The River Kwai (both with and without an Elephant)

but I fell of my Elephant less than my Mahout (Elephant guide/trainer)...

The first day in Kanchaniburi we spent going to the Erawan waterfalls, which are amazing. We hiked 2.2 km up past six fall formations, went swimming in the plunge pool of the seventh fall formation and then had hiked back down again. We then went on to Hellfire Pass, part of the Thai-Burma 'Death Railway' built during the Second World War. A very moving place and beautiful place, with a very well done museum. Finally we took a trip on part of the railway back towards Kanchaniburi. (I'll post photos later, but I left the CD with the guesthouse)

However, yesterday, following another lead from another random traveller (this time a Kiwi we met in a mud bath in Nha Trang, Vietnam) we went north to Elephants and Friends, a small conservation project that looks after old and badly treated Elephants. We arrived around lunchtime and settled into our Bamboo hut and talked to the people running it, John and Phot. There are 6 Elephants at the site (including one who's 73 years old!) , together with 3 horses, 3 dogs and 2 cats, all of which wander around freely (although the Elephants do have a fenced off area of their own). We each got assigned an Elephant, mine was a 40 year old female called Kamoon, and rode off to the River Kwai to give them their afternoon bath. It really was a surreal experience, lumbering along on the top of a very tall Elephant (it was only when I was up I realised how far up an Elephant goes!) down a small road and through a path in the Jungle to the river. Once we got there, we stayed on top of the Elephants whilst they were in the river and helped wash them. The Mahout moved to the back so I sat on the Elephant's neck and held on to the ears whilst they dunked themselves under the water. Well that's the idea as I got swept off at one point (hence the title of the post) The River Kwai is a very, very fast flowing river, but luckily I was close to shore and only went about 10 metres or so. Once the Elephants were clean, we took them back to the jungle where they spent the night.

The process was repeated in the Morning, except this time Rach fell off and was swept away, complete with her Mahout and My Mahout who went in after them! They were swept further than me and had to be rescued by Boomi, the 73 year old Elephant (now also known as Rach's Rescue Elephant). This left me to guide Kamoon back to the camp on my own... I was told what commands to use and as and Elephant never forgets, I didn't have to steer that much.

We then set off back to Kanchaniburi to get them some Banana trees for the Elephants to eat, before returning for one final ride/clean in the river this evening.

It really was an amazing 24 hours and I'm going to nag at everyone I know who's even considering coming to Thailand to come up here and visit, as it's a really worthwhile foundation, run by great people and you do get to go swimming with Elephants (Swimming optional - only if you fall off...)

John, one of the people working at E&F got alot of video of us, so when I figure out how to upload to Youtube, I'll post the links.

Some Stats

Number of Elephants Ridden - 1 (of 6)
Number of Ice Creams given to Elephants - 1




Feeding Kamoon after getting the Banana trees

Coming out of the river on Kamoon - after falling in

End of the first day/dunking!