June 5th. Elephant Hills
An 8.30 start. Very civilized. Breakfast wasn't very exciting, a mediocre attempt at a European style buffet. Entertainment was provided by the house monkey, which had escaped from its normal confinement. Apparently, it has a problem with cats and children and had been getting into trouble. With us it was fine and begged for food before going to sleep in the rafters.
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An elderly truck arrived, still dripping from its morning wash. The Land Rover we should have been in was delayed elsewhere. We clambered aboard, all getting wet in the process, and drove for about 20 minutes, past the usual mixture of fields, houses and small shops & cafes.
We crossed onto the wrong side of a dual carriageway for a few metres and dropped off the road onto a rough track. There we found some stilt houses, a stall selling souvenirs and a mounting block from which we were to board the elephants.
The first elephant hove into view, still munching its breakfast, and was soon joined by 3 others, all just about under the control of their mahouts.
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We climbed aboard and set off up a rough track. To begin with the swaying completely ruined all of my photographs but I eventually managed a few half decent ones.
The factor that has to be remembered is that the mahouts have a cooperative arrangement with the elephants. The latter will work as long as they are allowed regular meal breaks. These entail plunging off the path into the bush and grabbing as much foliage as possible. After a few minutes, they can then be enticed back onto the path. Given that the elephants don't all wish to have a snack at exactly the same time, moving the caravan along at any sort of speed is difficult.
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The mahouts are Karen people, from the Myanmar border. The tribe suffers from intense persecution by the military regime there. They all wore red shirts, the traditional colour for men. They and their families live in small stilt houses at the elephant park and there were signs of small gardens around them. |
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We passed through a rubber plantation, the photos of which were shaken to pieces by the undulating gait of our transport. We wandered off the path into the bush in search of a light snack, returned to the track and completed a circuit of about an hour before returning to the camp.
Going uphill was a bit bumpy but not otherwise unpleasant. Going downhill was decidedly painful as we were repeatedly thrown against the safety rail on the front of the seat.
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Some more of the party |
Once back at the start, we tipped the mahouts with money and bought some baskets of fruit with which to tip the elephants. They seized this from our hands with considerable enthusiasm - except for the one which always spat out the yellow fleshed, green skinned fruit (or vegetable). It might have been pumpkin, in which case, I have to agree with the elephant’s taste.
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The truck took us back to Elephant Hills for a very pleasant buffet lunch. The monkey was out again and, this time, the staff chased it away with the aid of a rubber snake - it is terrified of them. |
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We had an hour and a half to rest before walking down the slope in front of the bar to the river, where we climbed into large canoe/rafts, each of which had a paddler seated at the rear.
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 Khao Sok river |
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We set off slowly down the Khao Sok river, quite small and often shallow at this stage. Huge limestone cliffs towered over us, the banks were heavily wooded and the river was full of fallen branches through which we had to weave our way. The “rapids” were pretty gentle, the major danger appearing to be colliding with one of the other boats in the flotilla.
There were a few small toads perched in a crevice half way up a cliff, a brown and yellow snake asleep up a tree, a couple of ducks and an out of focus dog.
The toad and the snakes refused to be photographed - too dark to get them in focus at a reasonable shutter speed when bouncing around in a boat. Everything was quiet except for the few places where the river ran close to the main road.
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We stopped at a small clearing for tea brewed over a log fire. Swimming was offered but the brown colour of the water discouraged most of us.
At this stage, my old camera, brought especially for the purpose of playing around in boats, decided to breath its last, so that the rest of the trip went unrecorded. Suffice it to say that it was all very gentle and a relaxing way to spend the afternoon. It was a shame that we didn’t see more wildlife but that’s the way it goes.
After a couple of hours we scrambled out of the river and caught the Land Rover back home. Awaiting us was a plate of water melon & pineapple and a plate of mixed nuts, dried chillies, dried lime leaves and dried anchovies. Excellent.
Hot showers - the hot water was now running - and a very cold beer followed. We sat on the terrace, drank and chatted with the other two couples on our part of the trip - and tried to ignore the French coach party which had arrived at lunchtime.
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The two couples were both on their honeymoons. The couple from Plymouth were in their late '20s or early '30s. He had the tattoos of a sailor and she was an ardent vegetarian. This was giving her huge problems as vegetarianism seemed incomprehensible to most Thais, who use either fish and oyster sauce in almost all dishes. This made me think, as one of the basics of Buddhism is the love of all creatures - ie not killing and eating them.
It is possible that the Monks, in effect, act as lightning rods for the rest of the community, living out the full Buddhist ethic so that the remainder of the population can live a normal life. The other couple were Scottish, although she was Swedish by origin, and in their '50s. They were all very friendly and good company for our shared expeditions.
Before dinner there was a film on the jungle eco-system followed by a demonstration of how to make green papaya salad, a major Thai delicacy. It was all very straightforward and I already have all of the ingredients except for the papaya and the dried shrimps in my larder. The shrimps would be easy to buy but the papaya would probably have to be replaced with cabbage or similar.
Dinner was a Thai buffet. Good but not exciting. Just after it there was major excitement from the assembled farangs as a 3 inch long scorpion suddenly appeared in the middle of the floor. It was then subjected to the equivalent of WWIII as dozens of flash guns were fired at it from all angles and the poor thing sat there looking confused. Eventually, one of the staff was permitted to collect it with a dust pan and brush and dump it outside. |
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