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Beyond 50 Magazine
Jungle School
Penny Smith discovers that learning new skills while on holiday was just what she needed to break out of the rut and rediscover her passion for life.
The urge for a change in direction seems to coincide with mid-life. The children had grown and that release from daily routine awakened a longing in me to break out of the mould and fly.
It was the year I turned 50. I had just spent 18 months documenting the lives of 60 Australian centenarians for a book. I travelled around Australia to meet them and hear their stories. Many of them were incarcerated in institutions – trapped and lonely. |
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After handing in the manuscript, I flew to New Zealand. I wanted to get my head in the clouds and my feet on the Milford Track. A bungy jump seemed like a great idea at the time, and I got a tattoo for good measure.
Back home, I enrolled in classes for belly dancing, botanical drawing, wealth management and stockbroking – but the restlessness persisted.
An advertisement for guided tours of Yemen attracted my attention, and I was off to Southern Arabia. Within 24 hours, I had fallen in love with travel again. I had fallen in love with life again. I would return 26 times and venture even further afield, but that’s another story.
Looking for new adventures again last year, I read of a tented camp in northern Thailand, near Chiang Rai, where visitors can learn traditional elephant-training techniques. Always fascinated by elephants, a friend and I jumped at the chance.
The camp is situated on the edge of the Golden Triangle, close to the Burmese, Laos and Thai borders. On route, we spent a few days at the Four Seasons Resort in Chiang Mai to attend their Thai cooking school.
Arriving at the tail end of the rainy season, shafts of lemon light punctured billowing grey clouds that threatened overhead. The temperature was perfect and the whole area lush. Foliage of every hue was growing in a vast, integrated pattern, to create a palette of texture and complimentary colour. It was an earthly paradise.
The cooking school was set on a hilltop in an open air Thai building. As the chef demonstrated the recipes, we recreated them – steam-cooked fish in banana leaves, delicious glass noodle salad with shaved slices of Australian beef, and my particular favourite, lemongrass ice cream. The flavours were pungent and refreshing; garlic, ginger, chilli, lemongrass, galangal and Thai fish sauce sweetened with honey.
The road to the elephant camp is said to be one of the most beautiful in Thailand. We drove from the modern town, through hill tribe villages, rice paddies, banana plantations and into the luxuriant jungle. We encountered jade and gem dealers, Kashmiri carpet sellers, silk factories and the spectacular Wat Rong Khun, or White Temple.
The Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle accommodates its guests in 15 huge tents on stilts. They are anchored into the hillside above the tree line, 50 metres from each other and linked by a path snaking through the complex. King-sized beds with mosquito nets are positioned to maximise views over Burma and Thailand. More luxuries include air conditioning and an extensive balcony with polished wooden flooring.
It rained in torrents the first night, a sound like tribal drums on the canvas. It was stimulating and refreshing. Scratching and rustling could be heard outside. The hoot of an owl and the shriek of some unknown creature reminded me I was in the wilds of Northern Thailand. In the morning, a ribbon of white ibis unfurled amongst the crème de menthe green of the jungle.
A visit to the camp is prepaid so once there, we could take advantage of many different activities, excursions, a fantastic restaurant and therapeutic massages. As relaxing as this all was, I had come to ride elephants and the day had arrived.
The camp’s elephants have been rescued from the city streets and are part of a program to provide domestic animals with a meaningful retirement. They once played an important cultural and economic role in Thai society but, with a reduction of logging, they are no longer needed and have become a burden to their owners. The Four Seasons Tented Camp works in conjunction with The Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation to care for these magnificent creatures and support their skilled mahouts – their masters – who once depended on driving elephants for their livelihood.
Experienced mahouts run the elephant training course provided at the camp and a traditional mahout outfit mysteriously appears in my tent the night before the lesson, ready for me to put on in the morning.
Although the experience is geared to ‘active adults’, it doesn’t necessarily mean older people. However, it just happened that the eight of us on my expedition were all over 50 and could all laugh together about our minor ailments, aches and pains.
We learnt a selection of commands in Thai and English but needing glasses to read the command cards added to the challenge. The mahouts introduced us to the animals and gave us an overview of their individual personalities. The largest female was rocking back and forth. I suspect she was bored, or perhaps just anxious to get going? She fixed me with her eye and I tried to convey warmth and calm as I caressed her hairy trunk.
Standing up close to the elephant, I was not only awed by its size but also by the intelligent look in its eye. Fringed with lashes to die for, the amber flecked orb looked deep into my soul and was, quite frankly, intimidating. I was subjected to an in-depth appraisal and, I must admit, I felt a bit apprehensive. After some intense instruction on command pronunciations, the mahouts ordered the elephants to kneel and invited us to mount.
Mahouts are small, young and wiry – unfortunately, the same could not be said of any of us. I am pretty fit but having made my elephant obey my command to kneel, I still needed to be shoved and hoisted from behind to get on board. Once on, there was nothing to hang on to but the flapping ears.
Straddling the huge head extended the groin muscles alarmingly and gripping with knees for dear life is an achievement in itself. We had to mount and dismount several times before qualifying for our certificate. The action needs a lot of practise and I can’t say that it got any easier.
My elephant loved to eat, ripping leaves from trees and wandering off the track towards the tasty morsels in the forest. As she headed up-hill, I hung on hard with my knees and issued stern commands, of which the elephant calmly took no notice. I had plenty of bananas and fed these to her when she raised her trunk. This kept her on track for a while but as soon as they were gone, she went back to wandering and my knees ached. Eventually, I felt more at ease and, as we reached the summit, its extensive views showed me how far I’d come.
Elephants love water, so at the close of the day we took them for a bath. Hanging on, scooping and sloshing buckets of water was harder than it sounds. The elephants delighted in showering us with muddy liquid and there was much mirth as we became wet through.
This camp was a life-enhancing, special experience. Riding alone with the soft phft, phft of elephant feet, eye-level with a canopy of birds and butterflies, is something I will never forget. One day, I hope to return to the elephants. My experience there was a rare moment that made me realise I want to continue exploring life, rejoicing in my energy and spirit, as long as I have the strength to move.
For more information
The Four Seasons Tented Camp is located in Chang Rai, in Thailand’s far north, about 75-minutes by plane from Bangkok. To find out more or to book accommodation, visit www.fourseasons.com/goldentriangle