Disappearance Nhung Nhing solved
Lee, Sri Nuan’s former mahout Wichian and I, returned to Phuket last week to once again search for Nhung Nhing, Sri Nuan’s lost daughter. Wichian has made some phonecalls to gather some more information about Nhung Nhing. We now have the name of the new owner, the name of the truckdriver, the names of the two other elephants which were also on the truck together with Nhung Nhing.
Whichian knows the mahoutmanager of FantaSea, the biggest elephantpark on Phuket. After a comfortable ride on the nightbus, we arrive in Phuket early morning. Confident that this time we will manage to find Nhung Nhing. The search is on.
After checking in Wichian makes some phonecalls with his local contacts to arrange meetings. In the afternoon we can go to FantaSea to meet with the manager and the mahouts. On the phone, the manager says that there is an elephant at FantaSea who fits the profile of Nhung Nhing, although she has got another name. He also knows about a Nhung Nhing who works on the private beaches of the Sheraton Hotel and the Laguna resort. Would this be her? We decide to start our search there.
At the entrance to the Laguna resort, some adult elephants are standing. On the back of the elephants, guests can make a ride through the resort. Which makes for a change compared to the many golfcarts which ride around the resort to transport guests. Laguna resort is huge, there’s villa’s everywhere with private pools and their own personnel. Wichian talks to the mahouts of the elephants at the entrance. Are there any baby elephants around here? Yes they make a daily round on the private beaches of the Laguna resort and Sheraton Hotel every afternoon. They point in the direction of a camp. We climb over a fence, Wichian calls out to security people who are watching us, and then we are in the middle of a couple of shacks made of corrugated iron. In between of all this luxury three mahout families are living here in poverty. Two tiny rooms with mats on the floor, a hammock with a baby in it, a screaming tv showing a Thai soap series, three young elephants standing on a concrete platform.
Wichian walks straight in, grabs himself a bottle of water and sits down. Mahouts among each other. It’s like they know each other for years. Nhung Nhing? No, the pride of the family is Ning Nong. She is 6 years old, born in Buriram, close to Surin. Some newspaper articles are fetched. She was the elephant who had two British girls on her back at the time of the tsunami. When she felt it coming she run up the mountains with the girls on her back. The tourists on the beach didn’t have a clue what was wrong with the elephant and ran after her. This amazing story found his way all over the world. It made Ning Nong instantly famous, but it didn’t make much change to the poor situation she is in. The families and the elephants still have a hard life. Hidden amidst a luxury resort, they live an isolated life, and they don’t have a clue for how long they can stay here.
The mahout does know a Nhung Nhing. She was put on transport to a zoo in China four years ago. There she would stay for five years. So zoos can rent baby elephants as well! The mahouts try to think with us about how to find Nhung Nhing. Details are being exchanged and people are being called. Wichian makes another phonecall to the manager of FantaSea, because that seems to be our best lead. The mahouts make phonecalls to their mahoutfriends on Phuket. One of the mahouts tells a story about Phang Nga where, one and a half year ago, a truck with three elephants would have arrived from Surin. I’m told it’s difficult to get elephants to Phuket. To get an elephant legally registered here, you need a minimum of 30.000 Bath to bribe the officers. To avoid this, many owners unload their new elephant before arriving in Phuket, and walk them into Phuket at night. That’s why only half of the elephants on Phuket are registered! Sometimes elephants destined to go to Phuket, end up elsewhere. In Krabi for example, where they can be registered easily and can make good money in illegal logging. Elephants are welcome to come to Krabi, no bribe needed, but it’s not easy for them to leave, unless ofcourse you bribe the officers. The mahouts exchange tricks to earn extra commission on elephants. One of the mahouts tells he recently brought an elephant from Surin, earned a lot of commission to bring him to Krabi, and forged the price mentioned in the contract, so the new owner paid a lot more then he should have. Once again this shows elephant trade is good business.
One of the mahouts then goes to wash Ning Nong. With his 7 months old son on his tattood arm he fills up a bucket with water and soap. Ning Nong sits down on command, feet up into the air to wash her belly. She then lays on her side, her other side, this elephant is very well trained! The child is now sitting inside the bucket. When Ning Nong wants to put her trunk into the bucket, the baby tries to keep her trunk away from it. Allthough he is still too small to walk, he pulls himself up on the ear of Ning Nong, to stand up right. A tiny mahout. “That’s how I grew up”, Wichian says.
At night sitting on the beach we discuss the options we have. The manager of FantaSea has checked everything. The elephant who he thought might be Nhung Nhing turned out to be too old, and had a different former owner. He thinks we might try our luck in Phang Nga. The owner we are looking for has an elephantcamp there as well. We decide to take an early morning bus to Phang Nga, because there’s no sense searching Phuket any longer.
When arrived we once more head for the animal registration office. Hopefully Nhung Nhing will be registered legally here, that would end a lot of our uncertainty. The officer tries to think with us: first the folder with registration papers is being searched, no Nhung Nhing. Then the computer, no Nhung Nhing. He then searches for the name of the owner and finds several elephants. With them are two elephants who arrived from Surin, one and a half year ago. Sao Noi (young woman) en Som Wang (hope). “Yes, those were the two other elephants, Nhung Nhing was in the same truck with them!” Wichian says. How would this be possible? Why would these two be registered but the third one isn’t?
We go to the camp where Sao Noi and Som Wang would be: Island Safari. Our strategy: me together with Lee will go into the souvenir shop and keep the management busy, Wichian will sneak to the hut the mahouts are living at. Because it seems mahouts do talk among each other, but parkmanagement mostly won’t. After a little while Wichian calls for Lee, I still have to stay in the shop. Then Lee calls I have to come as well. His voice tells me he’s got some news. They have found her! Nhung Nhing is here, she must be! But at the mahouts hut I get the bad news: Nhung Nhing has died. Only three weeks after she arrived, walking around camp at night she pulled a power line from a tree, put it into her mouth and was instantly electrocuted. They found her body the next morning and buried her at the camp immediately. The park didn’t want anyone to know about her death, that’s why her grave was hidden, there was no funeral ceremony and her death wasn’t reported.
The mahouts tell they had had some problems with Nhung Nhing. She needed extra training to be able to perform in the show. She didn’t want to accept the new mahout and even attacked her owner once. First she was on a short chain at night, together with the other young elephants, but that gave too much trouble. That’s why they put her on a long chain outside camp. This way she would be able to eat at night and not disturb night rest at camp too much. She probably mistook the power line, leading to a lamp in a tree, for a garden hose, where she used to drink from. When I ask why she isn’t registered, they tell that it’s easier that way. No checking on them, no tax, and when they pass away their death doesn’t have to be reported… I wonder where Nhung Nhings papers are now. There might be another young elephant registered in her name now.
Just when we are about to leave the elephant show starts. A six year old elephant dances, stands on his head, plays the harmonica, and brings little baskets filled with bananas to the audience, to fetch money and get food. Here Nhung Nhing must have been performing while she was just eight months old.
Poor Nhung Nhing, who I would have loved to reunite with her mother.
