Enormous Day

If you followed our blog during our extended travels early last year, you may remember our reference to Enormous Day. Well today was indeed an enormous day, and not just because we were blessed with spending part of our day with enormous sacred creatures.

In anticipation of our big day ahead at Kanta Elephant Sanctuary, over breakfast Jennifer and I discussed how we were feeling about it. Excited, yes. But also, Jennifer commented that she couldn't remember a time when she felt less certain about how she would feel about an experience. I had to agree. Elephants are beautiful creatures; people who have spent time with them say it is the highlight of their time in Thailand, and people who haven't have expressed awe and jealousy over this opportunity. Yet getting up so close to such large animals, playing with them, feeding them, and wading into a dirty pond to bathe them, well... didn't feel like your typical Murphy thing. But we went into it completely open to whatever the experience had in store for us.

Upon arrival we changed into the "mahout" outfits provided and joined our group of 13 for a briefing on what to do and not do around the elephants. Then we set out to the field with our bags of sugar cane. At first it was a little intimidating feeding them single pieces of sugarcane at a time (one of the rules) - they were hungry and seemed a little bit aggressive to the unknowing. But we just needed to get better acquainted.

After the sugar cane, their next course was napier grass. It was fascinating to watch how skillfully they break up these leaves with their trunk, discarding the pieces that are not to their liking, and breaking them up into their version of bite size pieces.

Then we had some time to spend getting up close and personal, petting and bonding with the elephants. It turns out elephants are very affectionate animals and I had the opportunity to get some love!

Eventually we got to their third course, which I would call energy balls, because they were basically elephant versions of the energy balls we make for April & Fiona's snacks. Jennifer on the other hand thought "big balls" was the more appropriate description... it never got old... "big balls", "big balls". That's my sister! So we made the big balls. She even asked our guide if he thought her balls were big enough.

In a bowl we mixed (with our hands) banana, tamarind, food pellets and supplements until it was all mushy, with the banana binding it all together. Then we formed the big balls.

Then we fed them to an elephant - up close and personal again! We were assured that if the elephants close their mouth with our hand in it, not to worry, they will just spit it out "because they're vegetarian". Okay! Luckily that was not a problem for us, we managed to not get our hands trapped, although we did feel the elephant's tongue!

Then it was time to climb into the pond, quickly overcoming those pesky inhibitions about it being gross and cold, and bathe the elephants! We had buckets that we used to throw water on the elephants, and brushes that we used to scrub their skin (which is 3 cm thick!). The elephants love this. They lie down in the water and relish in the pampering, twirling their trunks. But when they decide to stand up you'd better watch out! We scrubbed and scrubbed, and laughed and laughed, until the elephants were nice and clean.

Much to our surprise and amusement, after the elephants left the water, some of them promptly found a patch of dirt to throw on their back (apparently for protection from the sun and insects).

In spite of any uncertainties we may have felt before our time with the elephants today, we absolutely loved it. We loved seeing up close how such a large animal can be so gentle, and how personable, affectionate and intelligent they are. To be able to look them in the eye and exchange some love was nothing short of remarkable. It was an enormous day already, and it was still only 11:00am.

On our way back, we went to a restaurant in the old city (inside the old city walls) for lunch to experience Kaosoi, a traditional Thai dish that originated in Chiang Mai. It is noodles in curry sauce with a protein (chicken for Jennifer, tofu for me). We were initially trying it because it's a novelty, but it was enormously delicious! I ate every last bite.

During our time here in Thailand, both Bangkok and Chiang Mai, we still had not had mango sticky rice, the quintessential Thai dessert. The restaurants we went to haven't offered it on the menu, and although you see it everywhere on the street, we have been warned to be very cautious about where we eat food that is raw or previously cooked in case it's been washed or prepared with non-drinking water. Our guide Pat, a local, was confident he knew where to take us, with assurance they've been in business long enough and served enough customers without complaint that we were safe. He insisted our mango be peeled and chopped fresh on the spot to be safe. To watch the woman behind the counter peel and chop a mango was unbelievable - even faster than Granny can peel a potato!

We took our mango sticky rice to go, and headed back to the hotel. We quickly changed into bathing suits and brought our treat with us to enjoy poolside.

After some poolside indulgence and relaxation, and a dip in the pool, we further indulged in massages at the spa. We figured since we had pampered the elephants today at their spa it was our turn! The massages were incredible, just what we needed!

After getting cleaned up, we left our hotel and took a tuk tuk to the very large Saturday market in the old city. We walked around for hours, and settled on banana Nutella crepes from the market for dinner (yes, not exactly local cuisine!).

Had we been feeling really adventurous tonight, we could have snacked on some crickets or grasshoppers. Eating insects is common in Thailand. Some of the favorites in the north include grasshoppers, crickets, silk worms, water bucks and bamboo worms (this latter one is apparently a real delicacy because they only come from the wild). Maybe tomorrow. ;)

We eventually made our way back to our hotel where we sat on the balcony overlooking the pool, and enjoyed a tea and a glass of wine while we talked about our day, looked through photos, and imagined how we could possibly summarize it all.

We are feeling very grateful for this day, but a little knackered. We are off to (hopefully) have an enormous sleep!

Laura & Jennifer ❤❤