Loong Sap loves her morning crackers!
I don’t know where to begin. Many of you are aware of my longstanding obsession with elephants and will recall how I have been telling you all of my dream to someday spend some time with them and wash them in a river somewhere. I have waited years to do something like that.
Damon and I spent four days at Elephantstay at Ayutthaya Bangkok Borneo Provence We arrived at at a very relaxed working elephant village and were greeted by Ewa and Michelle, two Australians who manage the elephant program. The village is the living vision of one man, Pi Om. In Thai, you refer to elders or people of senior standing as ‘Pi’ and those who are younger than you or of lesser standing as ‘Nong’. I don’t really know all that much about Pi Om except that he was a wealthy businessman in
Our cabins.
I don’t even know where to begin describing the magnitude of the work these dedicated people are doing in the name of conservation and providing a self-sufficient sanctuary for the elephants to live in. They have elephants of all ages living in the village, which is a World Heritage site called the Royal Elephant Kraal. Most of the elephants are working elephants. They leave the village in the morning to take people on rides and perform at shows and such. It is quite a sight to see all the hustle and bustle as the mahouts and their elephants return home at
We spent a lot of our free time sitting on this day bed watching the babies and their mothers.
People who come to volunteer are assigned either an elephant to share or their own elephant to look after. Damon and I opted to share as we wanted to share the connection we developed with our friend. Volunteers work with retired female elephants who have typically been retired from a hard working life and are happy to be looked after, bathed, walked to the river and so on.
Our elephant was dear old Loong Sap (which means prosperity), a 65-year old logging elephant. The scars on her head are the result of pushing logs and being beaten with a stick to the head (heartbreaking, I know). After a while, you start to pick up on each elephants little ways. For instance, Loong Sap has a habit of putting leaves and branches on her head to fashion a fetching hat. We could always pick her out from the crowd. She was also very communicative in that she peed when she was excited, nervous or confused – a trait I found most endearing, but which I am told had made her pretty unpopular with the other elephants in the past. Since becoming one of the elephants that volunteers look after, Michelle told us Loong Sap has a newfound sense of confidence and has become well-liked by the other old biddies. We were told that she now moves away from her food to pee, which reflects a higher sense of self-worth. What a complex thing!
Here is Loong Sap with the other old biddies.
We didn’t know this before, but elephants make a rumbling noise when they are pleased. I am sure they can rumble when unhappy too, but Loong Sap’s rumble was the equivalent of a giant elephant purr. It took us a few days of riding her and feeding her but, by our last day, she would turn her head right into mine, look me straight in the eye and give a slow rumble of appreciation while I stroked her trunk. It is an amazing feeling.The connection we shared was evident to all. She also had an affection for Damon. For some reason, she was happiest when we brought her back from the river and she was being tethered up and fed.
It feels very strange climbing on an elephant and sitting on its head for the first time. They are quite hairy and it doesn’t feel natural to sit that far forward on them, but it only takes a few minutes to get used to it. You have to ride barefoot and stick your feet behind their ears to give commands. We had only been there a couple of hours before I got up on Loong Sap and rode her into the river for a wash. She is not the biggest water lover. Another elephant there called Dok Ma loved the water and frequently dunked her head under. It took me a few days to fall into sync with Loong Sap’s ways in the river but I learned how to remain calm and not demand too much of her (she didn’t like putting her head under water and was quite strong willed about it. By the last couple of days, I didn’t have to ask her to do it as she knew she had to go under at least once or twice. My favourite part was just sprawling out over her head and being still with her in the water.
Loong Sap and I share a moment. Yes, I realise my hair looks terrible. That pigmentation on her trunk is from the sun and probably from pushing logs.
Scrubbing her down of an afternoon was hard work but a good way to get to know her.
Loong Sap was rumbling as this photo was taken.
Hi Loong Sap!
I have lots more pictures but I will split them up over posts for technical reasons.












































My trusty travel buddy. Those baskets are actually really heavy.











































