20 elephants? How did that happen?
Ummm.... it seemed like a good idea at the time, I suppose, it was coming up to high season and Boon Lott's Elephant Sanctuary had two elephants at a loose end for Christmas so we agreed to rent them. The amazing Sommai turned up and promptly went into musth (musth have seen my advance booking sheet - never too late in the year for an ele pun).
But we were still busy, K. Lord knew of two ex-polo elephants on the streets, we're busy, can we give them a home and some easy work for a month or three? Yep, send 'em up - got to help old friends.
Well, it seems the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre rescue team is acting extremely effectively and before we knew it both my old polo friends were in Government custody, charged with vagrancy and begging on the streets - I'm going to do some talking and see if we can bail them, but Government custody is tough on the mahouts but consists of food and shelter for the ele - and two other elephants slipped the net and were on their way up.
So we have acquired two long legged young ladies, Pang Ma-kam and Pang Booer Kam, more on them later as they settle in and I get to talk to their mahouts - all I've got so far is that our other elephants are "fat like pigs" and, for some reason, these Southern boys keep reciting the word for cold over and over again? They have had a long journey and were very definitely hiding behind trees yesterday morning come meet-the-new-boss time so we moved them to the grassland to get some sleep.
Though I did get a short ride on Booer Kam and she'll have to learn to be a little less obliging - too easy to drive for our students, we've got to present some challenge! - but if she does want to avoid meeting folks she'll also have to learn to hide behind a larger tree!
But we were still busy, K. Lord knew of two ex-polo elephants on the streets, we're busy, can we give them a home and some easy work for a month or three? Yep, send 'em up - got to help old friends.
Well, it seems the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre rescue team is acting extremely effectively and before we knew it both my old polo friends were in Government custody, charged with vagrancy and begging on the streets - I'm going to do some talking and see if we can bail them, but Government custody is tough on the mahouts but consists of food and shelter for the ele - and two other elephants slipped the net and were on their way up.
So we have acquired two long legged young ladies, Pang Ma-kam and Pang Booer Kam, more on them later as they settle in and I get to talk to their mahouts - all I've got so far is that our other elephants are "fat like pigs" and, for some reason, these Southern boys keep reciting the word for cold over and over again? They have had a long journey and were very definitely hiding behind trees yesterday morning come meet-the-new-boss time so we moved them to the grassland to get some sleep.
Though I did get a short ride on Booer Kam and she'll have to learn to be a little less obliging - too easy to drive for our students, we've got to present some challenge! - but if she does want to avoid meeting folks she'll also have to learn to hide behind a larger tree!
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