Elephants!!

When I was in Thailand, elephant riding was everywhere. It was one of the biggest tourist-y things to do, and every tuk-tuk, guesthouse, and travel agency out there wanted to sell you elephant riding tickets. However because of this popularity, many unscrupulous elephant ride places have opened, and many do not treat their animals properly. I spoke to many friends who had seen the elephants beaten until they bled, or who had cigarettes put out on them. Because of this, the price in Thailand, and the popularity (read: overrun with tourists), I decided not to go for a ride in Thailand. I did still want to go elephant riding, I just wanted to support an operation that took good care of their animals. Thankfully, when I arrived in Luang Prabang, Laos, I got such an opportunity.

Brandon and I signed up for a 1-day mahout course with a company that rescues elephants from the logging industry in Laos, and supports conservation efforts with money raised from giving rides. Our day included learning basic elephant commands, learning lots of information about elephants, and riding them both by ourselves and with others. We finished the day by taking them, one elephant and mahoot/person, for a swim in the Mekong. Because it was the low season we were fortunate to be a nice small group of four, with only a french couple joining us.

This was definitely one of the highlights of my trip so far! The elephants were all well cared for, our guides spoke (relatively) good english and everyone was very friendly and knowledgable. In Laos, elephants are still used for logging, a fact that I was really surprised with. In Thailand elephant logging has been outlawed, but Laos is a much less developed country in many ways, including both conservation efforts and animal treatment. All of the elephants we rode had previously been used as logging animals, and it was really interesting to read about the history of each one in a book they had. Conservation efforts are difficult to encourage in Laos as elephants are pregnant for just about 2 years, and cannot be used for logging after giving birth. For loggers in Laos, this is a large amount of time to not be using an animal they bought to work with, and so elephant pregnancies are discouraged/prevented. Often, working elephants are under fed, treated poorly, or overworked. To be properly fed with rotating diets every three days, to receive proper veterinary care, to have a breeding program and to only have to give occasional rides to tourists is a big step up for these elephants, and I felt good supporting this company.

The riding itself was awesome. I was surprised how calm and gentle the elephants are. I know that they can still be dangerous and are still considered wild animals, but it was clear that they respected and obeyed their mahoot, and were used to their routine. Learning to climb on these incredible animals and ride one without an elephant saddle, just with verbal commands, was pretty neat. For me, this was one of the more expensive parts of my trip, but worth every penny!!

 

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