I'm back in Kanchanaburi town after 5 days at the Elephants & Friends sanctuary near Kanchanaburi.
I have a lot of notes and pictures to go through, so this will be long, go get a cuppa!!
This week has been incredible in so many ways. The people that were volunteering at the same time as me were superb, and we all mucked in and worked hard for Phot and his family. They lead an amazing life and work so hard with next to no money or support. They rely on volunteers to help and for any visitors money during their stay to get by. Phot, the owner is seriously passionate about these animals and since his wife died has worked even harder to realise their dream. His new girlfriend, whose will give birth to Phots second child in a month, works super hard too, and her cooking is beautiful considering what little equipment they have to use. They rely on the river for their washing and bathroom, using drinking water to cook and drink. They relocated about 8 months ago, which is why there is a big amount of effort required to build the new camp. It is nearly complete to a sustainable level where they can take on up to 10 visitors at one time. This will really help bring in some money, so I want to spread the word about this place and encourage people to visit.
If anyone would like to make a donation to help, please DO NOT do it from the elephants & friends website, the "foundation" does not pass on donations to Phot!!! I have Phots bank details and will make my own future donations and can pass any donations on to him myself. So, please contact me to arrange any donations should you wish to do so. Thanks!
I'll put a few clickable links to individual pictures in this story, but to just see them all go over to my photobucket page...
Monday:Phot was late arriving to pick me up, and I asked the manager at VN Guesthouse to call him. He was still at he camp, so he started out to get me... He arrived about 10:30am, with Matt, an 18 year old Aussie chap who arrived at the camp on Sunday. We then went to collect Marnie, a 23 year old postgrad from Canada and the three of us rode to the camp in the back of Phots battered old pickup truck. It was a nice introduction to the week ahead! After about 30-35 minutes we reached a dusty mud track which was fun to ride along in the back of said pickup!
The camp is home to Phot, the owner, his 8 month pregnant girlfriend, Pui, and his 3-4 year old daughter Aree, whose mother tragically died just over a year ago. Aree commands the place and I believe she will be an amazing Mahout and ambassador for the sanctuary one day! There is also a brilliant 23 year Mahout called 'A' who lives and works here. He sleeps in the guests huts when they are not being used, or in the treehouse over hanging the river down by the elephants when the camp is full. Phot and A never stop working and A is so small and strong that he does all the crazy climbing/balancing/dangerous work, Lol! He is amazing to see in action that lad...
I dropped my bags off in the hut that Matt was in. It was build by Phot and A and is one of 5 visitor quarters, with one being a treehouse (where Marnie stayed for the week) and the last hut yet to be completed. It is a very simple hut with two beds and a mosquito net. Nothing else required! There is a shared bathroom next to the family hut, which only has water pumped at night as long as the generator is working, lol.
The camp is also home to 6 puppies and 3 adult dogs. The male adult is a good tool for Phot when times are hard. They will go out into the fields and Phot uses a slingshot to hit the big wild fowl and the dog runs to kill them and bring them back for food. The dogs like to run in front of the truck when we drive to the jungle and river too. They know exactly where to go. The puppies attack your legs when you get up in the morning, on mass... very amusing!
The view from the camp dining area is superb, over the river and jungle.
After a brief look around we went out to get a banana tree from one of Phots friends restaurant. On route we met a couple who were coming for the day and to give Phot a donation, they live in Bangkok and teach at a school there and come out to see Phot every now and then. They were pretty cool and mucked in with the work for the day. We also picked up another volunteer, a 19 year old girl called Ela from Holland who is traveling for a while before starting Uni back home in September. The banana tree was pretty big and the lower parts of the stump are heavy. It was fun to load these up into the truck though, and I managed to find a red ant nest to stomp on which resulted in many many bites on my legs!! They sting like hell and each bite goes red with a white centre pretty quickly. After a few hours they stopped itching though, although the marks are still with me now as I write this, 6 days on!
