Asia Trip – Day 6

Sen Monorom

One Benjamin went out to play
Upon an elephant one day
He had such enormous fun
That… they let him drive home
(with apologies to Sharon, Lois & Bram)

But I get ahead of myself. This morning we got up, had breakfast at our hotel and caught a ride out to a local village way out in the sticks. The locals didn’t seem all that excited to see us, but there were elephants for us to ride. We climbed aboard from a tall platform into a small bamboo basket tied to the elephant’s back. We swayed our way along for about two hours through the jungle, stopping every time Cam (our elephant was named Cam, hopefully after the hockey player) wanted a snack. We arrived at a “waterfall” which I would call rapids. It had a total drop of about 2 meters, over three different stages. It was very beautiful and after lunch, I spent some time sitting on a rock in the middle of the river staring into the “waterfall”. After lunch we went for a walk in the jungle and saw an oil tree, where the sap is flammable and they use it in lamps. We also saw cashew orchards, banana trees and ginger plants. While sitting on the aforementioned rock, I had the best view of the elephant bath. The elephants would walk out into a deep pool in the rapids, feeling the way with their trunks, and dunk themselves under water, while their handlers would rub the dirt off them.

On our way back, our driver hopped off the elephant and asked if I wanted to drive. So I hopped on Cam’s neck and stuck my feet behind his ears. It’s like sitting on a horse (a really big one) with your knees up and squeezing with your thighs. You kick (nudge with your foot) one ear to get him to turn in the opposite direction and both ears to go straight. If that implies that one has control over where the elephant goes, it is wrong. I think Cam took it as advice more than direction and tasty bamboo won out over ear kicks frequently. The neck was actually more comfortable than the basket, so I drove the whole two hours home. After a little while, Cam and I reached an agreement: he got to stop for the occasional bamboo treat as long as I got some say in where we went.

We got back to the hostel and stayed up late talking with a few other people we’d met in the last few days.