Journey to Freedom:my week with ellies (lots of words.lots of photos)

Herein lies the tales of my adventure of spending a week in the relative wilds of Northern Thailand.

Me standing reluctantly close to one of the elephants upon our guides insistence to get closer.
 Clearly I am terrified.

A two hour jostling ride cramped into the back of a pick-up truck is not how many people imagine spending their winter holiday, myself included.
Yet there I was stuffed into the bed of a Toyota Hilux with a sore bum alongside twelve other road weary travelers being informed by our guide that we had another 30 minutes of bum bruising back roads to bounce through before arriving at our destination. That very destination that we would later find out consisted of cold showers, modest lodgings, a lack of electricity, one seriously out of service Western toilet, and a handful of muddy squat toilets to compensate.
What could possibly be the allure that would draw thirteen relative strangers away from the comforts of their everyday lives to spend a week experiencing and participating in what can accurately be called the simple life? Well the answer, much like our accommodations, is simple; the thirteen of us traveled to this back hills village along the Thai-Burmese border to volunteer our time working with  the Northern Karen tribe and their elephants through the program Journey to Freedom.

Journey to Freedom is an ongoing project initiated by the Elephant Nature Park in 2010 that allows elephants owned by the Karen in the north of Thailand to retire from trekking camps and return to living in the jungle near their villages. Here, elephants enjoy a more natural existence and the tradition of Karen people living with and caring for their elephants can be restored.
In response to the ban on logging in 1989, many Karen men left their villages and walked with their elephants to work in one of the many trekking camps that were established and still exist in Northern Thailand. The Karen men often missed their families and old way of life and would return to their villages, leaving their elephants at the camps on lease. These elephants, living among strangers, were often mistreated and the traditional bonds between the Karen and their elephants began to erode.
Journey to Freedom provides volunteers with the opportunity to live with the Karen for a week, learn about their culture, volunteer around the village, and be amongst elephants living in the jungle. Funds generated by this project help support Karen families and their elephants, and also benefit the community in the form of maintaining roads, temples, and bridges, which also includes building amenities such as toilets, a small school, and a clinic.


Day One: Arrival
This day, as hinted at above, was mostly spent traveling from Chiang Mai to the Karen village in the northern province of Mae Sariang, which took about 6.5 hours in total-4.5 by van and 2 by truck. We arrived in the village shortly before 6 and after our arduous adventure our only interests were in getting some food and some sleep. After unloading the trucks of all our provisions for the week, our two guides, Jane and Mix (their nicknames) worked on preparing us a delicious yet modest Thai dinner while we went about preparing our lodgings (making up beds, and setting up mosquito nets). After dinner, while sitting by the fire (it gets surprisingly cold in Northern Thailand at night, my guess is high 50's-low 60's.) a few of the local Karen villagers came to welcome us. Although they didn't speak English, and only a few of them could speak Thai (to be translated by our guides) they enjoyed sitting around the campfire and observing the eclectic  assortment of volunteers (from France, US, Malaysia via Singapore, UK, and Germany ;ordered by representation) which included two girls wearing Santa hats and odd renderings of popular Christmas songs being sung all at once in multiple languages (it was Christmas Eve after all).

Some of the Karen amused at our antics

Day Two and Three: First day with Ellies and a Boxing Day Treat
It was a little surreal to be waking up on Christmas Day feeling all of the giddy excitement of a little kid, but instead of the urge to rush to the Christmas tree and tear open presents my emotions were the result of knowing that today was the day I would get to have my very first encounter with elephants.I don't think I have ever been so excited to NOT celebrate the holidays. The only thing that could (and did) bring me down slightly from my euphoric high was the sight of the accursed trucks from the day before. So my (Christmas) day yet again began  with a bumpy ride, thank goodness it was a very short ride where we then hiked through some fields and across a small stream to meet up with the elephants and their caretakers.

Our village cares for 7 elephants, 3 of which had spent time working for the logging industry before it was banned, 1 who had worked for a trekking camp before Journey to Freedom started and she could come home, and 3 youngsters who had been spared from the harsh lifestyle of a working elephant and hopefully will never be subjected to it. For awhile we had to stay a fair distance away from the elephants, because they aren't used to people other than their mahouts. One thing that is unique to the Elephant Nature Park and Journey to Freedom is that the mahouts do not use any hooks to control the elephants nor do they ride upon the elephants backs (although for one of the younger/rambunctious elephants at the village we were told that the Mahouts do sometimes have to gently tap him on the head with a bamboo stalk. At ENP only positive reinforcement is used with the elephants). However, after sometime we were able to get closer to the elephants (following the mahouts instructions translated to us by our guides) and even touch and feed them fruits that we had brought along from the village! After spending time admiring and taking photos of the elephants it was time to walk them deep into the jungle for them to graze, explore, and bathe a bit in the springs along the trek.

As much as I like to refer to these elephants as being "in the wild", this statement is sadly untrue due to the high rate of deforestation in Thailand. Even though logging was banned in the late  80's there are still illegal logging outfits running in the outskirts of Thailand and the addition of population growth does not make the prospects of a solution to deforestation look any brighter. This being said, while the elephants do have the opportunity to roam free during the day (they have these cute little wooden bells on their necks so the mahouts can find them) they are confined to a small section of the jungle during the evening (when the mahouts return to their home) to prevent the elephants from eating the crops that belong to another nearby village. It was a little disheartening to learn of the reality that actual wild elephants in Thailand are dwindling, but it was also nice to know that through Journey to Freedom these elephants can live a life much closer to their natural lifestyle versus working in Elephants shows or at trekking camps. My current hope is that the King of Thailand will continue to create National forests and nature preserves to protect these animals and their habitat.