With the banana tree loaded into the truck, all the leaves and over hanging parts are chopped off and piled on top again and then the big woven rug thrown on top. Finally we all piled on top and we were off back to camp! It is actually quite comfy to sit on a banana tree, but the bent back aches after a while. Phot drives very carefully, so there were never any dramas up there, and we were to get used to this pretty quickly!
When we got back to site we met the elephants and split the banana tree for them to eat in the seperate areas. They stay down near the river mostly, and some times in the jungle. They also have a feeding area just next to where they stay near the river and we walked them up to there and chained them to trees to eat the food we had put there for them. They love the banana tree! It is not a great diet exclusively for elephants though, so they have a lot of variety. Phot has to pay for the trees he takes from the plantations, so when he has no visitors or no money left from donations, he has to rely on the jungle for feeding them. They each have a long chain, with the pregnant female on the longest chain, and they are tethered seperately to eat in their own radius. The other two are quite picky about what they eat in the jungle, and like to stick to bamboo, but Comemoon the pregnant one will eat anything!
After a bit of time for them to eat and helping Ela settle into camp and having a chat and a spot of lunch, we went down to the river to bath the elephants for the first time. I used the platform built by Phot to get on the biggest elephant Mali, as she cannot use the leg like Comemoon, nor lie down like Somboen. Using some commands I moved the elephant into the water, although she is pretty stubborn and likes bath time the least of these three elephants! Phot helped me get her in though. Once in the water the Mahout use commands to make them dip down into the water where you can wash their muddy and dusty backs and heads off... it is great fun! Comemoon is nicknamed the Dolphin as she loves the water and will play at flipping her riders off with twists and turns. As you get better at holding on she will try different moves... superb fun!
We rode the elephants around a bit on dry land to get used to it, it is sooooo high up there! Having never even ridden a horse, I was wobbling around quite a lot to start with, lol! Mali was pretty mischeivious and she would put her head down to encourage me to dismount! This took me by surprise to start with... Phot says that commanding an elephant is all about authority and showing them strength.
The Mahout use a stick with a hook on the end to issue commands, however the hooks that they use here are blunt and rounded off, unlike those used by Mahouts at the bigger elephant farms in Thailand, which can cut the skin and cause infections. You use strength of touch in your feet on the elephants shoulders or backs of the ears whilst issueing commands and the hook pressed onto the side of the head, or the front to turn and stop. It took a few rides over a few days to get it working well and be relaxed up there... but it is so rewarding to do, and when you ride an elephant all the way from the jungle to the river, and then into the river and down into the water, it really is amazing!! Matt took to it very well and had such balance that he could sit like A cross legged on the elephant, he even managed to lie down on her whilst walking to the jungle one night. I think with some more practise he will be standing up on them soon! (As I write this he has just gone back for another 5 days as he leaves for home in 7 days and couldn't think of anything more enjoyable than the camp! After the 6 days of graft though, the rest here in Kanchanburi was welcomed for sure!)
The river Kwai is a very fast moving river and near where the elephants stay there is a pool off to one side which is not caught in the flow. It is a lovely temperature, although when you first get in it takes your breath away, which is really funny when you've just been thrown in by an elephant, lol. It is nice to swim in there, and the Mahout wash in there too. But after the elephants have been in churning up the bed of the river and peeing and pooing in it, it is a little messy! You have to keep an eye out for 'coconuts' floating by... (elephant poo floats! ;-))
I took some nice photos of the others with their camera from the bank when they were in the water with the elephants.
Phots daughter Aree is quite remarkable, she treats new people like they are family and she has known them forever. She obviously meets new people most weeks, so it is normal I suppose. I was a climbing frame for a hour tonight and played a game which involved hiding behind the table, highly amusing for both of us, lol! She can speak lots of Thai, command elephants from the floor as they tower over her! She also speaks plenty of English words.
