IN CAHOOTS WITH THE MAHOUTS!
The boys pose for a photo with the HummerIt was the earliest start on the trip so far for us, getting up at 6.30am to get a quick breakfast before heading off for our day with the elephants which John Roberts from Anantara Resort had kindly organised. The view over the Golden Triangle was spectacular at that time of morning with a layer of mist covering the valley below us. We knew we would be riding the elephants to some degree but could never have imagined what lay ahead of us for the next 7 hours.
Breakfast of Champions in AnantaraAt 7 we met Olivia who works at the sanctuary as well as all the mahouts who are the riders and care takers of their own specific elephant. These guys are paired with their elephant from a very young age and grow up training them. The strong bond between the two is clearly visible and the mahouts are incredibly good at commanding and controlling their elephant with precision. We were then brought to the elephant grazing area and paired off with a mahout who took us onto his elephant for a walk to the elephant riding training area. Below is a video of the day's highlights.
At the training area, we were given a run-down on the different commands to control the elephant and the different techniques to mount and dismount. One mounting technique really demonstrates the intelligence of the animals where they give you a boost up to their back with their leg. After being put through our paces for about two hours, we got to feed and play with some baby elephants.
After doing brunch for an hour, the chaps reconvened for a jolly good session of elephant polo! We weren't expecting this at all and were a bit nervous since none of us had ever touched a polo stick in our lives. We headed down to a small polo pitch and were given four elephants with Mahouts who would steer the elephants during the game. Naturally, being as patriotic as we all are, and Irish team of Dave and Fintan was teamed up against the Aussies of Rhys and Chuck.
Dave and Rhys go head to head
From the off, the Irish dominated with long spells camped down on the Aussie line. After some spectacular one-touch polo by the Irish, they began to run away with it and the game ended in a whitewash 5-0 victory to the boys in green. Needless to say, it will be a long time before the Aussies live this one down!
Jenny the Elephant Parades the Irish Flag after the 5-0 Hammering!
We all needed a cooldown after this Irish 5 goal rout, including the elephants so it was straight down to the Mekong River at full time to bath them. We were fully under the impression that we would all be safely watching from the shore as the elephants were getting a once over in the water but to our surprise, the Mahouts continued straight into the water with us all still on the elephant's backs! Next thing we knew, the elephants were dunking us under the water and spraying us with their trunks. Even though the thought of the elephants chucking us off and squashing us was a bit scary, we all had a great laugh in the end.
The boys go swimming with the elephants
A massive thanks has to go out to John Roberts, the director of elephants and Mark, the manager of the resort for organising our time at Anantara. John is doing sterling work with the Asian Elephant Foundation by setting up a safe haven for abused elephants and those that cannot work. Altogether they look after 27 elephants at the resort. For more information on what they do, visit http://www.helpingelephants.org/ .
We literally took 300 photos of the day with the elephants, so we created a slideshow below so you can look at some of the rest!
After all the elephant activity it was time to leave the Golden Triangle and hit the road for Chang Kong, the border crossing between Thailand and Laos situated on the Mekong River. Its necessary to get a barge across the Mekong River but unfortunately we missed the last barge and ended up spending the night in the small town with the intention of catching the first barge crossing in the morning.
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