Kok Chang Safari Elephant Ride

 I had three main reason for coming to Thailand: first, to ride in Cathay Pacific's 1st class cabin from JFK to Hong Kong detailed here, second, to ride an elephant and third because I wish to visit all 7 continents before 60.  This post is about Rainbow, at 2 1/2 tons she was kind and gentle and loved to be scratched behind the ears.

Our elephant ride could have taken place at various stops enroute to Phuket but there were so many sights to see the ride was delayed until after our arrival in Phuket.  I didn't plan anything ahead so we used the hotel computers to research various options.  I didn't want a carnival type ride and I did want something where the elephants were treated well given that yes this was a tourist driven activity.  We chose Kok Chang Safari based on the recommendations from Lonely Planet because of their civil treatment of these majestic beauties.

On the day of the ride a representative from the trekking company picked us up at our hotel, we had to pay an extra 500 baht since our hotel was out of the normal area for free pickup.  Upon arrival we were asked the length of the ride we were interested in taking; Diva and I chose 50 minutes. The ride was 1000 baht per person which when all totaled up came to $78 (that is not per person, that is total for 2 with taxi to and from).  Rainbow was chosen for us and we were provided a Thai guide named Rikki whose English was quite good.  Our trek would be up a mountain top to an overlook point that would allow us to see Karon and Kata beaches.  We climbed a tower of stairs to a platform about 20 feet in the air where we removed our shoes and sat on a bench seat mounted to the elephant, Rikki sat right on top of Rainbow's head.  Then we were off.

We really didn't have time to fully absorb what we were getting ourselves into but in hindsite that perhaps was a good thing.  We started to traverse the steep slope, along the narrow trail (for an elephant, I thought the trail was pretty narrow) the bench moved back and forth, it felt very unstable and an elephant is a tall animal.  There are no seat belts only a loosely tied frayed rope.  Diva and I held onto each other for dear life as it felt with every step we were going to tumble off this creature's back.  Finally, we became accustomed to the back and forth shifts.  As we proceeded up the mountain there were huts, were the locals lived, one such hut had a dog lying in the sun right off the side of the trail.

I asked Rikki if Rainbow liked dogs, he said "No".  I asked if the dog liked the elepant, he again said "No" so I said "Well then what will happen since we must go right by the dog?" He said "It's like a game of chicken, who will move first" Oh, how comforting I thought, when will I learn not to ask questions.  The elephant appeared like she was going to stop as she hesitated for a second but she proceeded forward and the dog eventually moved away, "whew", first issue overted.  Next up, as I mentioned we are high on the back of this elephant.  Let me rephrase that, more like in the trees, so when the elephant goes off the trail for a snack or whatever catches her fancy, we are ducking branches.  Not so bad, you think until Rikki points out these huge spiders and their webs, did my loyal readers forget Diva is a screamer (refresh your memory here).

And I'm not too happy with these spiders who now since being pointed out seem to be everywhere and Rainbow isn't wanting to stay on the trail becasue the food is better off the trail and she weighs 2 1/2 tons and constantly needs to eat.  OMG, this is turning into a stressfull ride.  Diva decides to make it worse by asking Rikki about snakes, of course, if freakin' spiders aren't bad enough lets ask about snakes. "Yeah, I saw two earlier" he replies, "Rikki what kind of snakes did you see?", I timidly ask "cobras", came the reply.  OK, now I want off the damn elephant but its too far to jump.  I reminded Diva that cobras hang from trees and we are in the trees and we aren't even half  way yet. Then Rikki stops, picks a branch with purple berries in bunches and tells us to eat the purple ones only.

Lets review... I'm in Thailand, in a jungle on an elephant were some guy plucks a branch with berries that the elephant eats and now he wants us to follow suit, before I can protest, there is Diva popping them in her mouth.  I'm looking at her like are you nuts?  She just smiles and hands me a purple berry that I eat.  Obviously, I am alive and well today as I write this.  A few more hundred yards forward and we stop again, now what...Rikki points out an unassuming tree with a white vein running down the trunk into a pail at the foot of the tree, he cuts off the white stuff and hands it to me, turns out this is a  rubber tree, how cool was that?  I actually brought the piece home.

It reminded me of how they tap trees in New England for maple syrup, but this is rubber.  Finally, we arrive at the scenic overlook and through the jungle trees we can see the beautiful beaches below.

The photos do not do the view  justice as the haze from the heat takes away from the clarity.  After a few minutes at the top we start to head down the opposite side of the mountain again we travel a few hundred yards and Rikki jumps off  the elephant taking my camera with him to take our photos.  I travel with a Nikon DSLR.  I'm telling him what to do and how to take the photo and he's like,"I got it"  and off he goes shooting picture after picture like he's the paparazzi and we're the celebs he's paid to shoot.  The whole time I'm thinking wow he must do alot of this to learn how all these camera work.  And in the back of my head I hear my dad saying "someone's gonna steal that camera"  It isn't until much later that I realize the lens shield on the camera which is also made by Nikon clearly states "Made in Thailand"  He knew how to operate the camera because Nikons are made there and my camera was never going to be stolen because there was a flood of similar and better type Nikons all over the place.  It was my ah-ha moment.
Now Diva and I are on Rainbow and Rikki is on the ground snapping away and he puts down the lens and says you ride in my seat, I'm like "What?"  Is this part of the ride, am I really suppose to do this?  He's insisting so I move gingerly to Rainbow's head, leaving Diva on the bench alone.  And Rikki takes off down the mountain with Rainbow following and now I'm even more scared, and we stop so Rainbow can snack.  I look at Diva and I say you wanna do this and of course she does not.  Did I mention we are travelling down the hill now so it really feels like I'm gonna fall off and I'm talking to this elephant saying please be nice.  Rikki all the while snapping away telling me to scratch benhind her ears and I do.

So this goes on practically the bottom of the mountain when Diva decides since it is flat land she wants to ride behind Rainbow's head.  We switch places and she rides I swear like 30 feet and we are done, end of ride, nada, no more and I look at her like, nice how you planned that!

Just goes to show you we may get what we wish for and what we wish for may not be what we really  want.  My elephant ride was way more than I expected and I am forever happy to have had the experience but oh my goodness was I scared between, the dog, spiders, snakes and actually riding Rainbow but did I ever receive one heck of a good cocktail party story.