The tree looked like two grapevines about 4 to 8" in diameter, intertwined with each other. None of us could understand what the guide said it was. It was cut into lengths of about 10 inches and given to us to beat into a pulp. At least ... all the guys had to do it ... using a sledge hammer. The girls just watched as we sweated away doing one for them, also. Anyway, by the time we each got our wood beat into pulp form, our arms were totally worn out.

Let me digress here ... so I can get you to where I am today.

A few weeks ago in Kanchanaburi, I spent a day riding an elephant. It was a great expierence. Now I am in northern Thailand in a place called Chiang Mai. I saw a brochure offering two days of Mahout training in an elephant camp. A mahout is an elephant trainer. Here they train you to be a trainer. How cool is that?

In this camp you learn different ways to mount an elephant and learn to give it commands. You also feed and wash the elephant. I signed up for the two day elephant camp. Now here I am, beating this tree into pulp with a sledge hammer bigger than my arm.

In Thailand elephants have been revered for many centuries. They were important in battle as kings mounted on Elephants would fight the Burmese to defend Thailand on many occasions.

A white elephant is even included in the flag of the Royal Thai navy . The "order of the white elephant'' is one of their highest honors bestowed by the King. The elephant is not really white from what I understand, but has skin pigmentation that makes it lighter in color.

The elephant is also sacred to Buddha. In Thailand it is believed that a white elephant may contain the soul of a dead person and people whisper to the elephant to ask for assistance in solving their problems.

Anyway,  I was picked up at my hostel this morning around 8 a.m. I piled into a truck bed with about 10 other Mahout wanna bees from around the world. I was the only American.

We rode for about two hours into the mountains north of Chiang Mai. About halfway in our trip we stopped at an open market to buy fruit to feed our elephant. We all came back to the truck with a bag of bananas.

The truck stopped in the mountains, in what looked like nowhere . Everyone got out and we started a 30 minute hike to the Elephant camp. Once we arrived at camp, we were issued Mahout clothing to wear. They were shirts and below-the- knee length shorts, made of denim.

 We sat in the woods and were taught some things about the elephants. It seems school always comes before fun.

We are told these are Asian Elephants. The elephant I rode last time was an African Elephant. The Asian elephant has smaller ears than the African elephant. The reason is the heat in Africa is greater and the elephant needs larger ears for fanning. There are still a few thousand wild elephants in northern Thailand, in the remote jungle south west of Chiang mai.

Asian elephants are the largest living land animals in Asia. They weigh 3.5 tons. They can carry 2 ton loads. You can see them either pulling or pushing huge jungle trees because of their strength. In general the Asian elephant is smaller than the African elephant and has the highest body point on the head . The feet have more nail-like structures than the African elephant, with 5 nails on the front feet and 4 on the back.

Out on the training field we started working with our elephants. First we fed them the bananas. This was to make friends, they said, and get everyone at ease with the elephants. 

We had all bought two bunches of the small bananas so common here. We were breaking them off one by one and the elephants would grab it with their trunks and take it to their mouth. A woman pulled out a bunch to break one off, but before she could get it off, the elephant grabbed the whole bunch and stuffed it into its mouth and chewed it down while the woman just sat there with open mouth and watched. We all laughed at her and then she thought it was hilarious too. The word "Yayaa" means "No More Fruit". They don't like to hear that.

We had been given 8 1/2 X 11 sheets of paper before leaving town with the commands for the elephants on it . I had looked at mine during the two hour ride and knew all the commands. The commands were in Thai (written with english letters) and the English meaning was next to them. The only problem was we didn't know the pronunciation of the Thai words.

We got on our elephant and worked giving it commands to turn left and right, stop. go, reverse, head down, leg up, etc.

To get on the elephant, you first tell it to lift leg. "Yok Kha" means 'lift the leg up'. The elephant lifts its' leg and you put your right foot on top of the elephants foot. Then you step with your left foot onto the elephants knee and pull your right foot up beside it. After that you are ready to pull yourself onto the elephants back. If you're a shorter person, you can tell the elephant to raise the leg higher. "Sung" means "higher". The elephants lifts his leg higher which makes the knee higher. You are then closer to the elephants back and can climb on. I used it everytime .

You have a 'hook' made of bamboo to guide the elephant. (For untrained elephants sometimes a metal hook isused).  To turn left you place your right hand on the elephants head and cross over your right hand with the hook and touch the elephants right ear. You rub with the hook and give the command "Saai" (left) and the elephant turns left. Just the reverse to go right (kwaw). To reverse the elephant you use the hook to rub his forehead while giving the reverse command (Toy).

We all took our turn having the elephant go left, right, back, forward, and stop. Then to dismount you give the head down command (jhaa long).

The dismount is fun. To dismount, you place your hands behind you as you sit on the neck. Then your two legs go over the head between the eyes. The head is down and you slide over the head and down the trunk. The first few times of practice a trainer is there to catch you as you get to the ground . It is really a long ways from the elephants head to the ground.

It was a lot of fun and everyone was laughing and taking pictures. The way we said the commands didn't sound anything like when the Thai Mahouts said them. The elephants would respond to the hook and the way your used your legs behind the ears to enforce the command. But all these commands, being said with accents from all over the world, didn't mean much to them I don't think.

