Nosey Parkers

We have just come back from an amazingly enjoyable family adventure. We decided it was time to do what the kids have been wanting to do for a long time: go on an elephant trek in the local jungle! The place was called "Nosey Parker's" (thought you would enjoy that Bay). It turned out to be a "ten out of ten" experience. Both Kai and Pippin had perma-smiles for the entire 3 and a half hours and did not want to leave at the end. In fact, Kai said he would like to work there when he grows up!

It began with a pick up from our guest house by very friendly young Thai co-op students (who are studying in the hospitality area). We had the excitement of driving with them in the back of a pick-up van for about a 25 minute trip out into the country side. The traffic in rural Thailand is just as nerve-wrecking as in the big cities with cars and motorcycles weaving in and out in all directions constantly -- tailgating "required". Of course added to that we were in the back of an open pick up (tuk-tuk) with no seat belts and our very uptight Canadian view points about safety! It is hard to let go of this for us adults, but the kids absolutely love it -- it feels very free to them.

We got there safely and were immediately led to an elephant "docking" area where we climbed onto elephants, one adult and one child per elephant for the trek. Getting on the elephant was quite a nerve wrecking experience in itself - it is very high off the ground and it feels like one is moving all over the place . . .

Kai's personal account:
The elephants are so cool. Pippin and mom rode on a 19 year old and me and dad rode on a 50 year old. Ours was huge. Riding was my favorite part but dad was a nervous wreck. Riding on an elephant was like riding a slow and bumpy roller-coaster. Dad kept on grabbing me because we were either going up or down. After that, we got to feed the elephant me and dad rode on. When we held out the cucumbers, it wrapped it's trunk around it and put it in his mouth. We found out that elephants usually live up to 120-150 years old. Then our instructor took us on a hike up the mountain a little bit. He showed us a rock that looked like an elephants head. The experience was amazing!

We kept thinking about you, John, that you might not like the ride too much (it reminded me (Skye) a little bit of a slowed down version of the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland), but that you certainly would have liked to follow behind with a wheelbarrow! Elephant manure abounds at this place -- in fact, one of the things they do at this camp is to collect the manure, mix it with other vegetable matter and smoulder it to make fertilizer which they then sell to farmers in the area.


For part of the ride, the herder/driver gets off and just lets the elephant wander and graze with us still on the back! The drivers have these sticks with hooks on them to help guide the elephants (they seem to be pretty gentle when they use them, it is kind of like a prod), but mostly they use a variety of vocalizations to "tell" the elephants what to do/where to go.

This is a picture of Ronato and Kai's elephant 'driver.'

At one point we were given the opportunity to get right down onto the elephant's head/neck area. Once down there (it really feels like a solid perch), the elephant starts flapping it's ears and their ears gently hit your legs -- it made us laugh a lot. We held on pretty tight with our legs, but when the drivers ride, they kind of cross their legs, or hang one leg down and tuck the other one under themselves like it's no big deal.

And here's Pippin's account:

Today we went to ride elephants. Mom and I went on a 19 year old elephant. The experience was weird. It was like a roller coaster. I got to ride on the head of the elephant. After the ride I got a t-shirt with a picture of me and mom on the elephant. I liked it when we got to feed the elephant cucumbers and when the elephant was done the cucumbers, he was looking for more. Then we went to a hut and saw a big spider. It was the size of my hand!

The fellow on the left was Pippin and Skye's elephant driver and the fellow in the green shirt was our instructor/guide for our hike into the jungle. They were both really great guys -- funny and full of information about elephants and the area.

All in all as Kai said, an "eleven out of ten!"

Until our next adventure . . .

The EuroThai Adventurers