That evening we ate a fantastic dinner made by Pui in a tiny kitchen and chatted into the night. I don't think Marnie liked me too much, when I made comments during conversation or started talking about something she would look away and remain quiet... she is a nice girl, maybe in a smaller group she would have more to say. I guess some people just like keeping quiet. This lead me to be much more quiet than I usually am, I didn't want to stop anyone else from chatting, but this meant there were very long periods of silence! Lol. Matt is a cool guy, and that evening my first impressions of this 18 Aussie kid were changed. He has seen a lot in his few years and done some great work on his travels, he really knows a lot more than his 18 years and is a top bloke. Ela is also very cool and really smart. We had a lot of fun making conversation and Ela was making notes of new words (mostly slang) in her book to remember them, lol.
Sleep that night was instant when I put my head down, very unusual for me! The bed was comfy and it looked like we didn't need the mozzie net as I didn't see a single one all day or night. We left the window open, which meant it got cold in the night. I used my silk bag liner for the first time tonight and it was very comfy and did the job nicely.
Tuesday:
We woke about 7am and got up to spectacular views in the mountian range. The puppies great you in the morning excitidly and are all clambering up your legs and nipping at your toes... lol. We had scrambled eggs and bread for breakfast and then went down to dig some holes to plant banana trees near the river for the farm. If Phot can grow enough, it will really help in those times when money is short! He had taken some baby trees a couple of days before, and Marnie, Matt and I dug 10 holes to plant them. We planted 5 that Phot had and watered them, leaving the other holes for later when can collect some more. He will need to build a good fence though, as the elephants can smell banana trees from miles away, lol! Ela missed out as she slept in. We all picked up some nasty blisters from this work, using bamboo cane tools with metal pick ends. If they break when you're working then you reshape the end and wedge the metal tool end back on and carry on!
After this we took the elephants to the river again for a bath and a drink. This time I rode in with a hook and used the commands succesfully to get the elephant down into the water. These are the commands we sue, and they must be said with authority, combined with feet or hook confirmation:
Go= Hoea, Stop= How, Turn= Ben (and you push the opposite side of the head from the direction you wish to turn), Reverse= Toy, Lower into water= Moot, and Good= Euhh. If you don't show them you are strong, they believe they are in charge, so it is a test to get it sussed. The first two days Matt was ignored a lot, but my the end of the week he was fully in charge and can easily say he is Mahout! Cool.
In the afternoon we drove to the banana tree plantation and cut down loads of them, including taking the banana clusters and banana flowers which we were going cook for tea! It was mid afternoon and extremely hot for the drive home on top of the bananas. Glad I took lots of sun block, there is no where to hide up there!
Back at camp we took the elephants up into the jungle to leave them for the night to graze and sleep. I drove the crazy battered pickup truck in front of the elephants, as it was still loaded with banana trees Phot said it makes them walk up there quicker, lol. When we got there they caught up and started tucking in to the bananas on the back of the truck quite determindly!
After a late lunch we started building the last hut. The basic frame and floor was in place, and we began adding baton to tack the outside panels too using second (or third) hand wood, which first needed all the rusty bent old nails taking out... glad I got my tetanus jab before I left! Marnie and Ela leanrt how to make the grass woven and bamboo roof panels with Pui. Phot, Matt and A put the roof panels on to the hut and nailed them in place, with A finishing off the last part at the top as he could balance and work off of the one cross beam on the apex roof. The roof was finshed off with a thin metal cover to seal the top apex. When it was finished he simply slid down the roof and off the side to the floor.
We had another beautiful evening spread of food made by Pui, and the savory eggs were amazing, I must learn how to make those when I do some cookery courses in Chang Mai!!! Everyone loved those eggs... great flavour.
Phot and A built a camp fire next to the camp and we sat and chilled with a few beers as A played guitar and sang some Thai songs interspersed with the odd rock and roll tune which he would whistle the song to. We crashed into bed about 11pm, exhausted and slept very well again...
