Ride Bikes, Not Elephants: Surin Elephant Festival & The Rescue Of Dao Tong

Chantelle and I are sitting here this Monday morning at Elephant Nature Park sipping tea and watching the elephants walk slowly by, the air smells of kitchen spices and the squeaking and trumpeting of elephants is the only sound to be heard. We are reflecting on the most memorable week of our lives and life couldn't be better.

We arrived in Thailand on November 8th and managed to catch up with old friends Jo, Chet and Roy (and of course Shadow) before riding the bus out to ENP on Monday the 12th. It was so good to be back at the park but also a little nerve racking as we didn't know if and when we would be able to rescue an elephant. All we knew is we would be able to go to The Surin Elephant Festival and would be meeting Lek there. So we joined up with volunteer group D and actually had a really great time working for the elephants again, picking up ele poo, refurbishing the mud pit (and being involved in a seriously fun mud fight), driving around the valley to cut grass and collect hay for the eles to eat. We also had a couple of visits to the Elephant Nature Park Dog Sanctuary to give some of the 350+ dogs some well needed interaction (ENP Dogs really needs a lot of support, please visit their Facebook site for more info).

After working and getting around the park we caught up with Darrick and Jodi who were excited to tell us we would be coming back from Surin with an elephant with the funds we had raised, this news was obviously really exciting and before we knew it we were on an overnight bus (13 hours) to Surin. Accompanying us were volunteers Jo, Sumit, Caterina and her family, ENP Office staff Mindy and Laura, filmmakers Sike, Adam and Tossaporn, VC Jack and 4 amazing drivers.

We arrived early Thursday morning had a quick breakfast before heading out to see elephants performing at the festival. It was very hot, dry and dusty and I can only imagine the hundreds of elephants were suffering more than us as we had the option of sitting in the shade. We met Lek and Darrick right up the front of the crowds photographing the elephants, the PA system was deafening, the crowd was cheering and the elephants were performing tricks and being paraded in war garb. I expected to see lots of elephants, but I wasn't prepared to see just how calm they were. It was immediately evident that these elephants were being controlled not only by the mahout, but by sedative drugs. How else could they be so calm with all the noise, the pressure to perform and being surrounded by many other strange elephants. After a while on the field I wandered around the streets out the back of the stands. It was here that I saw street begging elephants, I was offered many times to pay to feed baby elephants, to ride an elephant up the street or be photographed with an elephant in the street. All of this activity is perfectly legal in Surin and many tourists were enjoying the fact that they could do all these activities. It was a really confronting scene and I was actually too shocked to be upset at the time.

The Grandstand performance came to an end around midday and we all piled into the buses to grab a quick lunch before heading out to see the elephant that Chantelle and I had been dreaming about for nearly 2 years. It took our 3 buses 2 hours to make the trip out to the small village and when we did finally arrive to meet the elephant, Lek asked us to stay in the bus so she could set up the film crew to shoot our first reactions to meeting her. Nerve racking is truly an understatement!

After waiting in the bus for 5 minutes we walked out into a dry field to meet a beautiful elephant of around 30-35years old, she walks with a terrible limp as her back right leg has been broken in the past (most likely from logging). The most immediate feature I noticed about her though was her beautiful golden eyes. We began feeding her cucumbers, watermelon and bananas while the film crew filmed and everyone else shot photos, but I didn't notice the crowd, all my attention was on the elephant, even my camera was in its bag (those who know me know my camera is like another limb). It was such a beautiful experience just sitting in the field watching her eat fruit and veg which she has probably never eaten before knowing that in just a few days she would never be put to work again.

Not too much is known about the elephant except she used to work in trekking and logging and that she was still walking 6 hours everyday to earn money for the owner and his family. Her name was Sai Rung (Rainbow). I say was her name because Chantelle and I had intended to rename her if we could, the main reason being we didn't want her to have to answer to a name that would remind her of her tormented past. We walked her down to the small river to take some more footage and her mahout (who was also her owner) seemed to be quite gentle with her. It was obvious though that she needed to retire from a working life and the she was up the top of the list of elephants with crippling injuries. Although it was fantastic to meet her, I was still a little worried about getting her onto the truck and the long journey back to ENP. So after a super long day we headed back into Surin for a quick dinner and a short sleep.

We awoke at 4:30am on Friday to venture out with Lek, Darrick and crew to see some of the elephants being prepared for the festival. We met up with one of our fantastic supporters Lisa (who drove out from Bangkok to be with us for the rescue). We drive out to an army base where some of the festival elephants are kept overnight. The most shocking site was a baby elephant chained up to an older female. At first glance they appeared to be mother and child, but upon closer inspection it was obvious they were not related. The older elephant was not producing any milk yet the baby continually tried to feed. Both elephants were very frustrated and constantly circled each other, the baby trying to get closer and the older female trying to get away, it was like watching some sick dance. I had tears in my eyes behind my camera lens trying to capture the scene. It was one of the most emotional moments of my life.

