Asian elephants weigh an average of 5.000 kilograms and measures 2,5 to 3 metres in height, with columnar legs, huge head, elongated nose and large ears; grayish to brown in color – at times a rare white; sparse and coarse body hair; tusks and ever-growing upper incisors are present in the male species but usually absent in the females; the nostrils are at the end of their trunk, the tip of which has a small fingerlike projection that enables these creatures to pick up even a peanut. They drink by sucking water up into the trunk and then squirting it into the mouth. Well, the puzzle is complete, is it not! It is the Asiatic species of elephant, Elephas maximus, which differs from its African counterpart, with smaller bodies and ears.

A climb aboard an elephant is in itself out of the ordinary for obvious reasons; there are no elephants – out of zoos – in the European and American continents, and that these mammal finds no equal in man’s history – Hannibal, the Carthaginian General made large use of them against the Romans; in countries like Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, elephants have been depicted in many episodes of the Lord Buddha’s lives in mural paintings. The elephant is one of the various animals in Hindu mythology: Airvata the elephant – celestial vehicle of Indra, and of course the elephant-headed god Ganesha; and finally you see it depicted as icons all around Thailand in restaurants, bars, shops, and the name of one of the popular Thai beers is ‘Chang’ which in Thai language means elephant.

Volunteers taking the pachiderms for a walk

I was in Krabi, definitely intrigued by the importance of the elephant in the Thai culture. A fortunate encounter with a group of travelers who strongly recommended an elephant trekking tour made me book with their recommended tour operator for the 2 and 1/2 hours trekking with the national animal of Thailand. We were transferred from our hotels to the Elephant Trekking Camp in the forest at Khao Thong (30 minutes drive from Ao Nang). The elephant approached the platform and, one by one, the group climbed on the saddled bench on the pachyderm’s back. As the elephant firmly stomped its legs, I suddenly realized that I was high above the terra firma. After a short ride off the beaten track, the elephant headed straight into thick jungle. The saddled bench started to quake due to the uneven terrains, but I was safely strapped to the saddle with a safety belt. I was in the safe hands of the animal and its rather young master. I was further reassured by my travel companion who was on his fourth elephant trek – the previous ones taken in an African safari.

Elephant crossing a stream

The entire tour was slow-paced and rhythmic; the mahout allowed the animal to stop at leisure and I was surprised at these creatures’ ravenous appetite. Their contorting muscular trunks pulled and tore up huge bulk of vegeta as I had never seen before. One of the elephant attendants told me: “Our elephants are not working elephants, they work only with tourists; all our elephants are well looked after, well fed, and above all we love and respect them”.

After the trek, full of unexpected surprises including the elephants answering to nature’s call (discover this for yourself), we were given the chance to feed them – apparently elephants don’t forget acts of kindness, a nice thing if you have a face-to-face encounter with these powerful creatures. It was then time to say goodbye to these amazing creatures before being transferred back to our hotels. They say an elephant never forgets; one thing is for certain: I will never forget the encounter with these animals and the trek on their back. There is no better way to enjoy some of the most spectacular sceneries Krabi Province has to offer than from the back of one of these gentle giants.

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Elephant day

The elephant has been a national icon of Thailand since ancient days. Inhabiting the lush mountain forests long before the rise of the first civilizations in the land that is now modern-day Thailand, these intelligent pachyderms (as zoologists insist on calling them) were found apt to domestication by man. Their great size and enormous strength were harnessed in many ways, and they became man’s ally in labour and warfare. It is doubtful if the abundant teak trees of the northern woodlands could have been exploited so fully without these leviathans to haul the trunks to the rivers that were the highways of old. Elephants played their part too in the numerous battles fought between the armies of Thailand and Myanmar. Towering over the field of combat, fully panoplied and girded for war, they must have been an awesome sight.

Lanna wars

But the elephant came to mean much more to the Thai people than a mere beast of burden. It has become a symbol of fortune, and the superstitious will pay to pass beneath the animal’s body and receive a share of the luck that it carries. White elephants, through their very scarcity, adopted an importance of their own, and became the rightful property of the reigning monarch. This led to the super imposition of a white elephant on the red field of the national flag of Siam, as Thailand was once known. Early Siamese coins featured an engraved elephant, and their images can be found in abundance in the compounds of many of the older temples.

