You see, an elephants' foot is bigger then my foot.
That is Mahout Phan, demonstating the making of elephant equipment. Many of the things you need to work with and/or train an elephant is not available at the local 7-11 convient store. Mahouts are trained and skilled in making an amazing number of tools and equipment.
They also know how to make whisky. Mahouts love their whisky. If you like elephants and whisky then this is the place for you. If you don't drink that's ok too. They don't push the drinking. And only drink after the work is done.


Making elephant equipment

Little Elephant must go to school too. This is the school for little elephant boys and girls. In the USA we would call that school 'elementary school'. But in this case I guess you can call it 'Elephantary school'.



Look Mom, no cavities. I never seen the inside of an elephants mouth before. you can see his teeth are for vegestables not meat. Yes I am close enought to put my head in the elephants' mouth. (don't try this at home)
Elephant learn dancing in school.
Painting is not cut from schools' budget.
Good manners are very important. The Mahout is teaching the elephant to return his hat when he drops it.
Self portarit? One of the older elephant students painted it.
Elephamentary school

The "MUSHT" but pronounced"MUST" Elephant. When a male elephant goes into musht he become very dangerous. He become very aggressive and does not respond to commends from the mahout. An oily, smelly substance is excreted from his tear ducts. And he penis becomes elongated.

Elephants are very intelligent and strong. When you add aggressive and willful they become dangerous. Many people when faced with a musht elephant don't know what to do. They usually end up shooting the elephant.

Enters, Thailands' Musht Elephant Rescue Team. The only one like it in the world.

These Mahouts are specially trained to handle Musht Elephants. It is a very dangerous job.
This is a dart gun I am holding. It operates on air pressure.
These needles are loaded into the rifle. When shot they inject the elephant with a sleeping drug.
There is a trick to it. If you give the elephant to much of the drug he fall asleep. There's not much you can do with a sleeping elephant but let him lay. They want to get the elephant drugged enough so that he is not aggressive and they can get him to walk to a safe place.

If the shoot the elephant in the front he can take out the needle with his trunk. Then he might not be happy with the guy who shot him.

I shot the target. I got the bulls-eye. Who would believe I was able to shot an elephant gun. Maybe I should train to be part of the Musht elephants Rescue Team? Maybe not.

This is the big day. It the last day of the 10 day Mahout training course. You know what that means. TEST. We had to take a test on our abilities to ride and direct the elephant.





Go forward, reverse and an obstacle course. That the Mahout, Sak, I an giving him a surprise ride. He is a playful guy.

We were tested on getting on and off the elephant using different techniques. They actually scored our results. As you can see we passed. We had good trainers.
I must admit that it was very similar to taking a driving test.

We spent two days and two night in the jungle. It part of learning the Mahout way of life.

The fire is from the oil of the bark of a tree. Before flashlights and things like that the Mahout were able to get oil for burning from the bark of a tree.
As you can see we did not forget the elephants. We came to camp on the elephants and left the same way.
Still in the Jungle

Living in the jungle is like going to a supermarket that does not have a check-out counter.




One of Mahouts shot this squirrel for our eating enjoyment. You can learn a lot about biology living in the jungle.




Still preparing lunch. Squirrel pate. The knife he is using is the same one he uses to cut bamboo, make tools, clear brush in his path. The Mahouts knife is a very important tool.


The jungle camp. Top left Lawrence(me) trainee, Tawee Mahout, Sak Mahout , Monica (trainee) the cook, Idkhn), Ja Lan, Idkhn.
Bottom: Tawatt, Tu, Idkhn
dog: Tyson

* Idkhn stand for "I don't know his/her name"

You know everybody always say that anything unusual that you eat taste just like chicken.


This particular bug had a light flowery flavor. It was very nice.
Mahouts love their whisky. Don't leave home with out it.
This is Tu. She does everything. She is your guide, interpreter, conciege, reservation clerk, .....
She is showing us plants that you can/ we will eat today that she got from the jungle.

nice taste. All bugs don't taste the same. Don't try this at home.
That our Bar-B-Que. We used bamboo for pots to boil water and cook rice. We( the mahouts, not the trainee's) also made a grill from bamboo. On it under the banana leaves is chicken and pork. The Bar-b-que had a very nice seasoned smoked flavor to it. I don't know if the flavor came from the banana leaf or not but it was good.

Again the mahouts used their big knife to make all of this.




In the jungle 2 days and nights