the bridge over, but this time with the elephant as our transport. I think the elephants like this - a nice cool down at the end of the trek. Once we were off the elephants, we were given a chance to feed them bunches of bananas, a treat they really enjoy. Having an elephant trunk get within inches of my face as I was trying to break off a banana is an odd feeling. But they truely are gentle creatures. They know just how close to get, and wait for the next banana.