Elephant Training

Kate spent 2 days and 1 night at "mahout" training. A "mahout" is an elephant trainer. The program was put on by Elephant XL a group that rescues elephants that were formerly used for logging. Because of the influx of Chinese machinery into southeast Asia, elephants are no longer needed in the logging industry. There are many out of work elephants. We've seen many in the cities being paraded around by their owners - it is very sad. Elephant XL takes in elephants that have been abused and overworked and gives them a much better life. There are 4 adult female elephants (the males are more unpredictable and dangerous) and 1 baby male elephant. They run the mahout training everyday, but only have 4 people at a time so you can get to know your elephant 1 on 1. The morning began with riding one of the adult elephants in a traditional 2 person platform saddle. Another girl and I took turns riding on the bare neck of the elephant. After lunch we returned and were assigned 'our' elephant. My elephant was Mai San. She was used in logging but was abused. She was forced to haul loads way too heavy for her and did not get adequate rest. Also, at some point in her life she was blinded in her right eye - probably from being forced forward into a bamboo stick. In addition when they rescued her they had suspicions that she had been given 'ecstasy' to make her work harder. Even after her terrible history she was very gentle.



First we learned how to climb onto the bare back of the elephant. The mahout tells the elephant to bend her leg and then hanging onto their very strong ears you step on their leg and haul yourself up. It was tricky! With my short legs, it wasn't very graceful:



After than we rode them to their jungle home to put them to bed for the night.



On the way we learned how to sit on their bare necks and how to instruct them where to go. After putting the elephants to bed, we went back to the lodge and bathed the baby elephant. He is so cute!





It was fun to get into the water and scrub him:



After a relaxing evening & night in the lodge, we woke up early to go get our elephants for their morning bath. Elephants toss dirt onto their bodies to help with the heat and bugs, so they are very dirty after being left alone! I rode Mai San to the river and with the help of the mahout scrubbed her clean:





After breakfast we kayaked back to Luang Prabang, along the Nam Khan river.



The 2 day adventure was very interesting, exciting, and rewarding. It was wonderful to get to know an elephant and know that my money was going toward rescuing other abused elephants.