Water Soakers of the Wild
Along the river Kwai Noi in Kanchanaburi, our amazing tour guide Niwat took us for our next adventure – the Elephant Village. We were still in a daze from our incredible experience of being up close and (very) personal with the tigers at the Tiger Temple.
We reached the elephant village. It was not crowded at all. It was laid back and quiet and didn’t seem to be a tourist trap or a money-making establishment .
We changed into our bathing suits in a small, ramshackle changing room shed. Then we walked down to a waiting area where two small elephants stood patiently with their mahouts. We had already picked up bananas for them and upon spotting these favorite treats of theirs, the elephants started stretching their trunks enthusiastically in our direction.
We started to feed them one by one and I have never seen food disappear so fast before my eyes. It reminded me of my hyper boxer dog at home. When I would give him small treats, he would swallow them up with barely an imperceptible gulp and would stare back at me feigning innocence, pretending he never received anything. Its almost like he wanted me to believe the treats were getting lost somewhere in his cavernous mouth, but his shiny saucer-sized eyes would betray the culinary delight he was experiencing.
But these beautiful elephants showed no reaction ( at least none that I could decipher) and simply ‘took’ the banana out of my hand and swifltly brought it to their mouth and it disappeared instantly as if by magic. No movement of the mouth or swallowing could be detected. Agreed their mouths are enormous and the banana is in comparison almost the size of half a peanut but I have never seen a magical act quite like this.
We kept feeding them bananas one at a time and they kept vanishing in an instant. We could have fed the elephants a bunch at a time and hurried the encounter, but there was no fun in that. I loved having their nimble trunk pluck the banana from my outstretched hand and if I was not fast enough with the next banana, the trunk was back in an instant hovering all over me and even trying to help itself to my pockets and other hiding places! I never knew it could be so heartwarming to spend a simple 10 minutes hand-feeding these gentle giant creatures.
Our two beautiful elephants had distinct names. One was called ‘Miss Universe’ and the other was ‘Full Moon’. I tried to ask the mahouts the purpose behind the naming. They grinned happily and rattled off some incoherent explanation as to why it was completely normal to give elephants such names.
We walked alongside them on the sloping dirt path down to the river. This big creature was comfortably sure footed as it plodded down whereas I was gingerly watching my steps and making sure I didn’t slip or slide on the gravely, muddy path. All of us waded into the river and the water was only about waist deep. The river water was not a clear blue hue but it was refreshing and felt good to get in and dip.
The mahouts invited us to bathe the elephants. We soaped their tough, prickly skin but I doubt they even felt our enthusiastic rub-downs.
