Elephants in the Sumatran Jungle

This may be my favorite day yet. Jim spent the day working in a sweaty internet cafe...and teaching a bunch or twenty-somethings how to play Texas Hold 'Em...and missed it. Had we known it would have been this great....

Addi and I hooked up with an Aussie family, hired a driver for the day (US$50), and headed two and a half hours from Bukit Lawang to Tangkahan. The drive was bumpy dirt roads all the way taking us past tiny remote villages, loads of waving school children, herds of skinny cows, gum and palm oil plantations, and land recently devastated for future palm oil plantations.

The elephant trek goes through Jungle Conservation Area. It turns out that the the beautiful palm forests I mentioned in one of the Malaysia entries are man-made for palm oil production and not only cause the massive clearings of indigenous jungle but also devastates the wildlife population and water supply. Palm oil is a bad thing...not as 'green' as we might believe.

Anyways...on to the trek...
We arrived at the jungle and took a rope and pully boat across a river. I thought we were waiting to go to the elephant riding place when I noticed 4 giant pachyderms prodding up the river on the opposite bank! They slowly approached us, swam across the water (look closely at one of the pictures) and we hopped on! That alone was magical.

Now with passengers, our elephants crossed back over the river (at a shallower spot) and moved into the jungle...just as the downpours came. We were riding elephants, in the jungle, in a tropical rain...this was the most authentic experience I could have ever hoped for!!

The trail was muddy with steep ups and downs. It was so narrow at points that the pachyderms had to walk one giant foot in front of the other to prevent slipping down the slope to our certain doom. I am nervous when horses do this so to be honest, I was terrified! If it weren't for brave Addi sitting with me, I am sure I would have been screaming. Instead I kept asking our excellent guide/ trainer "you've never had an elephant fall, right? You're sure this is ok, right? This elephant isn't going to go rogue, right?" He assured me that he had been working with elephants for 18 years, and with the one I was riding for 7 and has never had a problem. I worked hard to believe it as the elephant grabbed at leaves and small trees with her trunk and snacked along the way.

We had 3 female elephants (including mine) and one male...and I am glad I wasn't on the male. This guy had a little bit more spunk and tried to forge his own path at least once. At another point, he stopped on the trail, grabbed a huge vine (maybe 1 foot in diameter?) that was attached to a tall tree and started pulling with all his might! His trainer gently but firmly kept rubbing the elephants head saying "no, no! Its too big, too big!" Meanwhile, we were getting showered with leaves and debris from above and I waited for the tree to fall on us. All of a sudden, the trainer jumped off of the elephant (leaving the poor Aussie bloke alone on top!), pulled out his giant machete, chopped up the vine/tree and gave the elephant a piece about 6 feet long. He then gave a smaller piece to each of the other elephants, hopped back on this giant creature's neck, and we were on our way.

I should mention that we were on the elephant in front of this action so our guide turned our elephant 180 degrees, on the side of a steep slope, on a dime, so that we could see. Certain we were about to fall, I couldn't hold it in and screamed "oh my God!!" Out loud. The guide looked at me, smiled, mocked me by repeating "oh my God!" in a falsetto voice, winked at Addi, and turned back around.

The trek lasted about an hour and my heart was in my throat the entire time. Addi was so calm and collected that I had to keep asking her to "hold on!" with her response being "but why, mommy? The man in front isn't holding on!" To which I gave the infamous "because I said so"...the guide/ trainer was very experienced and the elephants have been doing this for years, so I know my fears were unnecessary...but what an adrenaline rush.

It was just the most amazing adventure.... unfortunately, due to the downpour, I only got pictures at the very beginning and very end. This is a story I should retell live when I see you....my heart is racing as I write about it!

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