Surin Thailand Elephant Round Up

Surin Thailand Elephant Round Up

In Bangkok I was let off at the train station and had a quick bite to eat at a street restaurant burning a bit of time. My train from Bangkok wasn’t until 8:30 pm and would arrive in Surin at 4:30 in the morning. I had a sleeper so at least there would be a bit of comfort and there was. The night train is a great way to get from A to B. I didn’t have a reservation anywhere and was a little worried about arriving at such a lovely hour in the morning that all the doors would be locked.

On arrival the steward bid me a Thai good morning and I peeled the curtain back to let him know I was up. He said we would arrive in Surin in about ten minutes. Not many other travelers stirred except a few Buddhist monks in saffron robes popped out of their bunks.  We disembarked and I had forgotten that someone would be there for me but when I got out to the parking lot and man walked up to me and called my name. He led me to a tuk-tuk and off we went to the Petchkasem Hotel only a short ride away, I could have walked if I knew where it was. The hotel is massive, the rooms spacious and a pool is always a bonus. Since I was going to be here for a few days doing some writing and watching the elephant festival prepare itself for the weekend ahead I decided to stay a few days before making final hotel plans.

The day grew hot and humid as the sun rose in the east. I wanted get my bearings and find out where everything was going to take place so I took a walk and began sweating profusely as I moved through the day. Many shops were setting up and I could hear a recording of the events to come. I walked toward the noise and found an empty stadium where a group of men were preparing the field for the festival. Next to the stadium a music venue was being erected while a carnival of entertainment, food stalls, and vendors such as Honda with motorcycles, Samsung phones, and a few heavy equipment companies had back hoes, tractors etc. on display. Obviously I was a few days early but at least I knew where it was and began making my rounds through the shops that were open and found clothing extremely cheap. I bought a pair of shorts for less than $2.

I met a few ex-pats in Surin but there don’t seem to be many. Most of the expats seem to be motorbike enthusiasts and very mobile spending half the year in Thailand and the other six months in their homeland. There are few bar and restaurant streets such as in some of the other more popular cities in Thailand. I found a great little area developing near the bus station where the Oasis Restaurant faces the Farang Connection. Both have great food and seem to be a magnet for expats and tourists alike. Further on around the corner there is a beer garden, pizza place and the Sawadee Bar for great contemporary Thai and western music in the evening. A new club opened called the Monkey Bar but I haven’t been to it. It appears this will be a bar zone in the future.

My alarm went off at 6 am on Friday the 20^th and I popped up for a short walk before it got hot to see the Elephant breakfast. I had wandered through it the day before so I knew where it was and the locals were setting up for a big weekend event. Dancers encircled the round about and the music kicked up. Bands paraded around the corner and played songs as they walked the kilometer of tables loaded with 67 tons of fruit and vegetables for the elephants. The elephants turned the corner lead by a white elephant, just a painted symbol, not a true white elephant. Apparently white elephants do rarely occur but there isn’t one right now. The rest of the elephants were of all ages and sizes and they just kept coming. Warnings were offered over a loud speaker in numerous languages to not tease the elephants, not to feed them home cooked food, and to stay out of their way. I heard a story about a woman a few years ago teasing an elephant with a watermelon. Her husband didn’t get a good enough photo so she repeatedly pulled the melon back away from the elephant and the elephant got pissed off and smacked her with his trunk and broke the lady’s neck, she died instantly.

The elephants were ridden by a driver and offered rides by paying guests sitting on a bench strapped to the elephants back. Stairs to platforms were set up and spaced out along the road. Other men walked smaller elephants and asked for 20 baht for a handful of bamboo or sugarcane sticks that tourists get to feed the elephants. Most of the expats frown on this due to the arrangements sighting many of the elephants being owned by the Chinese and subsidized by the Thai government getting something like 8,000 baht/year for food/elephant. It turns out that many of the elephant handlers are Cambodian not Thai.

It was getting hot so I went to the pool at the hotel and cooled off for the afternoon. The elephant festival in the stadium began the following morning at 9 am. Again up early due to not having a ticket I grabbed a motorbike taxi and bought a ticket. The stadium filled up with people and then the music started and the elephants arrived en mass along with troops of wonderful dancers and musicians performing various traditional dances and songs. The whole festival or round up was originally for the king and a hunt but those times have passed and now it’s just a gathering and celebration for the elephants. Over the loud speaker the good care of the elephants is boasted and yet I witnessed a few moments where a driver used a sharp metal hook tugging forcefully on an elephants ear or hammered the blunt end of the hook forcefully on an elephants head with more power necessary to drop a nail. There were many times I wanted to yell out, ‘stop!’ but I didn’t. Later, I heard others tell similar elephant abuse stories witnessed at the festival as well. There are some animal rights groups here doing documentaries on this and some of them have it on film. Not to take wind out of their sails you are going to have to wait for the footage.

