Almost our Last Anniversary...

Greetings once more from Chiang Mai!

Five years ago, on August 7th we gathered together with loved ones on Kalapaki Beach to embark on the adventure of marriage. With the stress of National Boards, Professional Cert., planning a year away, and moving behind us, Nick and I are thrilled to spend this anniversary falling in love all over again on our new adventure. Our (very expensive) present to one another was a trip to the most amazing animal farm in Thailand, Patara.

August 6 - 8:15 arrival at the farm. I'm getting goosebumps just thinking of the excitement I felt! Nick looks pretty excited too.

We passed through the fields of elephants to a gathering place where we donned our mahout gear, sunscreen, and the oh-so-important bug spray. Pat, the owner of the farm, gave us a history of the domestic elephant in Thailand and a rundown of the day. Truly fascinating.

Pat informed us that our first meeting with our elephant was extremely important and that the best way to make friends is to bring them delicious food. I knew I loved elephants for a reason.

The only way to approach an elephant is from the front, as elephants don't have peripheral vision. Before approaching we were taught how to determine the mood of the elephant from a distance. A happy elephant swings its tail and flaps it ears. I was the first person to meet my elephant (lucky). Since she exhibited the signs of happiness, I called her name "Nui" to which she responded by trumpeting and raising her trunk, signaling that I could approach, provided that I would be supplying delicious treats, of course. To get her to open her mouth I said "buhn" which made her lift her trunk so I could hand-feed her bananas, sugar cane and sticky tamarind. "Di di" (pronounced dee-DEE) was a little extra positive reinforcement for performing the demanding task of opening her mouth. She really was a good elephant. Di di Nui, di di. CLICK HERE FOR FEEDING VIDEO

Nick's elephants name is Mecome (MEH-come). His guide didn't speak a lick of English so his initial meeting was a little awkward. His elephant was 32 years old, huge and pregnant. Although Nui was also pregnant, she was much smaller at only 10 years of age.

After introductions, we left our elephants and reconvened to learn how to identify a healthy elephant in the morning. Four steps:

1. Elephants should ALWAYS be hungry. If they don't accept food something is wrong.

2. A dirty elephant is a healthy elephant. Dirt on both sides of the elephant means she slept laying down alternating between sides. Sick elephants know they might not have enough energy to get back up if they lay down, so they sleep standing up.

3. Sweat should be noticeable around an elephant's toenails, the only place they perspire.

4. The poop. Six is the magic number. --->

Dung means the elephant ate during the night. But we still had some investigating to do...

• It should have a mild odor. It didn't smell quite as good as the picture would suggest, but it was surprisingly okay. Stinky pooh means slow digestion; food should run its course in 3 hours.

• It should be wet enough to squeeze liquid from it - yep, we had to handle the "poops."

• It should be comprised of small flickable fibers. Large pieces or leaves means poor teeth or digestion.

Made from real elephant, so you know its good.

Next we learned how to unchain our elephants from their feeding area.

I then led Nui by her ear (very 1950s teacher of me) to an open area where I told her to lay down, "nonlong" (now-long), so I could clean the dirt off of her.

Once they laid down we whacked our elephants with bunches of leaves to remove the dirt. This is where I noticed that Nui was the only elephant still wearing her chain. Hmmm.

She was clearly lovin' life.

We then walked our elephants to the river where we lovingly scrubbed the dirt from their massive bodies. Any remnants of dirt can lead to skin abscesses if ground into the skin by passengers or cargo.

It's important to scrub behind the ears AND under the trunk. What's the magic word? Buhn.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ELEPHANT BATH VIDEO

One final cooling rinse and then its picture time with our squeaky clean elephants.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ELEPHANT RINSE VIDEO

Pat wrote helpful words* on our forearms before we got on the elephants:

By: walk forward

How: stop

Toi: back up

Nonlong: sit down

Look: stand up

Jana (pronounced yana): don't do that, which is useful for trying to prevent an elephant from eating a farmer's crop.

Up we go. There are three methods of getting on an off of an elephant. Nick and I chose this mounting technique. She's so helpful!

Nick had a larger climb than I did.

It's higher than it looks.

On the way to the jungle trail via the road.

View of my mahout, "A" from atop Nui.

Mountain goats have nothing on elephants.

They can easily navigate narrow pathways between trees.

This is hardly the steepest or muddiest section of the trail.

In retrospect, nothing about this experience was "westside."

Lunch at the waterfall...

but not before the elephants had a chance to cool off and play in the water. Some people chose to swim with the elephants but we had experienced enough dung for one day.

All vegetarian leftovers were fed to the elephants, including the banana leaf placemat and food containers.

The trip back to the farm was on the road. Nick and I were on the first two elephants in the group. Several (9 or so) elephants behind us, we heard an elephant trumpet LOUDLY, startled by a car. We continued to walk on and heard the same elephant call out again, this time responded to by a baby back at the farm.

Nick and I made it off the street and onto the dirt road that led back to the farm when the man on the elephant behind me began shouting profanities - turns out the elephant that his daughter was riding panicked and ran. The elephant calmed down but when it started running again, his daughter asked to get off. I patted Nui's head and told her, "di di" in appreciation of her staying calm...

*This is the last picture I took before finding out the "commands" written on my arm were useless in the event of stampeding elephants.

Most elephant communication isn't audible to human ears - the elephants in the back were sending warnings to elephants in the front.

Nui heard 'em loud and clear and took off toward the farm. My guide, seeing that I was about to be thrown from a rogue elephant, snatched me off and gracefully "assisted" my fall to the deep mud. He then hurried after Nui. Terrified that I was about to be trampled by the panicking elephants behind, I scurried into the prickly shrubbery alongside the trail taking shelter behind a rice farmer's hut. My only sustained injury - a brush scrape on my foot. Nick, looking a little concerned, quickly dismounted his shockingly placid elephant and we both waited for the mahouts to try and get control of the situation, which is difficult when elephants decide to go elephant.

Not everyone was as lucky as we were. In the midsts of the whole fiasco, two Canadian girls were riding tandem when their elephant flipped out and began sprinting down the highway. Eventually, they lost their grip, and fell to the pavement below incurring several strained muscles, one bitten lip, and a "precautionary" trip to the local hospital as their souvenirs.

Everything calmed down once all of the elephants made it back to the camp, and although there was no reason to get back onto Nui since the day was over, we made up through the exchange of a "di di" and an elephant kiss, which is actually more of a trunk suck to the arm. :)

Despite the overly exciting last minutes, I would relive the entire day again (and again) in a heartbeat - I'm sure this will be one of my favorite days, ever. And to think we almost celebrated with a spa day. Yuck.

We spent the next day, our actual anniversary, in the relative safety of a rooftop kitchen learning to cook 9 vegetarian Thai recipes.

Naan, who runs one of our favorite restaurants here in Chiang Mai, really schooled us in the art of Thai cooking.

Caroline, our sole cooking companion, was a bit hungover and understandably not much help during this phase of the red curry.

Whipping up some Tom Kha.

The first time we made Pad Thai that actually turned out well. Good job Nick!

Our dishes:

-fresh spring rolls

-papaya salad

-pineapple fried rice

-pad thai

-tom kha

-red curry paste

-pumpkin curry (ft. red curry paste)

-green curry

-mango and sticky rice

Tomorrow we head out for Pai, a small town west of Chiang Mai. We've had enough of the city, and I've been instructed by my mom not to ride anymore elephants, so...

Hugs, kisses, and misses,

Ty