Elephants!

We packed our bags, left our gorgeous hotel in Chiang Mai and boarded our bus at 7:00am for the Maetaeng Elephant Reserve in the jungle.

When we arrived we were told to double up for our elephant ride. Katy White, Grade 3 teacher at DWS for those of you who don't know, and I shared our elephant ride experience.  What an experience it was!

We all went down a steep hillside to the Ping River and the elephants trumped right in!

We then were in and out of the river throughout the 90 minute ride.

We stopped at tree platforms to buy bananas or sugar cane as a treat for our elephants!

There was a baby elephant that came along for the walk with his mother. It was a bonus that most of the time he was right beside us!

The guides were all very nice, although with our guide there was a complete language barrier.

When our ride was over they gathered us all together and talked to us about their elephants and showed us how some of them paint pictures. This was so fun to see. In had heard of this before, but had never seen it.

Most of us bought a painting. So sweet! I think I'll frame it for my office.

I was able to walk up to a couple of elephants and pat them. So up close and personal!

This was a BLAST! We all loved it!

Facts:

Asian elephants live for 80-100 years. 

They eat about 500 pounds of food and drink 65 gallons of water a day. They sleep only 4-5 hours a day. They smell with their trunks and have excellent memories.  Each elephant has a "mahood", or elephant man or woman. This person stays with the elephant in the reserve and is the elephant's primary person. They are coupled until one of them dies.  Elephants in the reserve understand about 20 human words.