Volunteer project in elephant village Thailand. Mahout mania

Sawadee-kah, my name is Noi. 

So the village is called elephant village not because they made it for elephants but because there are about 500 homes and over 300 elephants. They are everywhere! It's like coffee shops in Canada or karaoke bars in japan. You cannot imagine. The ellies live underneath the homes of the mahouts. Mahouts are there carers, 1 mahout to 1 elephant. They live sleep breath their elephants. Kind of like babies they need 24 hr care, over 500kg food a day. Plus bath's and scratching time. Each elephant  has a different way  of letting you up. Some lift their leg for you to climb. Some sit down, some you stand on their trunk and climb over. Our role as volunteers was to assist the mahouts with their daily activities and immerse ourselves in their lifestyle. There is a lot of work to do with just one elephant and it's not the kind of job where you can call in a sick day. The 500 kg of cane they eat? Well you chop that by hand, with a scythe, a few times a day. Shovelling shit? Kind of like mucking a stall for a horse only this stall is the size of a small house. Shower and bath time is also important. We are assigned to one elephant for the duration of our stay and with the elephant comes the Mahout. My mahouts name was Yan and my Elephants name was Noi.

me knees, Noi's head taking me to the pond.

Noi is quite the curvy gal. Rounder than most.

WE ARE BOTH SMILING!!!

Yan and Noi

I have loads of pics. Can anyone tell me how to make a separate page of photo gallery? with the link at the top of the  homepage?

shower time