Wanalee at last

  Lampang, Lampang, Thailand Thursday, November 13, 2014

This day had finally arrived. The day Jody had promised herself would happen almost 10 years ago when she first bought a painting made by an elephant from the internet for the Tsunami fundraising appeal in 2005. She has always referred to the painting as an original by E. le Phant but everyone in the know, knows it was painted by Wanalee. She was 7 years old at the time and living in the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre near Chiang Mai, Thailand. We had hoped to visit here last time we were travelling but our 15 day Thai visa and our tight schedule then, meant we had to save Wanalee for another time. This was that other time and we were both so excited :-) Elephant Man (Mr Pon) picked us up at 8am and we set off on the one and a bit hours' drive to Lampang just south of Chiang Mai. We had chosen Mr Pon to take us as when we met with him a few days ago we had explained that meeting Wanalee was the most important thing about our day. We explained about the painting and if we could not see Wanalee then we could go to any elephant camp. But we knew she was there and we really wanted to see her. He said he knew many people in the centre as he took so many trips there and had become friends with a lot of staff. He had phoned us after that meeting to say he had spoken to his friends there and could arrange for us to see Wanalee if we wanted to go with him. Although she is quite heavily pregnant (well she is 17 now) and about 5 months away from giving birth, she is still meeting the public and doing her thing there. With an offer like that we could not refuse. It cost is quite a bit each but this was one trip we hoped it would be worth spending the extra on. When we arrived Mr Pon went and got our tickets and took us to where the noddy train was waiting to take us to the elephant bath area. A lot of elephants were in the water and Mr Pon pointed out Wanalee to us. She looked like she was having a great time in there. As they all got out, Mr Pon took us over to where Wanalee was standing and we could finally say hello. We didn't get much time with her at this stage but we both had a big lump in our throats by now! She was lovely. Such a gentle elephant and very content to let us touch her and even get a cuddle. The elephants had to walk up to the parade ground as they do a small demonstration of what elephants can do and they all formed a chain as they walked. However there were 3 at the front who walked side by side. The two either side were holding a long bamboo cane between them from which was suspended a drum. The elephant in the middle was banging this drum as they walked. It was hilarious! The demonstration ring was shaded by many trees and elephants took it in turns to do simple tasks. For example; one would demonstrate how mahouts get up/down from the elephants, then a couple showed us how in the old logging days, the elephants used their powerful heads and feet to roll logs along the floor and by working in teams, they could stack piles of logs. Some of the funnier things they did were playing instruments eg xylophone. No big deal for an elephant. You may argue that an elephant would never play an xylophone or a drum in the wild and it shouldn't be done, but these are incredibly intelligent animals and without exercising their brains and keeping them occupied, like any intelligent creature they would go stir crazy. The things they were asked to do were in no way stressful or strenuous to them. Then came the bit we were looking forward to most. 3 of them started painting. Well two of them did but our star artist Wanalee, decided she wanted to watch one of the others instead. Eventually she wandered over to her own easel and picked up her paint brush. Before coming to the centre we had both agreed that as the trip had already cost us a fair bit and as we already had one elephant painting, we would not buy any more. And then we saw Wanalee making colourful stripes down the page. We both looked at each other (we were standing in different areas some way away from each other) and we just knew we had to have that painting! We continued to watch the show, one elephant painted flowers and a little elephant painted elephants! It was amazing to watch - and we're tempted to say - the concentration on their faces but that would be silly - wouldn't it? At the end of the show the paintings were lined up and the announcer told us they were for sale so just let them know if you wanted one. Bryan was there in a shot and reserved it for us. Yeahy our second original painting by Wanalee :-) The elephants were then taken to their rest areas to rest and to eat. Mr Pon took us over to where Wanalee and her mahout Tian were shading under a tree. Tian was very smiley & a really nice man. He clearly loved Wanalee and she was so relaxed and gentle that we are sure they had a lot of fun together. We stayed with her a while a fed her sugar cane sticks which are a real favourite treat of elephants everywhere. We also fed her bananas and lots of other stuff. Elephants are often described as eating machines and Wanalee is eating for two! We got the chance to ask Tian questions and with Mr Pons help we found out lots about their life at the centre. We also showed Tian a photograph of the picture we had at home that Wanalee painted almost 10 years ago. He recognised it straight away as one of her earlier works. We had a few cuddles with her and some photographs - Bryan even got a kiss before we left them in peace for a while. Next stop for us (after lunch) was the nursery. There were three babies here at the time.Two with their mothers and one baby with his surrogate mother. The