Ruins and Elephants

We did not have internet access last night, so I am posting this morning. We rented bikes again yesterday and found our way to Wat Mahathat, the ancient temple, built around 1300 A.D. It always feels so surreal to be walking among the ruins where kings, monks and others walked and lived 700 years ago! This wat, like others in the city was destroyed during the war with Burma. In fact, the Burmese army used one of the towers of this wat to fire a canon at the palace, killing the king.

The main attraction at this wat is the face of the Buddha surrounded by the roots of a Banyan tree. No one knows what happened to the body, only the head remains. Typically, after the war, the winning side would cut off the heads of the statues in the temples, etc. to defeat the spirits of the conquered people. In this case though, the head escaped and found its way to the tree roots.

After the visit to the wat, we came back to the guesthouse and the girls started doing some school work while I biked to the train station to find out about the trip to Kanchanaburi. Of course, by this time it was 11:45 and the staff at the station was at lunch, and the counters were closed! I went into the waiting hall and looked at the boards with arrival / departure times, trying to figure out how to get a connection in Bangkok. I noticed someone in a train officer’s uniform looking at me while having his lunch, so I went over and said “sawadee krap” (formal hello) and asked about getting to Kanchanaburi. He interrupted his lunch and gave me the information I was looking for, and I thanked him profusely and left him to his lunch.

Visiting the Elephant Kraal was a good incentive for the kids to finish their school work quickly. The Kraal is a historic site where they used to round up wild elephants and the king would then choose the ones he wanted for himself. Today it is used to breed elephants and train them. They do still have webcams for the king to oversee the operation when he chooses. It is very important to the Thai people to keep elephants as part of their culture.

We were in for a real treat because last night a baby elephant was born! It was so cute. The mother was a little protective, but she would let us get fairly near and even touch her baby before she would manoeuvre the baby so it was beneath her and out of reach.

We met a family who was on vacation at the Kraal. Apparently they have little bungalows and you can stay for a week and feed, wash, and care for the elephants. It was tempting to look into it further. In talking with them we learned that the baby elephants roam free around the farm until they are about a year and a half. Then they are put in pens with their mothers until they are about two years old. They are then separated from their mothers for a short while. I guess they go off to elephant school, but eventually they return to their mothers.

I was surprised to learn that elephants can live to be 80 or 90 years old! Some of the elephants were retired, but others were still working elephants. They were lifting load of sugar canes with their trunks and tusks and bringing it to feed other elephants. It was like watching a small fork lift, but much more graceful.

Some of the elephants are used in shows around Thailand. While we were there they took some of the elephants to the river for a bath after their long day. Pretty cool to see the elephants duck under the water but not so far that they would lose their trainers.

The elephants are very social. There were several little elephants roaming around, and one in particular was known for getting into trouble. Funny to watch him chase dogs, or get into the food that was meant for someone else. The girls loved seeing so many elephants. They could pat many of the smaller ones and even some of the bigger ones. We also enjoyed feeding them. It was pretty cool to see how smart they were. They would snap sugar cane into elephant sized bites by stepping on one end and lifting the other end with their trunk, or they would crack the cane by stepping on it and wiggling their foot. Really amazing creatures!

This morning we are catching the train to Bangkok, then switching stations and going to Kanchanaburi. We will get there around 5 p.m. today. We have not booked a place to stay but I’m sure we’ll find one. We heard that about 2 million tourists cancelled their Thailand vacation plans because of the problems at the Bangkok airport!

NM & CM