A common day at the elephant camp - part 1
As we wake up in the morning we first unzip our tent to see where Silver Flower and Sri Nuan are standing. Each morning, very early, they are being moved and sometimes they are moved to the field in front of our tentcamp! Then we have breakfast with toasted bread made above an open fire, usually with jam (and every now and then with some cheese), then we start washing the bananas, to clean them from pesticides, and walk to the elephants. Silver Flower is always first to come and get them, she comes running at us as soon she sees us coming. Then she eats away as much bananas as she can possibly put into her mouth with her trunk. Meanwhile keeping her naughty eyes on the number of bananas we have still got in our hands and which are still laying on the ground. It’s difficult to sneek around her to give the same amount of bananas to Sri Nuan. Often Silver Flower comes running after us, and the bananas! We call out “hauw” and try to stop her. Just stand still in front of her nose then she stops eventually, Lee learned us.
Safely arrived at Sri Nuan, fortunately still with all bananas, we call out “ma Sri Nuan, kuai kuai!” Which means: “Come here Sri Nuan, we have got bananas!”. Sri Nuan clearly has a different pace. She does come running at us, cause she is as hungry as Silver Flower. But when she’s got her first bananas in her mouth she chews calmly and seems to take the time to absorb everything around her. Today she obviously liked to be cuddled, after she had had her bananas, we could scratch her behind her ears, and stroke her nose while she put her trunk into her mouth. “Sri Nuan is beautiful” Lee says and that’s what she is for sure. Silver Flower also lives up to her name. She is all grey compared to Sri Nuan. Silver like, the color of her skin which she tends to spray with water constantly.
Because we don’t have any running water, we often go to a nearby village to go to the toilet and take a shower as well. At least, washing ourselves by throwing water over us on the same lavatory! Then it’s already time for lunch again. Nong our cook is really fabulous, and knows how to make the most varied dishes on a gas stove and a cole fire, like magic. At least 6 different dishes for a meal, because we have a vegetarian and non-vegetarian side within our team.
Thus we often eat a curry served in a pineapple or coconut, the most special soups and a lot of vegetables and tahoe, healthy! Everything’s very cheap ofcourse, because the ingredients are bought at the local market, early morning. In the afternoon we try to relax a bit, go online to work on the website and figure out plans for our program during the tour. Like this we have sent out e-mails to 60 media one day. Already response is coming in, so we hope to invite a lot of media to join our tour.
In the evening we prepare the medicine for the elephants. Four pills of penicilline for Silver Flower and two for Sri Nuan. Stuck away in a bunch of bananas, not too many pills at once, cause then they smell them, ready to feed to the elephants later on.
It is quite scary to walk into the field after dark. Lee once stepped over a snake and yesterday he all of a sudden called out loud: “There are many snakes out there tonight!”. So it’s a real adventure trying to find the elephants at night. Walking in a line on our sandals we cross the dark field. Narong is amused by our fear of snakes, therefore he tries to scare us by yelling “snake” all of a sudden and run past us. Maybe next time we will wear socks and shoes…After all our work is done, we often play some games with the mahouts. It gets dark early here, and we seem to go to bed earlier and earlier. So it’s not just a good week for the elephants to get some rest, but for us as well! Fortunately the wounds of Silver Flower and Sri Nuan are getting better thanks to the penicilline and the excellent care of grandpa Duang.
We do hope ofcourse that we will all be completely rested and fit, before starting our journey. Lee already gave everyone in the team a lucky chain which we should wear during our trip. The chain is made of little pieces of a temple bell more then a hundred years old and very scarce in Thailand. The whole team is very happy with it and we wear it every day, good for our karma…
