Happy Elephants
“Look how her ears flap. This is a sign she is happy”, explained Tan, our guide “Sun” had every reason to be happy. She had as many bananas as she could eat and piles of bamboo to gnaw on. A far cry from her sad, previous existence as a working elephant, dragging logs up and down hills all day in the logging camp.
We were in the sleepy, graceful town of Luang Prabang, a few hours drive north of the Laos capital, Vientiane. I wrote here about how much we loved Laos. Today, we would be spending a full day with the MandaLao Elephant Conservation team. MandaLao is one of a growing trend in this part of the world. A shift away from elephant exploitation, elephant rides, and treating these intelligent animals as slaves. There are no rides available at MandaLao, and this is a good thing.
MandaLao Conservation Camp
What they do have is passionate people. Our guide for the day, the ebullient Tan, had previously worked at such a camp. “It was all we knew”, he told us. “For many years, it was so deep in our culture.” And it is little wonder, in a country that has a motto of “Land of a million elephants.”
Working at MandaLao, and in particular, meeting the project director, Prasop, had changed Tan’s life, and his whole perspective on how we treat elephants. He used to view them as workers. His personal slaves. An income. This has changed and Tan’s mission now is to educate the rest of us, one visitor at a time.
We were his visitors today and he collected us from our hotel in the leafy outskirts of Luang Prabang. The air conditioning in the minivan was welcome, even this early in the morning. Our day would be spent with a traveller from Switzerland, and one from Canada. A young man who was on his winter break from planting trees across British Columbia.
A long way from British Columbia, and around 30 minutes from the centre of Luang Prabang, we we were soon sat around a table at the Conservation camp. Each of us engrossed in the enigmatic Prasop. An elderly Thai gentleman who has been helping elephants for over 30 years. He did tell us that he is of an age where he would now like to retire, but the owner of MandaLao does not share his enthusiasm. Listening to Prasop, and how he draws you in, I suspect that he is too much of an asset to let go.
From Thailand to Laos
Hearing Prasop talk about his work across the world, starting in his native Thailand and then wherever elephants were exploited, you could see how much these animals meant to him. He tells local elephant camps, the remaining few that still offer elephant rides, that we should treat elephants as we treat our friends. Not chained up. Not whipping them. And not having people carried on their backs. Put in such simple terms it is hard to disagree. Prasop has worked with Dr Andrew McLean of Australia, a pioneer of working with horses who introduced the “clicker” to the work with elephants. In place of the old fashioned stick to “encourage” an elephant, they were now trained to listen to a click as the command.
Slowly crossing the river, Prasop’s words bouncing around my head, we got our first sight of the two elephants we would be walking with today. MandaLao has rescued nine Asian (smaller ears than their African cousins) elephants to this point, and one more was due to arrive in the coming days. Today, Sun, of the flapping ears, was going to be one of our trekking partners. Not before we had fed them their morning snack. Dozens of bananas, seemingly inhaled, skins and all.
Meandering with the mahouts
The morning was spent slowly walking with the two elephants and their mahouts. A mahout is the person closest to the elephant. In previous times they would have been called a trainer, and we now know that a free elephant needs no training. The term, mahout has stuck as the person who is the elephant’s best friend. With the mahout leading, we cross shallow rivers. Trek down narrow paths. We wait whilst one or both of the elephants had found just the right tree, neck high, to scratch that irritating itch. And the best of all? Watching as both elephants stop in the river and bathe themselves. Their trunks acting as high powered shower heads, spraying mud and water all over themselves. The mud acting as nature’s screen.
Lunch in the forest
As the sun reached its apex, we found shade under the canopy of the forest trees. It was time for lunch. Sat around simple tables, Tan passed around warm parcels of food from the bag he had been carrying. In a game reminiscent of childhood “pass the parcel” we handed each other a parcel, exquisitely wrapped in a banana leaf. I could still feel the heat, trapped in by the leaf. As we unwrapped our “gifts” we got beautiful aromas of tomatoes, fresh vegetables, and the unmistakable sticky rice. Eating with our fingers, we each reflected on what an unforgettable morning it had been.
Lunch over it was time to head into the forest and chop down some banana tree. We may have been full by a simple, and rather excellent lunch. Our walking companions were still hungry. The surprisingly heavy, and very moist trunk is a favourite of the elephants. I marvelled at how the elephants just eat, and eat, all day long.
As the elephants kept on eating. we had the opportunity to visit a small organic farm. Leaving the elephants with their mahouts, we headed over to meet the farmer. Translating through Tan, the farmer walked us through his very impressive crops. Tomatoes, kale, ocra, cabbage, lettuce, spring onions. Some carrots that appeared to be struggling a little. With each crop proudly presented, the farmer gave us samples to try, smiling and nodding as we nibbled and replied with an approving thumbs up.
Time to head back
A quick glance at my watch told me, sadly, our time with the elephants was drawing to a close. Time that had gone all too quickly. Back at the camp we had a serendipitous meeting with Aaron, the CEO of Planting Peace. Aaron first began helping the elephants when, prompted by a story he had read, he decided to jump on a flight from his home in the US and come immediately to Laos. That resulting rescue story can viewed in a short YouTube video that now has some half a million views. Aaron’s new commitment is to save an elephant every year on his birthday.
Whilst it wasn’t Aaron’s birthday this week, it turns out that the latest rescue will be arriving tomorrow. After protracted negotiations with the logging farm owner. In conditions that Aaron described as “one of the worst states he has ever seen”, previously chained and used to drag logs up and down hills all day, the elephant was now in the possession of MandaLao, thank you in large part to a generous donor, Ash, who we also met. Wondering to myself how much an elephant might cost, I hadn’t figured on the amount being as high as the $32,000US that had just been paid for the new addition to the MandaLao family.
“It was quite a process,” said Aaron.
And I am sure it was. But, holding on to the thought that the new elephant will see out their days, free, out of chains, and able to choose which tree to scratch that itch and where to have a shower, we know that there will be no better sight than an elephants’ ears flapping.
Need to know:
MandaLao offers half and full day treks.
Half day – $100US
Full day – $150US
Website: https://mandalaotours.com/
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