Wednesday:
We woke early again, the daylight streaming through the gaps in the woven wall panels and the sounds of the birds and secada won't let you lie in! Phot myself and Matt did a little more buidling work on the last hut and then we went to collect a day visitor and stopped for breakfast at a restaurant nearby. We had some Yam type salad and savory pork pieces. Phot had super hot chilli on everything as normal for him. He doesn't eat anything without it!
We went to collect Emily, a 28 year old French woman who is seeing Thailand before going to Australia to find work for a year. She is really nice and on the drive back to camp everyone got to know her. Once back at camp she dropped her things into the hut with Ela and then went off to get elephant food in the pickup.
The banana tree plantation was locked up and the owners out of town, so Phot took us to his 'uncles' place near the river where we were going to use a boat to cut the long grass growing in the middle of the river. Phot also wanted to bring some roots back to try and grow some in a small pool behind the elephant quarters. Matt and Marnie went on the boat with A and Phot and rowed out to the middle to chop grass. Ela, Emily and myself went with Phot's uncle up river to a good spot to collect the grass on land and load the truck. They bought two boat fulls over, the second one was a huge load! We had some kebabs from a stall nearby for a snack and climbed aboard the grass to go back to camp, only stopping once on route to get some vegetarian food supplies for Marnie from a little shop.
When we got back to camp we went up to the jungle to fetch the elephants for their bath, I drove the truck again as Emily took her first ride on an elephant and Marnie and I got some good pictures for her. We bathed them and then tethered them in their usual spot after unloading the grass for them and throwing the roots into the pool to take hold and hopefully grow soon!
We did a bit more building work after this and I enjoyed doing some nail hammering as this is something I am pretty good at! We got two of the wall frames ready for paneling before dark. After dark we took the elephants back to the jungle, which was fun in the dark and we tried to take photos with the red sky and moon out, not many came out to good though.
Evening meal was great as usual and we built a bigger fire and talked all night with Ela, Matt and Emily. Marnie joined us later after falling asleep on her bed after a tough day!
After Matt and I had a few beers, I could here A hammering nails down by the river. He was building his tree house as more visitors were due tomorrow and he had to sleep down there. I went down to lend a hand, as it was now 10pm and obviously dark, and his tree house is over hanging the river at a fast moving part. He was very grateful for the offer of help, and this turned out to be probably my favourite part of the trip apart from riding elephants. A speaks very little English and so we communicated based on grunts, pointing and me just realising what he needed! I helped by taking down the old tarpoolin which formed the walls and roof of the flimsy frame already in place, passing tools, helping move the wood onto the treehouse and holding things in place while he hammered 4" nails into it all. We built the steps up into the tree, the bridge and strengthened the flimsy frame and build a full apex roof which he will panel out with the roof panels that the girls made. I even had hold of him by his belt at one point as he leaned out over the river to nail a piece in place, crazy little guy!! At one point A was on top of the apex roof, which was only fixed at one end, with me holding it up stood on a few loose boards, and holding two other pieces in place so he could hammer them together! He stood up to balance after a wobble and stuck his head into the foliage above which showered us both in giant red ants, spiders and dust from the tree!! We couldn't let go though and I closed my eyes and listened to A hammer like crazy to get the nails in and get down. When he finshed I opened my eyes to the view of 4 giant red ants walking down my arm, one just going under my sleeve, Lol!! Some ants dropped straight down the back of my trousers too, perfect shot! We laughed like mad as we squashed ants and got them out of our clothes... it was a superb moment. :-) I found a scorpion on the tree too at one point, a little white one with a big fat black stinger... pretty cool! We finshed about 2:30am and walked back up to camp to find Matt and Phot making wall panels for the hut, Lol! A made a lush omelette and used the last rice and chicken from lunch to make a nice snack. We had another laugh about the ants, he thanked me for my help with a hand shake and we went off to have some well earned sleep!
