Travel Diary - Days 9-11 - TECC
Today was the reason we were in the north of Thailand. We headed to the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre (TECC) for a three day adventure with elephants. This place came highly recommended by friends as the place to go for elephant adventures. They are home to a free elephant hospital and provide a living for elephants, mahouts and their families
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You are partly right when you say the camp is custom made. My understanding is that the site was once a logging camp but the nature of their buildings are such that they don't last long. These buildings were put on the site of the old camp. And those toilets, an attempt to make the westerners more comfortable. I remember the first time we went to the Homestay they were so proud to show us their western toilets, even though they were plumbed from the river & flushed with black silt. Very funny.
Not letting you wander into the jungle is intersting. I know that they keep Jumpui close to camp as there are still poachers in that jungle & as you can imagine he is a huge temptation to poachers given his beautiful tusks. There are also a lot of snakes in those jungles - not that they would scare any decent aussie, let alone you guys, but I wonder whether that was part of the concern.
As an event manager I absolutely crave fixing up their offering. I remind myself tho' that this is the real deal. It's not a tourist venture. Even the elephant show, while having elements of doing tricks, is actually based on the logging that most of these elephants were originally trained for. The commentary on the show is difficult to hear but things like walking on the narrow log (which is what my Jojo does) comes from having to navigate difficult jungle terrain. Pushing logs is the same. Things like the soccer & painting are relatively new to the show. I think they are a poorly thought out nod to what other camps are doing.
I can say however that watching the mahouts train with their elephants to do this tricks is hilarious. I have never seen any mistreatment of any of the animals in this training. Elephants enjoy playing. The mahouts are their family & I have only ever seen the elephants have fun during this process.
And like you say, while we, as experienced tourists, have a certain expectation of how these things are best run nothing beats the simplicity of sharing in what a mohaouts life is, the pure joy of communing with one of the greatest creatures on this earth in a jungle setting.
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I can't see the bamboo buildings having any real longevity in a humid climate, I think they would need regular repair. The toilets with the asbestos board sheeting just made me laugh, what OH&S regs.
Jumpui was kept within sight of the camp all the time, however, when we went to get Prathida in the morning, that was probably about a half hour walk into the jungle to find her. The mahouts did wander off and shoot a wild boar in the morning. I'm assuming the not letting us into the jungle was largely one of safety. They didn't want us getting lost and we don't know the risks.
We did see a number of snakes, but I was looking. When I showed Mango a photo of Twist he freaked out a little....
I can see why they do the elephant painting, hell Melbourne Zoo does elephant painting and you get another product you can sell out of it. Elephant paintings at Melbourne Zoo start at around $400 and go up. These paintings started at 500baht - and if I could figure out how to transport one home without crushing it I would have brought one. Interestingly was the varying levels of elephant 'talent'. The elephants at Melbourne Zoo just paint abstract. One of the elephants in the show painted random design, but the other two elephants were 'mahout' guided actually producing quite nice line art with recognisable subject matter.
The hook didn't bother me, again, its also used at Melbourne Zoo.
I can handle elephants doing tricks for tourists more easily than I can handle tigers doing tricks, largely because the elephants don't seem to mind so much. And again - if there wasn't a market for this practice, it wouldn't exist. Unfortunately, without the economic incentive, life gets a lot harder to the animals.
And I have to be honest, watching Jumpui disapear into a large clump of bamboo and bear clinging on for dear life while his mahout shouted and pulled the elephants tail was actually hilarious.
They do love the elephants.
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