With the festival coming to an end today it’s time to get to the beach and go for a swim and do some scuba diving. I’m on my way.

www.davidcdagley.com

Chitwan National Park

Chitwan

I took a taxi from the Lotus Inn to the Pokhara bus station to get on an express bus to Chitwan National Park around 8 am. By noon we had passed Mugeling and were headed up the windy road toward Katmandu. As soon as I recognized this I got up and showed my ticket to the bus driver’s co-pilot and they had a quick conversation. In the end the bus pulled over and the driver flagged down a van heading back through Mugeling and turn off for Chitwan. Two teenage boys popped out of the front seat and I climbed in next to the driver and the boys got back in. There were 12 people in the back of the van and 4 in the front seat. Of course I got the stick shift and the drive well below me so I had no room but was heading in the right direction. For three hours I sat in the most uncomfortable position I could imagine. The driver drove me to the Chitwan and the turn off for the town of Sauraha  at one of the gates for the National Park and waved good-bye.

A couple of young men approached me with a placard of their hotel. I usually move away from this but when I asked how much and they responded 400 rupiah and I took a second look. I asked how close they were to the Chitwan National Park entrance and they said within walking distance. They gave me a lift to Rhinoland Hotel where I met the owner/operator and his staff. www.hotelrhinoland.com.  (ph. # +977-56-680339) contact@hortelrhinoland.com. Hotel Rhinoland boasts budget traveler prices for room and board in Sauraha, Chitwan, Nepal. They have rooms ranging from 500 rupiah to 300/night. I took a 400 rupiah/night on the second floor overlooking a cornfield and a rice field. Lately wild elephants have been coming into the rice fields and eating the newly planted rice. The elephants cross over the river and enter the village every year at this time just like the cicadas singing to the monsoon season to bring rain. At around mid-night the dogs start barking and sure enough the village comes alive with commotion. My room was nice with a double bed and a single and my own bathroom with a shared balcony. Hotel Rhinoland is the cheapest I’ve stayed yet in Nepal. The food and beverage prices are low and the quality is good.

I arranged a full day walk in Chitwan with two guides, one from the park and one from the hotel. Unfortunately this is where the costs come in. Park permits are not cheap and you are paying the salary for two guides. But you are going to see some amazing things and the government set this system up so there is no way around it without going to jail or paying a larger than life fine. The permit costs 1700 rupiah and can only be used in the park one day but allows you free access to the community jungle the next day. The community forest is where the locals go to gather firewood, herbs and plants and all the animals are in both the national park and in the community forest so if you want to rent a bike or walk in and have a look around, it’s available. There are a couple towers in the community forest as well and sleeping in the tower can be arranged. The jungle at night is an acoustic dream.

I ate by 630 am and headed for the park entrance with the permits and paystubs. Once we all got together we hopped in a dugout canoe with a standing tiller man at the stern. We walk down the middle of the boat and took a seat. I could see a Gavial up stream sitting in the sun with his mouth open cooling off. The tiller man poked at the riverbed and angled the boat out into the slow moving current and poled us across the park boundary and off we went into the forest and jungle.

This is still the hot season so when you are out in the middle of a grassland stretch of jeep trail there is no relief from the intense heat and direct sun, two 1.5 liter bottles of water are minimum to carry in and always remember to carry out what you carry in, there are no garbage cans in the jungle.

There are roofed viewing towers where you can take a break and look for wildlife. These towers are usually at the border between forest and grasslands and also near a military or ranger station. The grasses that the rhinos and elephants eat can grow to 3 meters tall and hard to see passed so the towers give you a bit of a viewing advantage being approximately 10-15 meters on the top floor.

With a river to our left and grasslands to our right we were walking along when we heard a commotion between the riverbank and our path. We stopped and waited then came the rapid cracking of sticks and thrashing branches. We backed up and watched a Rhino steam out of the forest and cross our path right where we were standing not a minute before. No pictures on that one, it was too quick and I’m slow.

