Elephant project in Umphang - skin to skin with fascinating animals

Cutting down banana trees, feeding, washing and riding these amazing, largest living land animals on earth. 

This post is all about an incredible work experience with elephants.

When I was in Thailand, I was lucky to be able to participate in an elephant project that lasted for one week.

During that time our group was given the opportunity to get really close to these faszinating animals, to spend several hours a day with them. We learned more about their lives and habits and had a great time!

Our group had 3 Thai instructors who work together with the elephants every day. They could explain us everything we needed to know and answer all our questions. The Thai were really sympathetic, happy and cheerful all around the clock! :) This made everyone be in a great mood too and have more fantastic memories!

Alright, you're probably keen to know what we were even doing at the project!

I think it is best to give you an example of our day to introduce you to our daily life in Umphang. :)

example of one day in Umphang

8:00 am - getting up in our neat wooden accomodation, getting ready for the day, packing a little bag with water and gear to change into

8:30 am - breakfast

we always had shared meals, that was really nice because our group grew closer together and we got to know our Thai guides better as well

9:00 am - off to the banana tree fields

a really nice journey every morning even though it was still a little cold until 11am ; you could enjoy a stunning view on mountains, palm and banana trees, small huts, on pure nature... We all went by truck which was open an the end, that enabled us to have that great look out.

9:15 / 9:30 am - cutting down banana trees and cutting them into pieces for the elephants

Not an easy job if you are not used to it! We only used knives for that work.

Elephants don't only loves the trees...

Carrying the pieces to the truck was part of our job too of course ;)

.... until the truck was full!

- Having fun at work!

10:00 am - off again ! To the elephants!!!

First: the feeding! You cannot believe how hungry they are .. :D We were told the food we gave to them was only one meal, they are given dinner in the evening, too.

We fed them the banana tree and the bananas. No need to be afraid, the animals were real gentle. These elephants are former working animals, you could say they are "retired" now and the Thai and us volunteers are taking care of them.

The elephants we worked with were 37, 45, 48 and 51 years old.

It was interesting watching them eat:

Some elephants crash the piece of banana trees before putting them into their mouth while others simply pick up a big piece from the ground with their trunk and start chewing on one end.

There was one elephant who seemed to prefer throwing his food at his head instead of eating it... :D

11:30 am - when their tummies were filled, we were allowed to 
ride the elephants for a few minutes, either alone or two of us at a time.

The feeling of being on an elephant is a little strange at first ; if you sit in front, the chains hurt a little on your legs because you have to sit on the chains and hold onto them. After a few seconds though you will get used to it. Then you will have an amazing time!! :) 

You feel the elephants' muscles while walking and their hairy skin. - Right, their skin actually feels really hairy! And quite soft, not as hard as I had thought before. 

12:00 pm - lunch time. Such tasty food! The Thai always freshly prepared our lunch in the morning, a rice or noodle dish with vegetables and a few spices. Watermelon and pineapple for dessert. Mmmmmmmh :)

1:00 pm - time to get our big friends clean!!

Washing the elephants was one of the best parts of the day, you got really close to them and noticing they are enjoying it too made you feel so happy inside. We washed the earth, leaves and more dirt off their back, ears and head and made sure the animals are fully covered with water to cool down as well.

Afterwards we were allowed to ride them in the water if we wanted to. 

Sometimes they stood up and splashed water on you with their trunk :D  

2:00 pm - before heading back home, we had the opportunity to spend another few minutes with the elephants -  feeding, patting them... :)

around 3:00 pm - back at our accomodation.

Start of our afternoon programme. More about that in my next posts ;)

I'd like to add a few words about our great Thai instructors!! - They were probably the most caring people I have ever met. Such pure hearts! You can easily see they enjoy what they are doing and that they have been working together with the animals for many years. 

Here is a quote from my diary, an entry from January 13th 2015: 

"It is quite hard to imagine that this is the Thai peoples' daily routine. It's physically hard work!! At least there are some breaks inbetween... and of course you get to work with amazing animals. :) "

A job they practise from heart... it makes you so happy to see!

Another quote from my diary entry from January 16th : "[...] it was a very unique experience for me. Working together so close with these huge animals and noticing that, in a way, you are able to communicate. That's crazy. And pretty cool. You give them food and they give you something back that's indescribable... Washing them when they were lying down in the water, that was also very special. They did not cause us any harm, were peaceful and seemed to really enjoy it. [...]

Once again I realized today how lucky I actually am that I have the opportunity to experience this kind of life that is the Thai's everyday life. I am sure people like our elephant instructors would work as hard as some Germans do and would love to take the chance to travel.... they just can't because they can't earn a lot of money with their job here... so sad.

I should really keep this in mind when I am complaining about things..."

Grateful for this incredible experience and still smiling inside and out when looking back to this time, I say goodbye -

- and see you soon with my next post!

Love Yoko :)