The following day, we spent at the village helping out in the small ways that we could. In the morning we went to one of the local primary schools in the main village. Initially, the plan had been to visit a primary/secondary school and assist with teaching some English and entertaining the kids (teaching in Japan has taught me that these two go hand in hand). But, that school was on holiday so instead we went to the primary school and played with the young children (about 4/5 years old, some were younger). One of the volunteers had brought small toys along to give to the children and it was really cute to see their faces light up.
After a little over an hour we walked back to the community where we were staying and prepared some lunch (one of the kind French volunteers even gave me a  really nice bum massage).  Once we had finished our lunch it was on to more toilsome work of peeling corn with the villagers. Some of the corn would be used as feed for their livestock and the rest for making flour. While the work felt a little tedious it was really fun to watch as everyone would freak out about some bug or spider that would come crawling out of the corn husk. I'm pretty sure the villagers thought we were crazy.

One of the friendly Karen villagers I met. His wife thought that I was feeling sick and offered me some strange looking medicine. Our guides explained it was because she thought I wasn't eating enough.

Day Four and Five: More Elephants and a Jungle Trip to a Waterfall
After a day of no elephants we were all excited to hear that the next two days we would be able to head back into the jungle to spend time with our favorite pachyderms. On this particular day we would be traveling by trucks (urrrgh) to a separate village to spend time with their elephants. Thankfully, I was able to snag a seat inside the truck to avoid any major bum bruising that would render my massage from the other day completely pointless. On the 30 minute drive we stopped a few times to collect a small banana tree and some bamboo shoots to bring along with us to feed the elephants. The 2 elephants that belonged to this tribe had both spent a lot of time working at trekking camps (the female) and at an elephant show (male). Which meant that they were very accustomed to humans and thus extremely sweet and docile, this also unfortunately meant that they had been subjected to Phajaan (a brutal elephant training technique) at a young age. Almost all working elephants go through Phajaan, which is one major reason why any informed tourist would/should not finance any attractions that involve elephant rides or elephants doing tricks.
After spending time taking photos with the elephants we then walked with them to the top of a mountain, again, to give them a chance to really stretch their legs, explore, and graze.

The male elephant was so comfortable with people that he was more than content
 being handfed and swiping fruits right out of our hands. Tamara (France)

The following day started out with much of the same but with the elephants back near our village, so I won't talk much about it. But one interesting highlight was that the young rambunctious male elephant charged at one of the young Karen boys. Our guide explained to us that it was because the boy looked different to everyone else (he was shirtless because he had been fishing in one of the streams nearby previously).  After spending a good two hours with the elephants we went on an hour and a half long trek with the Karen to a waterfall hidden away in the jungle. It was an interesting hike because along the way when we would pass through the river some of the Karen villagers would start fishing. While most of the older Karen villagers accompanying us would use the familiar tactic of using a net to catch fish, the two young boys would use these interesting homemade contraptions to do something along the lines of spear fishing.

Subrutai (in red) and Midar.
 Mix threatening to throw poor Suprichai into the waterfall.

Usually, on the sixth day, volunteers would visit the third neighboring village and their elephants before heading to the ENP, but because we were visiting so close to the New Year we had to leave early in the morning to avoid heavy traffic on the way back into Chiang Mai. And, again I was thankfully able to secure a seat inside one of the trucks, so I wouldn't have to spend 2 hours sitting in the back again!  After our 6 hour drive we were rewarded at the Elephant Nature Park with warm showers, proper toilets, and a bed with as decent a mattress you'll find in SE Asia. Maybe a later post will talk more about my day at the ENP, for now I think it is time to wrap this one up..

Although the squat toilets and cold showers were less than ideal, I really enjoyed the time I spent volunteering with the Karen and their elephants. In retrospect, I was a bit surprised that we weren't given more tasks to help out in the village. Other than peeling some corn, a missed opportunity of teaching some English, and walking with elephants and collecting some food we had very little responsibilities. Regardless, I was really pleased with the experience and would really love to go back again sometime. So, if you like adventures,  love elephants, and don't mind spending a week living the simple life,  I highly recommend Journey to Freedom.

Keri

In hindsight-afteruploading photos to this post- I've realized I didn't get any photos of the rambunctious boy elephant. Probably because I was too scared to get anywhere near him. All the other elephants at our main village are females.

L-R Jessica (US via Myannmar) and Thibaut and  Alia (France)

enjoying the fire.

Our guide Mix showing us the art of Zen

blurry photo of Momma and baby sniffing for goodies

Me with Buzo (spelled how it sounds) one of the kind Karen women who liked chatting with me-
she would speak to me in Karen and I in English. Probably on completely different topics.

Suprichai on the left chuckling and snacking with his friend.

Midar and I. She could speak some English.
 I usually started the morning by doing dishes with her, subrutai, and their brothers.

Me with the twin ellie girls (2 years old).