My whole life has been building up to this moment. I have random bursts of excitement/being the natural spaz I am, but not too many because I don’t want the other riders who have only known me for two and a half weeks to think I’m a total weirdo (which I am). We drive up to our destination and my eyes immediately search for the huge gray creatures I’ve met before, but never this personally. I’ve spotten them. Two of them. They’re huge, and they’re absolutely stunning. Their pink trunks pull apart palm leaves with such precision and agility it’s almost human-like. Their heads sway lazily back and forth as their eyes take in our presence. I’ve heard that elephants remember faces–will they remember mine?
The first round of people climbed up on top of these beautiful animals–three to an elephant. Two on the baby, who was 22 years old. Older than me and still a baby? I guess it makes sense, since Asian elephant live to be 100 years old or more. I got on a 34 year old elephant named Maduban. He was great. I made sure to get on the front so I could pet his head and ears during the ride. There were four of us on him so I felt bad that he had to carry all of our weight, but he seemed to handle it well. He was sauntering to his own pace, doing his own thing, eating his palm leaf on the way. And boy was he a smarty. His trainer said commands to him and he knew exactly what to do. The trainer had a small stick to lead him with, but Maduban was so smart the trainer didn’t use it at all. The trainer even took pictures of us while Maduban posed like a Top Model. 
What a handsome man!
The ride was so relaxing. The slow pace and swaying of his shoulders put me in a great mood. At one point we saw another elephant and his trainer come up the hill. The elephant was covered in mud and looked like he had a huge gash on his shoulder. I started to get worried. Then I saw a few trees with what looked like blood on them and started to fell even worse. My mood sank. Maybe the trainers weren’t so good to their elephants, after all. Later I found out the liquid on the trees were sap–not blood!!!–and the elephant was an actor. The gash was make-up. He was being filmed for a movie and the camera crew was actually in line behind us waiting for rides. That made me feel a whole lot better.
When we returned to where we started, Maduban knew exactly what to do to let us off of his great expanse of a back. He basically parallel parked into the platform where we got on him so we could get off. I scratched his ears one last time and relectantly got off. I’m pretty sure I was grinning from ear to ear. I walked down from the platform and walked up to his face to say goodbye. He turned his head fully to look me in the eye. Those big, brown eyes looked like they held so much wisdom and knowledge. It almost felt like he was trying to convey something to me. What did he want to tell me? It was only when I backed away that he looked away. That’s how long he held my gaze, but it felt like he was more looking into my soul than anything else. I really didn’t want to leave this elephant. I didn’t want our visit to end. I was so reluctant to leave.
This is something I really will remember for the rest of my life–the day of my first elephant ride. I hope it’s not my last, but if it is, I’m ok with it.
Caitlin Adventures 