babies were all so boisterous one was even trying to climb over the fence. Im not sure what he would have done if he had actually managed to do it but he was cute to watch. It was while we were here Mr Pon got a phone call asking him to take us to the homestay area. Here they house people who are on their 2 or 3 day Mahout training course. (Its for members of the public with lots of money!!) We were very surprised to be given a room to change into some mahout clothes and were told we were going to bath with the elephants. :-) :-) Then we gave Jody's camera to the lady from the guesthouse and followed her to a mounting thingy. The first elephant was brought over and Jody went to get on it but they stopped her and said no - Wanelee is coming over for you. OMG Jody was going to get to ride her as well. She could have wet herself with excitement! Could this day get any better?? This was way more than we had hoped for. Thank you Mr Pon as we are sure you were behind this. So Bryan got on the first elephant and wandered over to the area where the kids were waiting to watch the show start. Then Wanalee came along and Jody and Wanalee joined Bryan - we never expected to be in the show! We have both been on elephants before but always in a seat or basked tied on like a saddle to the elephant. Now we were bareback and we were wobbling all over the place. It certainly didn't feel that safe and we hung on and they walked down the slope into the water. Well this is where we got soaked. This is also where Tian's naughty side came out because he made Wanalee squirt through her trunk and splash the whole time. Jody got the worst of it but Bryan didn't escape either. Sideways swipes with her trunk got him a few times. Anyway it was hilarious . Wanalee would dip under the water too taking Jody down into the water with her. We couldn't stop laughing. You can watch the video Bryan made of it all here if you want to The elephants eventually got out and walked over to the arena where all the children were watching the whole thing. The children are encouraged to come up to the rail and see the elephants more closely. This is when the elephants let them have it. As they have left the water, they have filled their trunks with water and now, as the children get close, they get the signal to release it. All over them. It is funny and again shows the light hearted side of this centre. It was time to go now, get showered, dried off and on with the day. Our next stop was the hospital but we were asked not to get close as they had just bought an elephant in and they needed to settle her. So we spent an hour making sure we had seen everything we wanted to see, bought everything we wanted to buy and posted some cards from the very special post box here (its on the back of an elephant of course) Wanalee and Tian had gone off into the jungle for the night and it was time for us to leave too - but our day was not yet done. No Mr Pon had more in store for us. He drove us past the elephant cemetery and he explained that every year on National Elephant Day (13th March) the elephants who have lived and died at the centre are remembered and honoured. Aahhh!then a surprise stop at the mahout training camp. We never would have found this without Mr Pon.It's where all the elephants once they reach 3 years old, come for training and to be paired with their mahout, who is also in training. It takes years for this special bond to grow and for the relationship that Tian and Wanalee have to develop, as the youngsters are so boisterous and just want to play and muck about. They have tantrums too and can be extremely dangerous (the elephants not the mahouts). Now it was time to leave the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre but Mr Pon had another stop lined up for us. The FAE (First Asia Elephant) hospital. This place had much sadder stories. It was started in 1993 when a lady named Soraida Salwala, a Thai lady who loved elephants and wanted to help the injured ones. There is a famous elephant here named Motala, who had had her leg blown off by a landmine on the Burmese border. Motala was 38 years old when this happened and would have died for sure. But she continues to live here peacefully and seemingly very well cared for. They have made adjustments to her pen (not that we saw the door closed) like padding the top rails of it so she can rest her huge head on it and take the weight off her remaining front leg. Also they have made the world's first elephant prosthesis and have given her a false leg! There is another elephant here with the same problem Mosha. He was just 7 months old when he stepped on a landmine. He is now 7 and is the symbol for the centre and helps raise awareness to their cause. We have put a link to their facebook page here in case you are interested in learning more about them. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Friends-of-the-Asian-Elephant/78137577586 As we were leaving Soraida came in and we saw her making her daily rounds of the elephants. But all good days must come to an end. We had had just the most fantastic day, one we shall ever forget. And one day Wanalee, we shall come back to see you with your baby. Oh no, Jody's making promises again!   [gallery columns="4" ids="9305,9312,9316,9319,9324,9325,9328,9332,9334,9337,9344,9350,9358,9361,9369,9373,9379,9384,9394,9405,9414,9419,9425,9437,9446,9459,9468,9480,9486,9497,9502,9515,9530,9540,9555,9567,9571,9582,9593,9599,9610,9620,9638,9653,9662,9672,9677,9694,9701,9721,9738,9750,9763,9773,9780,9796,9807,9816,9829,9840,9850,9856,9861,9874,9881,9890,9900,9909,9920,9925,9931,9938,9943,9949,9951,9955,9960,9967,9972,9976,9981,9983,9986,9989,9991,9993,9995,9996,9997,9998,9999,10000,10001"]