Elephants react before enjoy a “buffet” of fruit and vegetables during Thailand’s National Elephant Day in the ancient Thai capital Ayutthaya

The Asian elephant, the species found in Thailand, is renowned for its intelligence and is known to actively think about its actions, rather than merely memorize instructions. The creature also has a fine memory and the expression “An elephant never forgets” entered the English language long ago. The term “White elephant”, meaning something given that is not wanted, entered western speech many years back, and it is reputed that this originated in old Siam. It was the custom of the monarch to bestow the highest praise by giving a royal white elephant to a courtier as a mark of especial favour, together with a tithe of land to support the animal’s needs of grazing and forage. The same gift could also be given by these shrewd rulers to show displeasure, as no land would be provided, and the gift that could not be refused had to be fed at the offender’s expense.

Coat of arms

Nowadays the elephant is more fully occupied entertaining the multitude of tourists who visit Thailand, but its magnificent image lives on, advertising many modern events or attracting visitors to the numerous shops and factories that cater to their demands.

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OFFROAD TEAM DOCUMENTARY VIDEO AT THE SAYABOULY ELEPHANT FESTIVAL

OFFROAD LAOS ADVENTURE reporters went to the Sayabouly Elephant Festival located 110 km away from Luang Prabang, Laos. They pitched their tents, ate grasshoppers and made a video for you of this memorable weekend!

Laos SAYABOULY ELEPHANT FESTIVAL draws a significance of the endangered Asian elephants which has an essential part of Lao people’s heritage, culture, agriculture and livelihood. The celebration takes place at the Sayabouly Province during the month of mid-February. More than 80,000 local and international people gather together and experience the procession of the thousands of elephants.

Before the day of the SAYABOULY ELEPHANT FESTIVAL, these elephants underwent on their own make over to look blooming and fresh during the parade. These elephants are blessed by the monks through a back ceremony. Tons of entertainments such as pachyderm, musical plays, dance performances, films and fireworks displays. The most awaited part of the festival is the crowning of the “Elephant of the Year” award.

Check on Off Road Laos Adventure tours HERE!!

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Part 3 – jungle trekking – After a hearty breakfast in the picturesque Riverview Restaurant, I contract a jungle trekking in an area part of the Royal Chitwan National Park. Along with two young guides in military fatigues and flip-flops, we embark on what they call a canoe: it is a dugout made from a carved tree trunk into which were added four wooden seats.

The canoe ride

The canoe departs in a bit of a wobbly way, which does not instil much trust in us as the water almost reaches the edge of the boat. The rower does everything possible to keep us balanced while we enjoy nature show. Meanwhile, one of the guides, bearing the book ‘Birds of Nepal’, enunciates common and scientific names of a number of birds that fly over us, amongst which it is worth mentioning the Kingfisher, a bird that sports a beautiful wingspan and an almost poetic flight. The bird that gives the name to the most famous Indian beer.

Royal chitwan national park

As we are sailing against the current we spot something floating in the opposite direction that has the shape of a trunk; we are only a few meters from it when we realise it is actually a crocodile! We then negotiate a couple of rapids where the water is flowing faster: here we must hold on hard while small waves enter the canoe getting us wet. The landscape is remarkably impressive. First we notice a woman carrying on her back a bundle of branches and grass twice her size. She has dark skin and her face-traits are unmistakably indigenous; crossing the river with the help of a stick, she keeps the bundle in balance thanks to a long cloth passed around her forehead. After a while we pass by a herd of water buffaloes that is crossing through the water at a point where it is relatively low; all around us is only silence and the dense green of the jungle.

canoe ride

One hour has passed when we finally approach a small beach where the dugout lands. We part from the boatman and together with the two guides we set off for the trek. The guides carry a wood stick for protection “in case we were so unlucky to face a tiger”, they say. Do they expect to face the tiger armed with a wooden stick? I later read that local guides are generally inexperienced, and several of them have been mauled by tigers in recent years, with a few tourists following the same fate in a couple of occasions… This is promising.