We were going to take a break at the next tower but when got there one of the guides climbed up with Binoculars and spied around he saw a rhino in a big shallow pond. We changed plans and went to check him out. As we arrived the guide was adding rhino count and ended at four. All I saw from afar was a couple pieces of wood or logs but as I got closer I realized these logs had ears. The nose sticks out of the water, the eyes underwater, the ears pulling 360s and zooming in on us. The heads rose out of the water as if on cue.

This was a good time for the guide to explain a few details about running from a Rhinoceros. Start running and then drop your bag. The thinking is that the rhino will have something of you to focus on and may stop. That’s comforting.

The rhinos weren’t overly interested but we were definitely interrupting a peaceful gathering between one male and three females. They did get out of the water a ways before we moved on into a new direction. We walked down some dry leaf trails through the forest and came out near a two-tier tower and hung out waiting for some sloth bear activity. We had seen many destroyed termite hills. They are really cool and some of the big ones stand about 2 meters. The Sloth Bear tares into the base of these hills and digs for the nest and eggs just under ground.  

Cicadas sing in vast waves through the canopy over head. Black faced Languor lunge from tree limb to tree barking warnings. The sun sparkles through the leaves. The air is thick and I’m soaking with sweat. What a beautiful day to be in the jungle.

The following day I took a half-day jeep trek starting at 1 pm. Again it’s hot and we cross over the river in the boat and there’s a small group of jeep trucks and our driver sitting in the shade waiting for us. Obviously the problem is that a jeep makes a lot of noise and many animals know enough to move away from the roads. But on the odd chance that the animal doesn’t hear or preoccupied you might get up close.

There were lots of Spotted Deer and some Sambar Deer, Hog Deer, and Barking Deer close to the road. We got lucky with a young male wild boar that just didn’t think much of us and continued browsing the ground.

At the far end of the drive we pulled into a Gavial Breeding Center and that was interesting for a couple reasons. Being an endangered species itself the success rate for reintroduction of Gavial into the park is low. What interested me was yeah, go ahead and hatch them but put them in the river little so they do the natural thing from the start. I don’t know the fish count numbers or anything but it’s possible they aren’t sustainable without fish numbers going up. A chain reaction is underway with the population of people growing in the villages and local fishing practices helping to deplete the fish numbers. I’ve heard stories of poisoning rivers for fishing purposes, even the Gangetic dolphin falls victim of poisoning and that is a sad state of affairs.

We hoped back in the truck and drove on out into the jungle heat. Our guide spoke with a pair of elephant riders coming back from the forest and a days work and pointed off roughly in the direction we were going and the guide smiled and thanked him. There were two Rhinos doing battle in a field not too far away. In turn the guide told the driver and off we went.

The two Rhinos had separated and were looking at each other from 50 meters. As we arrived we pulled up to a safe distance and turned of the engine. One Rhino was maybe 20 meters away and started eating but kept an eye on his opponent. He actually came closer to us to about 10 meters and that was a little unnerving but great for photos.

We drove on into a Sal forest and out the other side near another grassland and on the edge in the shade was a large Bison. This is a big mean animal and best to keep a lot of distance.

We had a good day with the critters and headed back to the river before sun down. As we got there a mother, baby, and father Rhino came to the riverbank from the community forest side. From the border of the park and community forest I could see 2 Elephant, 3 Rhino, a Garial, and countless fish and birds.

www.davidcdagley.com

Bardia National Park, Nepal

Bardia National Park

I had the front desk at Garden Buddha set me up with a taxi at 6:30 am in order to catch an 8 am flight to Nepalgunj. There was a small group of folks from a wheat watch perspective that I met on the plane and just after that I hitched a ride to their Hotel Siddhartha. The hotel is one of the nicer in the town and there aren’t that many. They were super nice and helpful and pointed me in the right direction to pay for a ride to the Bardia National Park entrance and to a suggested guesthouse, Wild Trak Adventures. I still hadn’t made contact until the power went back on In Bardia when Sitaram’s phone could be charged and call me. I was being driven in a brand new Siddhartha Hotel luxury four-wheel drive vehicle by Mr. Raj a kindly Nepali with Indian roots.

We had to pass through a couple of military checkpoints because there are areas where stopping, taking photos or getting out of your car are forbidden. The checkpoint is a time stamped paper that you must delivery to the other end. You can’t speed or go too slow because they generally know how long it takes from one end to the other. You can be questioned and your vehicle searched, it’s up to them.