Thursday:
After 5 hours sleep I woke up to the sound of Phot hammering nails into the new hut. He had lots of family members visiting today for one night, and so needed to sleep them somewhere. He and A were going to camp, and some of the family would sleep in Phots room with his girlfriend and Aree.
All things considered I felt pretty good today, my muscles weren't aching like the last two days and just my eyes were tired.
After our scrambled egg breakfast we did a little bit of work on the hut and then chilled out for an hour as the girls finshed some more roof panels.
Phot's uncle arrived after collecting another day visitor from the station. His arrival was hilarious, he pulled up in his nice new truck with hip hop blaring out of his stereo so loud! Lol. We had a little dance in celebration of hearing some music and welcomed Gertine to the camp. She was laughing about the trip, she said the only thing he said to her was to confirm her name, then he cranked the volume up and drove for half an hour!! Gertine is a 24 dutch girl doing some traveling and volunteer work teaching. She is pretty laid back and got straight into 'Thai time keeping' mode no problem. Ela could now talk in her own language to someone, which she enjoyed.
Gertine's arrival was perfect timing as we were just about to go to the jungle to collect the elephants for a quick bath. Gertine had a great time in the river on the dolphin and the girls took some photos for her. As we walked down from the jungle and I was driving the pickup, some of the kids that were visiting were taking turns jumping onto the side of the pickup and hanging on as we drove slowly down the dust track, I managed to take a picture of one of them in the wing mirror.
After another good bath session we took the elephants back to the jungle and went off to Phots old camp to collect some quality wood for flooring and making benches to view the river and elephants from. When we got there Phot was devestated to find that someone had stolen the big hut and half of his dining area roof, which was huge!!! He was close to tears and got on the phone to his corrupt policeman friend straight away. The wood he'd used here was expensive and was bought by Dominique before she passed away. He went for a walk around the old site while we collected together the disguarded roof panels, many of which were broken and useless.
After about ten minutes two Thai boys came over and asked us to follow them in the truck... we drove behind them assuming that Phot had sent them but not really knowing what we would find. Phot had found the wood, at a nearby stone merchants place! They had buiilt 3 small huts using his wood! The guy there was claiming that Burmese did it and would be coming back in a couple of days for the rest. Phot called his police friend again and the guys here were scared and said they would help him load up the loose wood that was stock piled here and take it back to his camp! We loaded up the truck with an insane amount of wood, and the girls waited there while Matt and I squeezed in the cab with Phot and two Thai guys jumped on top of the wobbling pile of wood for the trip to the new camp! We unloaded and Phot spoke with them again to find out who took the wood. He said that if they'd have asked for some he would have given them some wood to build, such is his generosity even when he is so skint himself! They still denied it and we drove back to their place. When we got there, Phot paid some local kids a few Baht and asked them to point out who owned the pile of wood, and they pointed immediately at the guy who had been denying it. Phot called his police friend again to lodge a formal complaint and we all left to go back to camp.
When we got back we took the elephants to the river from their jungle spot. Marnie drove the pickup today so I could have another ride, and I was on the dolphin with A at the helm (sat backwards chatting to me!) and Gertine behind me. A was much more talkative today after I helped him out last night, and he asked me to come and collect him next time I go to Bangkok so he can go with me... lol!
As we were walking past the camp, our elephant smelt the bananas that were hanging under the treehouse for us to eat on camp. She made a beeline for them and before A could convince her to stop we had out heads in the tree and were close to being bashed into the treehouse itself... the bananas were tied with a big piece of rope and as she pulled on this I could hear the tree and treehouse crekaing under the strain, these animals are seriously strong! Phot cam running over from walking one of the the other elephants to help regain control and he untied the bananas from the rope so that the elephant could move out from under the tree! She ate the whole lot of bananas immediately! A, Gertine and I were covered in the obligatory red ants and were wiping them off for the rest of the ride down to the river! Ela had my camera, so I have pictures of the incident!
