Chaang means Elephant in Thai

Yesterday Nick and I drove with a group out to Baan Chang Elephant Park to the Northwest of Chiang Mai for our day of elephant riding.  We spent the morning learning about the elephants and making friends with them by feeding them bananas and sugarcane, which of course was awesome.  Trunks are so cool.  We had to learn to command the elephants using Thai words, so for all who are curious:

 

Song Kha!  --> Lift leg up (to help you get on)

Suung! –>Lift leg higher!

Pai! –> Go forward

Toi! –>Back up

PePe!  --> Turn (either direction, you kick with your feet and use this hooky thing to move their heads where you want to go.

How! –>  Stop!

 

We broke for a quick and delicious Thai lunch with our guides and the other people in our group, who were a bunch of Dutch and English tourists, then we were assigned an elephant for our hour and a half ride through the jungle.  Nick and I (and a small dutch boy named Fabio, for a brief period) got Kham-Ben, the largest bull elephant in the group.  It was definitely a must-do experience, and despite the dorkiness of our outfits, we felt so incredibly cool sitting on top of a such a mammoth animal.  They are so gentle and have unique personalities all their own…Kham-Ben happened to be a huge pig who mostly liked to stop and eat entire palm trees, but he would listen intently to our Mahout (elephant whisperer, essentially).  We still don’t know what his name was, but he was awesome and we took about 10 pictures with him.  Check out the album!

Today, we fly off to Luang Prabang, Laos!  Catch you later!