After everyone had time to work with the elephants, we took a ride on them through the stream leading into the jungle for about an hour. At the end of the ride we rode them down into the pond back at the camp and had them lay down. There we took the brushes we had made by beating the tree and washed the elephants. It turns out the pulp makes soap when wet and rubbed on the elephant. It also is a good antiseptic if the elephant has any cuts or abrasions. It works as a mosquito repellant also . As we rubbed the elephants while they were laying in the water they were getting soaped up just like you would in a shower.

By now it was around 4 P.M. As it turned out, most of the gang had only signed up for one day. They will not be certified Mahouts after all! There are only two of us that will stay in the elephant camp tonight from our group. Myself and Lucy, from France. There are others in the camp from other groups, though.

The others change clothes and prepare to leave for the ride back to Chiang Mai. The two of us are told to shower and change from our wet clothes (we just finished bathing the elephants) into dry Mahout clothes. We have work to do. It seems not only do we learn to control the animals but we have to feed and bath them as well as do Mahout chores.

I am given a hose to hose down the camp pigs. Pigs? Lucy helps prepare the evening meal.

A large ton and a half truck comes in loaded with corn stalks and sugar cane . At night the elephants have a chain around one foot, with plenty of room to roam. The trainers told us it was necessary because when the truck came each day with the corn stalks, the elephants would all rush the truck and turn it over. It also keeps the elephants from wondering into the jungle during the night. The rest of the time, all during the day, the elephants are not chained. They roam the creeks and eat freely while workers keep an eye on them. I guess it's no different than chaining a dog up to keep it safe.

The corn stalks and sugar cane are in bundles on the truck. We take them from the truck to feed the elephants. We leave them tied in bundles. The elephants will tear them apart with their trunks and break them in pieces if they want to eat them that way.

The elephants trunks are amazing! They can pick up over 550 pounds with their trunk. They also hear better with the trunk than with the ears. They put the end of the trunk on the ground to detect movement .

The trunk is an extension of the nose and the upper lip combined. The nostrils are at the very tip of the trunk. They have finger like control with the trunk. I saw this many times in the two days with them. The trunk contains as many as 60,000 muscles. Elephants also have an acute sense of smell and use the trunk for smelling.

Elephants use their trunks for breathing, watering, feeding, touching, dusting, making sounds, communication, washing, pinching, grasping, defense and offense. 

One person said, "I saw an elephant with an itchy leg pull down the branch of a tree to scratch itself. This did not quite do the trick, so it put one end of the branch in its mouth and chewed it a little, then tried again, with better results. This was a clear example of tool making and using -- which used to be a definition of 'human'."

Asian elephants are highly intelligent . According to the Mahout, the order of intelligence is humans and apes, then dolphins and elephants. The elephants are placed in the same category as great apes in terms of cognitive abilities to make and use tools. Elephants are reported to go to safer ground during natural disasters like tsunamis and earthquakes, also.

Following our chores, a different Mahout is introduced to Lucy and me that will take us into the jungle tomorrow. We chat and he wants us to go to the village with him. It's about a 45 minute walk away.

He takes us down some trails of dirt, but very interesting scenery. Along the way, he picks a weedlooking thing from a bush. It looks to me like Johnson grass weed but larger. He peels back the two sides of the leaf and just leaves the stem. Then he bends the grass leaves back and shoots it like you would shoot a rubber band. It must be a lot of fun for the local kids.

Further down the trail, he shows us another weed . He breaks it in two but still leaves it connected. He pulls it just a little apart at the break and there is a gooey connection between the two parts. He then blows on it and soap bubbles start rising like with the soap bubble bottles you buy in the States to blow bubbles with. Amazing! I want to try it but my bubbles are not as many. Takes practice apparently.

The village only has about 200 people, but several languages are spoken among them. This is hill country and the people here have come from different places to settle. There is only one little store. It is not really a store at all, but more like a street food stand. They make Pad Thai and a few other choices like you buy off the streets in the other places. They also sell drinks and snacks, but it is an open building, not a store building. We sit at a table and get a drink and something to snack on. We talk for awhile as we look out over the valley below.

We start back to camp and get there just before dark . We walk through little trails and over foot bridges. The elephant camp in the distance is a pretty sight from where we are hiking.

We change from our Mahout clothes and take a good shower, then are offered a free Thai massage. Lucy gets hers first. She tells me two women with different techniques give the massage and they pulled her in all different directions, working against each other. I pass on the massage.

After the massage we are given the evening meal. It is dark now and, after eating, a couple of Thai guys bring out guitars and sing and play and talk a while. It's a memorable time, sitting here in the mountains, listening to Thai music in the quiet of the night.

It's been a long day and we are ready for bed. The beds have mosquito nets over them. This is the first time I have slept in one.

Tomorrow we ride into the jungle!

She raised her trunk and let out one of those long, loud elephant yells like they do in jungle movies. Then she lays her ears back against her body and lets out a deep growl (like a dog - but much, much louder). This is an angry elephant and I am in trouble.

 .....to be continued.