As many of you may remember, my attempt at ‘Shaughnessy’s Exciting Elephant Adventure’ last season was derailed by the angry and slightly scary Phuket Taxi “union” (*cough*mafia*cough*) – who blockaded the crew tour bus into the port and refused to let us depart.
This was I suspect – though I have no actual confirmation – one of the reasons the flagship ported in Padong Bay this season instead of in Phuket ‘proper’, not to mention the fact that this is a much nicer port, with miles and miles of white sand beaches and clear water that’s well worth the fact that it’s a tender port instead of a docked.
Whatever the reason for the change in anchorage, our HRM decided to give the crew tour another go, and the flyer came out announcing it a few weeks ago. In total, 17 of us tumbled into two waiting mini-buses for the 45 minute right out to the elephant camp.
To be honest, I was a little nervous about this excursion, I’ve heard terrible things about how some camps treat these beautiful animals; but this particular establishment is more of a sanctuary than anything, and the elephants we interacted with showed no signs of fear or abuse and their trainers treated them exceptionally well. While they did have elephant hooks, the only time I ever saw them used was as a gentle guide (almost like you would tug on a puppy’s leash) to make them go in the right direction – most of the direction was given by voice commands and normal touch (our guides during the actual ride used their heels to give commands, just like you would on a horse). I never once saw an animal struck. I can’t, of course, speak to what may or may not occur when out of public view – but you can tell a lot from the behaviour of the animals, and these creatures did not show any signs of being abused either in appearance or demeanour.
The only time I’d ever ridden an elephant was when I went to the circus when I was seven or eight years old and all I really remember about it is that my mother was furious because someone cut in front of me in line after we’d been waiting for 15 minutes (it’s really strange the things you remember) – so I wasn’t exactly prepared for the experience. For one thing, in this case we weren’t actually on the elephant’s back directly; we were seated in these palanquin style benches on top instead. The benches were comfortable enough, but the safety bars were pretty high up (as in you could rest your elbows on them quite comfortably instead of them being low across your lap like a seatbelt) so whenever the elephant went downhill you had the feeling you had to hang on for dear life or you were going to slide off right over his ears!
The elephant ride wasn’t actually the only activity of the day, there were also all sorts of really interesting demonstrations on local cooking (how they make coconut oil, how they de-husk rice etc etc) and a ride in a buffalo-pulled ‘tuktuk’ which kind of made me feel like we should have been going on a hayride!
Yup yup yup…one more thing off my bucket list!
Well done hon! Keep that pencil sharpened what’s next on the list?