Adventures in Thai Filmmaking: The Elephant Carries a Great Big Trunk

One of my favorite songs from when I was a kid, brought to me from my dad and grandma Ettinger:

The Elephant Carries a Great Big Trunk
He never wears any clothes
He's got no lock and he's got no key

But he takes his trunk wherever he goes

Ba RUMP BA BUMP BA BA BUMP BA DUM, BA ROMP BA RUMP BA DA DA

After the film wrapped I got to spend a wonderful week in Northern Thailand visiting elephants, waterfalls and beautiful mountains.

Our last day of filmming was overshadowed by the biggest thunderstorm I've ever witnessed. The thunder shook my room in the night and blew out all the electricity. I love rain and I love thunderstorms but this one actually scared me. On set the wind and rain literally knocked over the tents and threatened to blow us all away. Thankfully we made it through the storm and we wrapped the film as planned.

The wrap party was held at a really lovely restaurant in what appeared to me a much quieter and more civilized section of Bangkok. The food was the best I've had and the atmosphere was really lovely. We all said our goodbyes and had a nice time. I even got our special effects guy to smile for a picture (a feat which NOBODY has EVER been able to do before).

OK so I had to sneak the picture, but STILL I GOT IT!

After sending the rest of the US cast and crew back home, I boarded a flight to Chiang Mai and checked into a really cute bed and breakfast right in the center of town called The 3 Sis B&B. I walked around the city, visitng several wats (temples) and got a Thai massage. After getting 6 or 7 Thai massages on this trip, it occurs to me that I don't actually love Thai massages. They hurt! Why I put myself through them I do not know.

Now it's time for the ELEPHANTS!!! (the rest of the pictures are at the bottom of this post so skip ahead if you want the visuals).

I was picked up by my guide for the Baanchang Elephant Park in the morning, and after making several stops we arrived at the park around 10am and got our first glimpses of the Elephantes (special pronunciation from yours truly). The first thing that happened was that it started to rain. I didn't care! The guide told us we can "forget about being pretty; forget about being sexy". Today is a day for being muddy and wet. I was so happy! We changed into our glamorous wardroe and got an intro to the 'phants. We started off by feeding them truckloads of bananas. These creatures don't bother with peeling bananas or even eating them one at a time - nope - they eat them by the bunchful. We could either place a bunch on their trunk or directly into their mouths. Each time I apprached theese elepahnts over the next several days I did so with an equal mix of awe and trepidation. They are so massive and can squash any person like a bug at any moment. But at the same time they just wanted their bananas and if you obliged they were quite gentle.

We got a tutorial on how to get up on an elephant's neck and we learned commands for Down (LaNONG), up (BOA), Walk (BAI) and turn. Getting up on the elephant was scary and exhilerating in equal measures. After a lovely lunch and rest on the hammock we took our elephants for a walk around the property, then gave them a bath in the lake which they seemed to enjoy (and so did we). My elephant was quite mischevious - she did what she wanted, when she wanted, even with her mahout right by her side. We'd be walking in a straight line along a path and she would decide she needed to eat a tree on the side of the path at that exact moment. So she would eat the tree. I liked her.

Only 3 of us from our group stayed overnight. I was surprised that more people didn't want to do the 3 day course. The amenities were bare - the room had a bed and a fan and that was it. No internet, no tv, nothing to do but think about the elephants :-) The next morning I got up really early due to some very talkative roosters and more than a few gunshots (from nearby hunters I assume, though my guide says the sounds were children setting off fireworks which I highly doubt) and I hung out on the hammocks while the elephants came out for their morning routine. After a nice hearty breakfast we got assigned new elephants and rode them out to the lake for their morning baths, then to the jungle for a really wonderful trek. There was one part that was so steep and muddy it was like being on the scariest rollercoaster of my life with no safety bar. My trusty elephant was quite sure footed, though, and we made it through just fine. We stopped after a while where the mahouts and guide made a campfire and created a table made of banana leaves from the juingle. The best part was that the elephants got to roam free while we ate. I hated that they are either chained or under direct command of a mahout the rest of the time. I absolutely understand the necessity of this for human safety concerns, but I still feel that they should ideally be roaming free in a jungle and not at a human's beck and call for our fun and games. Feeling quite conflicted about this, as I know that the park treats its elephants more humanely then most (no tricks, no chairs on their backs etc.) but let's face it, they are still being exploited for the benefit of western tourists like me. Sigh.

After lunch we had to hike into the jungle to find our elephants, then as we trekked back they ATE our table and all the leftovers. It was awesome! We trekked back, gave them their final bath of the day, then took them back to their night area and fed them bamboo leaves. Towards the end my mahout tried to get a final picture of me with the elephant but she didn't feel like posing so she kicked me. Not hard enough to knock me down but hard enough to certainly scare me. I felt badly because the elephant got in trouble for that and as I was walking away I saw the mahout hitting her repeatedly.

We were done by 2:30pm and I spent the rest of the day lazing away on the hammock (my new favorite spot on earth) watching the elephants and just hanging out. The third and final day was more of an adventure trekking day than I had anticipated. After a final bath and feeding with the elephants, we headed out to a beautiful hike to a waterfall. Really lovely hiking and a bit treacherous navigating bridges made of sticks and planks. We made it all the way there and almost all the way back when I tripped on an uneven piece of ground and twisted my ankle. So stupid! I was fine to walk so we finished the hike, then went whitewater rafting and visited an elephant dung factory.

The next day I took the bus to Chiang Rai (about 3 hours away) and spent the next couple of days exploring northern thailand and even a bit of Myanmar. Got to see the tea plantations in the mountains, the Golden Triangle, and some local Chiang Rai sights. Even took a thai cooking class on my last full day in Thailand.

Overall it was a fantastic 7 days and I learned an incredible amount about Thailand, it's people and animals, and about myself.