Hefalumps

Sunday 20th May - Friday 25th May 2012

The local bus from Luang Probang to Sayaboury was... interesting. Old, rickety and hot, once the seats filled up, the tiny plastic stools came out, and were put in the aisle. And people had to sit on these for the whole bus journey, which was about 6 hours! Rather them than me, that's all I'll say.

Aside from being hair-raising, it was dusty. Very dusty. Because there was no air con or fans on the bus, there were two options: either you shut the windows and melt, or you keep them open and get a load of dust in your lungs! I opted for the latter, covering my mouth with my cardigan. I bought one of those masks that are typical here for the next bus journey!!

The bus ride was typical... we had to stop to fix a flat tyre half way through the journey.

The broken down bus...

It took about an hour, and then we were on our way again. We drove onto a ferry-raft to cross the Mekong river, which was fun!

Driving onto the ferry-platform to take us across the river.

We arrived in Sayaboury and took a tuk-tuk & ferry to the Elephant Conservation Centre (ECC) where we were greeted by a guide, made to feel welcome and shown around the centre. It was incredible. It's linked with the NGO ElefantAsia, which runs a breeding centre and medical centre on the site.

Mirai at the centre. I'm gutted I didn't think to get a pic of him riding an elephant...

The breeding centre is very important as domestic elephants are not encouraged to breed as pregnancy creates massive loss of earnings for the mahout (the elephant owner) as they are forced to stop working for at least 2 years (they generally work in the logging industry). ElefantAsia encourages breeding by offering free care throughout the gestation period and once the baby is born, and gives the mahout a tractor so that they can still work whilst the elephant is at the centre. With elephant populations on the decrease, this is such an important cause!

The medical centre is the only one of its kind in Laos. Its aim is to visit every domestic elephant in Laos at least once per year, free of charge. The vets, Lorna and Will go on missions across the country every couple of weeks to check on different elephants. It's amazing what they do. They also offer round-the-clock care to sick elephants. Whilst I was there, a very sick elephant called Thonkoun had just been brought in with suspected tetanus. He couldn't open his mouth to eat or drink, and was very weak and malnourished. Whilst I was there, I saw the amazign work that they did with him, and when I left, it was looking positive that he would pull through. This was amazing news, and I've since learned that he's just getting better and better. Up-to-date info can be found on the ECC website.

The ECC helps to fund ElefantAsia's work by implemending a tourism aspect to the centre. All of this positive work costs the NGO money, so I was happy to give them money, even though I was volunteering. I must admit - I was a bit skeptical at first: "I'm volunteering... helping them out, yet I'm paying all of this money for it??" But when I arrived, saw the centre, met the staff and actually saw what they do, I understood that they don't get enough financial hand-outs for the amazing work they do; they need to make their own money, which is where the ECC comes in. It allows people to visit the centre for 1 or 2 days, or to alternatively volunteer and stay for at least 6 days. I chose the latter, and was so glad that I did.

The ECC doesn't provide 'Elephant tourism' per-say, in the sense that they traipse around the jungle for days at a time with big wooden boxes on their backs. What we, as visitors to the centre learn, is more what it's like to be a mahout... what the daily routine consists of; how they direct them with their voice; basically just looking after the elephant. I did ride the elephants, but only to and from the jungle every day - and we were directly on their neck, really feeling the elephants. It was bizarre being on an elephant when I'm so used to horses - when a horse eats, you have a neck to hold onto... when an elephant eats and swings its head to get the leaves off the tree with its trunk, you just have to sit there and hope for the best!!

Being at the centre was a real cultural experience too. Living alongside the Lao people and eating with them every night was amazing. They spoke in Lao together, and even the western workers had learned Lao and so spoke in Lao with them. It was nice to have interpreters, and I picked up quite a bit of vocabulary just from my 6 days there.

Evening meal

   

We partied with them too. The first night we were there, they were having a 'housewarming' for a bungalow, so we all sat around the floor of the bungalow porch and drank and sang. The beer was served in glasses with ice, and you drank the beer quickly before the ice melted. Once you'd finished the glass-full, you passed the glass back and it was re-filled and passed onto the next person in the circle. Everyone shared just 2 glasses, and it meant that it was a real social thing, and everyone drank the same amount. Once the beer was finished, we moved onto LaoLao - a fermented rice 'whiskey', which is pure evil. Whilst we were drinking, one of the local workers got his drum and they all sang Lao songs together. They seem to all have beautiful voices and a real passion for singing. It was really nice that we were invited to their party - this was not a performance put on for the 'Western visitors' - it was truly a party for themselves that Kirra and I happened to attend. I felt very privileged to be there.

BP (our guide) and Kirra on the boat

   

Learning the commands for directing the elephants was amusing. We did it in their 'training ring', so had to direct them in figure-of-eights using just our voice. The following is just my phonetic version of how to say the commands:

BYE! = Go forward
SYE! = Left
HOW-ARE! = Right
TOY! = Backwards
MON-BLON! = Kneel down

Mai Bou Nam showing how it's done!

Thonkhoun (32 yr old male) and Mai Bou Nam (18 yr old female)

The way they responded was incredible, and later on I did learn some sad things about how elephants are trained initially as youngsters in order to respond this way, but unless you can come up with an real, practical alternative, the training ways won't change... people will continue to domesticate elephants for work no matter what we self-righteous westerners say or think.

Me on Mai Bou Nam

We watched them bathing everyday, and they LOVE the water! Contrary to what I thought, elephants can swim! And roll about and dunk underwater and spurt water over them. They drink approx 150 litres of water per day! Some tourist elephant centres have tourists on the elephants' backs whilst they are washed. I don't agree with this at all... I've seen how much they can enjoy it, and depriving an elephant the right to enjoy the water is cruel! Although, saying that, Thonkhoun the big male elephant (not the sick one... there were 2 elephantys called Thonkhoun at the centre - one was sick and the other was a 'tourism' elephant) just stood in the water, so his mahout, Bon, would go in with him and wash him.

Mai Bou Nam bathing in the lake

As volunteers, aside from taking the elephants in and out of the jungle each day, we did stock inventories for the hospital, planted some veggies, and helped to create a 'breeding ring' and prepared the food (corn & rice) for the elephants.

   
Me doing some gardening in my amazing elephant hat

We also got to see the baby elephants who had successfully been born through the centre's breeding programme... oh, they were cute!!!

He's so cute!! Just 6 months old :o)

   

Before we left, the NGO founders had come to visit, so we were there for another party where we were fed a special noodle soup which is generally only made for special occasions such as weddings (the naes escapes me), drank beer and LaoLao, and danced traditional Lao dance into the night. The dancing is all about the hands...and girls' hands must always face in opposing directions. It was a very elegant dance (always dances with a partner), but I was pretty rubbish at it!

I was very sad to leave. I felt that I'd made friends (the vets, the guides, even the Lao people...in particular: Will, Lorna, Coralli aka Selakat, La, Noi, BP and Bon.) I'd love to return one day to see how it's progressed and grown. I feel so lucky to have had the experience, and truly adore elephants now! They're gentle, loving creatures, despite their size. They may not all be able to roam wild, but I just hope that the number of wild and domestic births starts increasing, or the Asian elephant will face extinction, and that really would be a true tragedy...
Every elephant counts!