Alas, mouse cannot cast shadow like elephant - Charlie Chan

MAESA ELEPHANT CAMP

On 24th March, we visited the Maesa Elephant Camp outside Chiang-Mai proper. We have taken so many extraordinary photographs of these wonderful beasts that it has taken nearly a week to decide what to show you and how to talk about the experience.
On entering the camp, we walked down a road lined with the obligatory souvenier shops to the right while on the left, behind a copse of trees was a rapidly flowing river. One's eyes are naturally drawn to the cacophany of spruiking taking place to one's right and in doing so you are likely to miss the elephants and their Mahouts bathing in the morning sunshine.

Elephant bath house

The elephants are treated to a scrub and wash

The elephants and their Mahouts seem to love to roll around in the water, with several elephants staying completely submerged for several minutes.

After their bath, it's time for the Elephant Show which is designed to demonstrate how these magnificent but gentle beasts can be trained to perform many tasks from the brute force of one or more elephants working singly or in teams of two or three; to the trivial, Elephant 'Football'; to the artistic, Elephant 'Painting' and the hilarious, placing a hat on the Mahouts head and patting him on the hat. The mahouts live with and look after the elephants at the Elephant Camp. The purpose is to establish a firm bond between man and beast. At night, the elephants are allowed the freedom to roam the forest in search of food however, they are shackled to ensure they don't roam too far from the camp.

The show begins


Elephant Artistry

The mahout puts the paint on the brush the elephant does the rest, often seeming to take the time to consider where to place the brush, at first, the painting consists of only a few scrawled lines, but over time a truly beautiful picture emerges.

The completed works of art

True elephant art. These paintings sell very quickly. Not cheap either at $70 a throw. The kiosk which had everything from tee shirts to wall hangings for sale was inundated by people wishing to buy Elephant Art.

Elephant dance - Watch out for your toes!

At the end of the show, this elephant came towards me to say hello.

Lidy finds another friend in Thailand

The mahout beckoned me over to sit down. As I sat on the rail, the elephant came over and wrapped his trunk around me in an embrace. He had very hard rough skin but he was cute. He wouldn't let go. The elephant that is.

After the show, it was time to take the elephant tour of the Mahout's camp. We waited in line, only to discover, once at the head of the queue that we were dragged aside while they got a bigger elephant for us. Eventually, the largest elephant was manoeuvred into position, dwarfing the other elephants and, we were allowed to board.

The biggest elephant in the show to carry us both

Let's go that way!

Comfy on top

Oops! Where's the Mahout?!?!

We were taken through the rainforest where the elephants live with the mahouts and their families. At first we thought the accommodation to be rudimentery until we spotted the satellite dish.

Mahout Camp