chitwan woman crossing the river

In a short time, the path runs through a dense forest and leads us to an elephant camp managed by the Nepalese Government in collaboration with the United States. We walk through a field where dozens of cows, buffaloes and goats are grazing and we are soon amongst elephants of all ages and sizes. Large and healthy-looking pachyderms have their paws chained to large logs cemented to the ground. The small ones, up to three years of age, roam free for our delight, thus giving us the opportunity to pet them and take some nice pictures with them. I caress the bristling skin of what appears to be the most docile of creatures, while other tourists enjoy feeding long leaves and stems to the larger ones, who quietly appreciate.

me and baby elephant at Royal Chitwan National Park

The adrenaline that built up during the canoe ride is having the best of me, and after having made a complete tour of the elephant farm we head to the ox-cart that will take us back to the village. The obliging, toothless driver is dressed in rugs and his skin is burned by the sun; we take a picture together for fond memories, he pointlessly attempts to communicate with me, and we are soon on our way. During the comfortable one-hour ride, our coachman spurs his oxen relentlessly. We have all the time of the world to closely observe scenes of local life in the various shacks the cart passes by. The guide explains that these villages are inhabited by Lurung ethnic groups, a caste hailing from the Nepalese hills. They are mostly farmers, arrived here in the Terai after in 1960 the Nepalese Government was able to totally eradicate malaria from the area.

getting a lift by ox cart in chitwan

The sun is setting, it has done its duty for the whole day, warming us long enough. We get gently overtaken by tourists on bicycle; others whiz by on convertible jeeps. We watch several local men pushing rudimentary bicycles loaded with long bundles of grass; they are heading home, where their wives are cooking strongly aromatic dhaal bhat (a Nepali lentil dish) in stone and mud furnaces.

We finally arrive at destination, and the cart drops us right inside the hotel courtyard. We thank driver and guide and we take leave; it was a long and tiring day full of positive happenings, a day that closes the curtain on my experience in Royal Chitwan National Park and in the Terai, a fantastic area of Nepal that I did not even know it existed.

PART 1 : http://asianitinerary.com/it/royal-chitwan-national-park/ 

PART 2: http://asianitinerary.com/royal-chitwan-national-park-2/

CHITWAN on the INTERNET: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitwan_District

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Pokhara bus station

Part 1 – Sauraha –

I recite by heart the theatrical act of waking up before leaving one place. I devour the delicious pastries bought the night before at the Pokhara bakery, and I part from the affable owners of the guest-house that I called home in the last few days. Over the time, I have got used to saying goodbye to people, places and abodes. I leave without looking back, without regret; I am aware that I will keep fond memories of the past emotions, and this helps me to face those to come, to new places, new acquaintances, always hoping there will be many more. Backpack on my shoulders, I head towards the bus station where I find my bus to Royal Chitwan National Park: an old, mid-quality vehicle parked in the middle of the gravel road and already half occupied.

Bus to Chitwan

There is just enough time for a couple of hawkers that walk back and forth persistently, exposing hyper-calorific fat donuts covered with sugar on cardboard trays, then at 7:40 the driver turns on the bus and within a few minutes we are on the way. A thick, grey morning fog encompasses the entire area, and the outside air is fresh; within half an hour the bus joins the provincial road that runs along the great river Seti. The lazy and non-carbureted bus runs on a high street that flanks dizzying precipices; better not think about it. I was lucky to get a seat on the mountain side, and, for once, a wary driver who drives relatively slowly. I watch other tourist buses overtaking us at terrifying speed on this jagged street full of potholes, with stones that tumble down from the hills above.

Seti river

These buses whizz by a few centimeters from the weak stone wall that marks the fine line between the road and the abyss, and that makes the difference between tourists on a trip and tourists on the bottom of the river.

Once we leave mountains and hills behind, the bus ventures into a dry and boring plain that continues for kilometers until we reach a secondary rough street that leads us towards the nearest village to the National Park, the last reachable by paved road. From here, a sandy path leads to Sauraha, a small outpost in the jungle where tourists make base to organise visits to the Royal Chitwan National Park.