Sitaram greeted me and showed me to my spacious room and dropped my bags off and went and chatted for a while about the park and what’s around it. Obviously the park is broken in two one where you can’t go at all and one area you can go in with a guide or driver. There was a family from Melbourne a couple houses/bungalows away and they were very fun and the kids entertaining. They mentioned they were headed down to the elephant camp on the confluence of a branch of the Karnali River. When I arrived elephants were crossing the river. A mother elephant being ridden by a worker had a baby elephant trotting along her side out of the water. More elephants emerged from the jungle on the far side and followed in line back to where they spend the night.

Some of the elephants have been moved from Chitwan National Park to Bardia National Park. Once upon a time Bardia National Park received many Rhinos from Chitwan but 10 years ago the Mao political party and the Nepali Government had a civil war and the Mao group went into Bardia National Park and killed 80 Rhinos and cut the horn and sold them. In two years Bardia may be getting some more.

 The baby elephant is a product of the domesticated mother having a fling with a wild elephant. Apparently it happens with regularity.

The river water is clear and swimmable but there are crocs, bigger the further up river you go I hear. A couple rivers back when I crossed a bridge in the car I looked below to the edge of the water and saw a few Garials, also known as Gavials, half in the water and caked in mud. I’m rather tentative to go for a swim if the locals aren’t in it doing washing or taking a bath.

The following day I teamed up with the Aussies to share in costs for a half-day jeep trek inside the park. We saw Spotted Deer, Swamp Deer, and I think Hog Deer all in a grass pasture below a lookout tower. These towers are for the park guests to get a vantage point over the high grasses and spot animals moving about. There are quiet a few of these towers throughout the park. Otherwise, we’d park the jeep and walk to the riverbank and look out for animals crossing or getting water.

 Johnny got back from a trek with a friend from England and they were sun burnt and peeling like they had been microwaved on the thicker than normal snow over the pass. They learned not to hike in the afternoon because the snow melts and you end up ‘post-holing’ each step taking that much more energy and moving that much slower.

We packed water and lunch and took a day hike in Bardia National Park looking for the bigger mammals still in the wild. There are large populations of Rhino, Elephant, Tiger, wild boar and five species of deer. The park caters to the deer in order to help keep the tigers localized with a centralized and growing food source. Sitaram led us through the park crossing rivers in the shallows and considering the possible encounter of one of two types of crocs the Muggers and the Gavial. Both get big. The Gavial is considered endangered or close. From my geographical perspective there’s plenty.

With sweat dripping down our faces a park ranger phoned Sitaram and gave him some area directions to find a lone bull elephant. I’ve been told there’s a herd of about twenty-five but I’ll settle for what I get. He stood at the edge of a clearing eating the grasses toward the middle. We stood a good distance away. Trying to be quiet is almost impossible because the ground is covered in a few layers of dry brown crunchy leaves. The elephant can hear every step we take.

We moved away and sat in a natural hide on the riverbank cliff and watched for animals to cross over. As we did the old bull moved on down to the river and got a drink and cleaned his teeth by spraying them and spitting out some of the water he had taken in. He stood by the river for a good half an hour before heading off across the river to disappear in an instant with legs like tree trunks and a body the color of many tree limbs cracked with shadows. Gone.

The Rhino was the same way. We found this female taking a long quiet mud bath before we came along and disturbed her with camera clicks and trying to be quiet as you tip-toe across a round river rock exposed shoal, marbles and rolling stones with moss on them. There was no reasonable way to take a good picture of this animal so John took a really nice one of her head from maybe 10 meters while hiding behind a grassy sand bar. I got the other end and out of focus to boot. She agilely turned and ran up a hillside like a tank into the underbrush also gone in seconds.

We found tiger tracks everywhere.

We walked out of the park in the late afternoon sun. The heat of the day subsided into a tranquil night of stars with a nearly full moon.

Wild Trak Adventures is a great place to stay with clean rooms, great food, and you step into the local culture naturally. Johnny Sparshatt is British and partnered with Sitram and his family and they are in their element. John is a Bio jungle bug with a passion for big mammals, birds, spiders, bugs and life in general. They are prepared to take you out of your element and live to tell the tale. http://www.wildtrakadventure.com/

Upcoming; a raft trip, a five day trek, and an EARTHQUAKE!!!!!

www.davidcdagley.com