Today we left the hotel at 7am and arrived at the elephant camp at 8am. This elephant camp is like a zoo just for elephants. Originally the elephants came from the jungle - now they are all born in the camp; elephants are protected in the wild now.
We rode an elephant around the park for about 45 minutes. They are trained and ridden by a mahout. The elephant & mahout have a relationship and stay together for life (until one of them dies). Along the path, we bought bundles of sugar cane & bunches of bananas for the mahout to feed to the elephant.
I was bothered by the show that we watched after the ride. They have trained the elephants to dance, play the harmonica (place it on the end of their trunk & the elephant breathes in & out), bow, paint with their trunks, kick a soccer ball, and dunk a basketball. While some people enjoyed the show, I am bothered by the desire to have animals do unnatural behaviors. I would rather pay to see animals in their natural environment. This elephant camp is on a lot of land (forest/jungle) so it is possible.
We took a slow, relaxing raft ride along the small river. So far we have traveled by plane, bus, train, tuk tuk, long tail boat, elephant, raft....
After lunch at an orchid farm, we visited a few tribal villages. They are close together on one piece of land. They are villages for refugees from Burma/Myanmar. They live off the land and money from tourist visits & purchases. They are not allowed to leave the property.
One tribe called the Palong are known for their long necks. The women place heavy metal coils around their neck as a small girl and increase the rings as they age. The weight of the metal pushes on their shoulders and eventually pushes the shoulders down so it looks like the neck has been elongated. The reasons they wear the metal coils are
1. To prevent animals (in the jungle) from biting their necks & killing them (the original reason)
2. Their culture believes they look beautiful
3. To identify them as members of their tribe so the women don't marry someone outside of the tribe
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