Bus stop at Sauraha

As I get off the bus, I’m hopelessly crushed to the ground by a humid and annoying heat, a notable difference from the fresh air of Kathmandu and Pokhara. I avoid the usual touts who sell rooms in hotels of their choice, and opt for a private jeep in the company of another Italian tourist. The ramshackle jeep takes us along an earth road running between houses made of mud and straw, alongside streams and vast rice fields, until we arrive at the village. I walk on the sandy river bank and give a careful look to Sauraha: an agglomeration of spartan restaurants, travel agencies, and a number of simple houses, of which only a few made of bricks and mortar. Those made of bamboo, mud and straw are inhabited by peasants of Tharu ethnicity, people who feature multiple tribal tattoos and earrings in strange shapes; their stables are on stilts, and under the same roof live chickens, oxen, water buffaloes and goats.

chitwan wooden shack

Many women wash clothes and dishes on the road sides or groom each other heads; naked or half-naked children play in the dirt, and the occasional roofless, windowless and doorless jeep shuttles tourists to the starting points of the various jungle activities available in the area.

I have a bite on the terrace of a pretty thatched-roof restaurant, then my attention is taken by a wood where I have a glimpse of huge elephants grazing. These are of the type that are used to carry tourists, as their fangs have been trimmed. I leave the restaurant and enter the enclosure of one of the several ‘jungle lodges’ in the area, accommodation that are real green oasis in the jungle. The affable owner offers me to see one of their huts: the room is cozy and spacious, a huge window overlooks a wooden veranda on stilts, complete with wicker chairs and a coffee table made from a tree trunk. The hut is a mere 100 meters from the river, the boundary of the National Park, and between me and the slow greenish water there is only sand. I take it.

Tharu museum at Sauraha

I decide to go out and walk to the park museum, which is a bit basic but quite complete: inside a small hall there are various exhibitions dedicated to the flora and to different types of insects and snakes, some poisonous as cobra or viper, that can be found within this natural reserve. The area is also home to rhinos, tigers, antelopes, monkeys, leopards and jackals. We are in the Terai, a narrow strip of flat, fertile land located at the foot of the nepalese Himalayan mountains at the border with India. It is a region with a subtropical climate that receives huge amounts of rainfall during the monsoon season. Thanks to these geographical features, the Terai is covered, in part, in acacia, ceiba and shisham forests, as well as in a variety of grasses, some that can reach heights of 8 meters! The several guides in uniform stationed at the exit of the museum tell me that it is thanks to the popular rides on elephant back inside areas covered in elephant grass that I can catch sight of the famous Chitwan rhinos. Not to be missed, they assure me. Each guide has his own special area of work, a clear (or sometimes unclear) fee, and yet everyone advises me not to take hasty decisions. I take their advice and I leave.

Sunset at Sauraha

Sitting in one of the beach bars, I marvel at a postcard sunset; the white sand still feels the heat of the day, and a huge and extremely red sun disappears fast behind the dark green of the dense jungle, reflecting on the calm waters of the river. It is dark now, and the street lights are virtually nonexistent; mosquitoes are taking advantage of the cool climate and fly around angry, forcing me to leave the beach, now disturbingly dark, for the paved path.

Sunset at Sauraha

My flashlight does not save me: after only a brief walk on the path, I’m engulfed by a thick and dense fog that the torch light cannot penetrate. A little further, the paved road turns into dirt and soon there are no more houses in sight, so I begin to doubt. Is this the right way? I realise it is not after a long walk, when I reach the river bank to a point that seems quite far ahead of the hotel. I turn around and head back; it takes some time to return to the crossroad where I missed the turn; I take the right path and quickly reach my destination.

I lie down in the bed. Its base is very hard and I feel I will sleep well, lulled by the sound of cicadas and by the chirping of various birds.

PART 2: http://asianitinerary.com/royal-chitwan-national-park-2/

PART 3: http://asianitinerary.com/royal-chitwan-national-park-3/

CHITWAN ON THE NET: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitwan_District

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