Elephant Camp

When my dad told me he was coming to India I was so excited to shock and surprise him. Sure this guy took his whole family to live in the Philippines in the 70's but that was 30 years ago and we lived on a military base. I have seen those military folks-eating their American snacks from the commissary, living in western style houses and getting by with English the whole time. That's not "real" international living.(says the lady who has ranch dressing and Kraft Mac n cheese in her cupboard and lives in her gated community) I had dreams of putting my dad in the front seat of the car and seeing the panic on his face as scooters and large buses came barreling at us. I wanted to see him turn up his nose at the open ditches and cow patties that mark the boundaries of our roads. I was sorely disappointed. My dad, without an ounce of fear in his voice, kept telling our driver, "You are a really good driver. Really!" Whenever he saw something, like a family of pigs crossing the street, which I was sure was going to shock him all he would say was, "Well look at that." Perhaps I coddled him too much. Perhaps we should have skipped the 5 star hotel in Bangalore. We should have taken the train down instead of hiring a car. I should have made him go to the grocery store alone in an auto. Maybe that would have done it.

Even if I did not manage to shock him, we did manage to impress him. Since he was only here for a little over a week, we took him on a 2 day trip to Coorg. Again we spoiled him with a super fancy resort and all you can eat buffets every meal (a.k.a. gave him a chance to eat some meat). Coorg is super lush, beautiful area with lots of wildlife and is known for growing coffee. It was perfect to be right in the middle of the hillsides and shaded by loads of trees while the summer sun beat down.

The real highlight of our trip was visiting an elephant camp. We paid our 50 rupees a head to be shuttle across in super duper inflated white water rafts.  Seriously, I am not sure I had ever touched a raft that taunt. I lived in fear it was going to pop just like a balloon as we all got in.

When we arrived on the other side of the river- 2 minutes perhaps, we vowed next time we came we would walk across and save our 50 rupees. Then, we saw the most amazing thing on the beach.  There was an elephant on its side lying in the water.  The elephant keeper had a brush and was scrubbing the animal all over. There were visitors standing in the water all around splashing water on the elephant.  We had come completely unprepared for this experience.  My mother in law and I were in long pants.  Although I usually carry an extra set of clothes for the girls, today I had none. So we did the best we could. We hiked up our pants and just decided to get wet.

Star next to the elephant's head.  The elephant kept his trunk just out of the water so it could breathe.  Every once in a while it gave us all a great shock by spraying air and blowing water all over us.

Marvel and Flip helping to bathe the elephant.

After a while more elephants were brought down to the riverside and this elephant was urged to get up.  It did and then it just flopped right back down into the water like it just couldn't be bothered to move, so everyone kept on splashing water over its back.  We heard news of a baby elephant so we made our way up the hill to check it out.  We found 2 sweet little calves. Flip immediately found the mommas due to their hanging breasts and full mammary glands. I had a secret little giggle as she pointed and shouted, "Look at that momma's boobies!" and the Indians around me moved away from us.  Now, I was happy to watch these beautiful animals but my kids were not. After the calf did not come over to drink from its mother's breast, like Flip wanted she went off in search of a good stick to dig in the dirt.

We did convince our kids to follow the babies down to the water to watch them bathe.  It was here that I got a true lesson in nature.  While my girls were waist deep in the river an adult elephant turned its back to us all and dropped a huge earthy load in the water followed by a massive urine stream.  Enough of that!  We opted to go a bit up stream and play in the water falling over the rocks.

The next stop was to feed the elephants.  What do elephants in captivity eat here you might wonder? Ragi mixed with jaggery and mashed into large balls.  They also eat, right out of your hands, cucumbers and watermelon slices.  The best part for me was watching folks buy a couple cucumber for themselves to munch on as well as a couple for the elephants.  One for me, one for you, one for me, one for you!  Ok, it didn't really go down that way but it would have in an Disney movie.  

We topped off our experience with an elephant ride for the girls and Marvel and then headed back across the river.  After watching the elephant poop, I took back my decision to boycott the 50 rupee ride.