The bathing was fun again and A jumped off leaving me with a hook and I got Comemoon to go down into the water for bathing. We took turns and all had a go on each ofg the elephants. I had the Dolphin sussed this time and she couldn't get me off. Ela kindly video'd some of this.
On the way back up to the jungle as the sun was setting we had some fun. Matt sussed out how to lay down on the elephants back whilst walking up there and A was standing on his all the way, at one point he ripped some branches from trees as he walked past and was waving them around his head dancing and singing standing on the walking elephant, Lol! Matt started singing awimbaway awimbaway, followed by Gertine and then A who was dancing away to the tune with his tree branches being waved over head. I was videoing at the time, to capture A standing up. Unfortunately being dark the video doesn't show much, but you can hear A singing at the end and Ela and I laughing walking behind! It was another cool moment this week. (I'll upload the video later in the week)
Tonight Ela, Marnie, Matt and myself played card games all night at the dining table after dinner and Ela was crowned triple shithead champion 2008, Kanchanaburi! Nice play girl... we had a good laugh tonight, god knows what Ela had taken but she was nearly blue from laughing at one point... it was a good night. :-)
Friday:
Today was fairly sad as we were leaving Ela behind and leaving the camp. We had breakfast and then took the elephants for a bath for the last time, which was great fun as usual. I jumped into the river before they got in to enjoy one last swim in there. I'm going to miss this spot, it is a beautiiful place to be. Marnie and Ela stayed behind when we took the elephants back to the jungle to plant the last few banana tree babies for Phot.
After this we chilled at the camp and played a few more card games whilst Marnie finshed off her last roof panel sat by the huts. We arranged a group photo after packing our bags and then said goodbye to everyone. I went to shake A's hand and he gave me a rather unexpected big hug... I'm gonna miss that little fella!
Before I left I took Phot aside on camp and offered a cash donation of all my remaining cash, it is the least that I can do to help and I know that if he has a week without tourists then he is strapped for cash. It was only 4800 Baht, but it'll help him out for sure. He was teary eyed and thanked me most sincerely of course.
We loaded up Phots battered BMW car and got dropped into town at the Jolly Frog back packers place where they had plenty of rooms available.
I'll really miss that place. The family and A are wonderful people. So generous, honest and hard working. Hopefully I can go back one day, maybe before I leave South East Asia on this trip. He really needs a good English speaker there all the time to help witih calls from visitors etc. At the very least I will keep in touch via email and try to arrange some donations for Phot to help out. I'll ask you again if you do wish to help my mate out with his most worthwhile effort, please do not donate through the elephants & friends website, but instead contact me and I can pay him direct.
That afternoon Marnie organised her onward travel, had lunch with Matt and I and then said goodbye. Matt and I got pretty tanked up that night and we played tunes from both of our ipods on his speaker system and talked nonsense all night.
Today or tomorrow I am going to arrange my travel and go onto Chang Mai in the north where I hope to stay still for a week at least and do some trekking and cookery courses. I'll walk to the train station later from where I can buy a ticket to go from Bangkok over night on Monday. Then I just need to get the regular bus from Kanchanaburi to Bangkok and a taxi across town to the train staion. It'll be a long day of travel! I'll pre-book a guesthouse too, I've heard it can be difficult to find room if you get there too late!
I've uploaded some videos to my photobucket account now, only short snippets of my trip, including one in the cambodia folder if you want to see them.
That's all for now. I am still feeling tired from last week after doing loads of unusual work with primative tools and equipment! It was an amazing week and I am so glad I did it... if you travel over here, and want to see elephants up close, please don't go to the commercial elephant farms where you ride in a seat and the Mahout use sharp hooks, instead help Phot and meet some happy elephants for real!!!
Cheers drive!
Sloggs :-)