We all went silently back to the hotel for a quick breakfast before heading to one of the most incredibly insane scenes I ever witnessed; The Surin Elephant Banquet. Officially there were 260 elephants invited to participate, this number however didn't include the unofficial street begging elephants. So there could well have been over 300 elephants involved. The set up for the banquet was quite simple, they had blocked off a street some 2km long and lined one side of the road with tables full of food. I imagined spectators would only be allowed to stand off the street behind the tables, the eles would then simply be able to stop at any table and tourists could photograph them safely from behind the tables. Sounds simple right? Hmmmm

We arrived early to try and find some good spots for photographs and footage, Lek, e Adam and Tossaporn had snuck out to the middle of the street roundabout and were the only ones in this fantastic location, I ran across the street in between some festival dancers to join them, we had to keep our heads down before the elephants arrived to keep our position secret from officials. After about 30 minutes the elephants started walking down the street one by one, dressed up in ceremonial garb and looking suspiciously docile. At first it seemed quite organised, an elephant would eat a little food at one table and then slowly move down the street to another table. The crowd didn't move from the edge of the road and it was all going as I expected. We were getting some fantastic photos as Lek, Adam, Tossaporn and I were the only ones inside the roundabout which was the first stop for every elephant.

The first elephants led out were ridden by Master Mahouts, a term conjured up by the organisers to prove poaching from the wild had come to an end. Try telling that to the baby elephant we saw earlier that morning who had obviously been taken away from its mother, possibly from the wild. After these mahouts walked slowly by another group of 5 eles walked by each with a signature trait, 2 absolutely giant elephants, 2 elephants with tusks over 1.5m long and a white elephant (which was actually just painted white). After about 20 minutes more and more people were finding their way onto the street and into the roundabout and all of a sudden there were people and elephants everywhere. The crowd began moving amongst the elephants, street beggars would not let their elephants eat any of the abundance of free food as they weren't making any money, school children yelled furiously at passing elephants to take the food they were offering, tourists were riding on the backs of trekking elephants and I was smack bang in the middle of it all taking hundreds of photos and constantly trying not to get trampled. It was crazy.

We spent a good 2 hours at the banquet taking photos and speaking with mahouts and tourists. One group of baby elephants had terrible scars on their faces from a life of punishment and one elephant who looked no older than 1 or 2 had a massive fist size hole in its little trunk. Giant 3.5m tall elephants walked side by side with baby eles no bigger than Navaan. It truly was an incredible yet deeply sad site.

After getting back from the banquet we had to check out of the hotel and get on the road as it was getting quite late in the day, we stopped for a quick lunch at a road side diner before driving out to rescue the elephant. Lek, Darrick and Phyl kept driving to Bangkok as they had a plane to catch that night but everything was going smoothly. Sai Rung had her final walk with her previous owner from the paddock to his home where she was freed from her 50m long chain. It was the first of many magic moments to come. The truck arrived along with a group of Surin Project volunteers who tied up all the supports inside to prevent Sai Rung from swaying side to side, it was quick and efficient work and before we knew it Sai Rung was being led onto the truck. She had to step up about half a metre to get on the truck, her front legs weren't a problem but she was reluctant to heave her injured back leg up. I was asked to get behind her to push, I think it was more a case of encouraging her but it did work, she stepped up and was on the truck. She must have been nervous about what lay ahead and began pushing against the wooden beams with her head, I grabbed a heap of food and climbed down into the cabin to try and calm her down, she began eating and almost immediately forgot about everything else, I spoke to her quietly while the previous owner and our travelling mahout tied the last supports in. After about 20 minutes we were ready to go, the previous owner shook all of our hands and thanked us before he climbed down and out of Sai Rungs life. We were back on the road. It was 3:15pm on Friday the 16th of November.

The long journey back to Elephant Nature Park was probably one of the most memorable road trips ever, Chantelle, Sumit and I spent the whole 20 hours on the truck while the mahout (I never found out his name) Jo, Sike and Laura spent extended time on the truck too. We were mesmerised as the sun set on a flat horizon and were later awestruck as hundreds of shooting stars fell from the night sky, as morning came we woke with the sun as it rose over the northern hills, 2 hours later we tried to shade ourselves from the harsh morning rays. Sai Rung was for the most part pretty calm, she only became irritated when we stopped for dinner and breakfast, by 9am the next morning she was absolutely exhausted and was being rocked to sleep before bumps in the road would jolt her awake. She refused any water yet we bathed her continually during the day light hours. She ate a fair bit of food but by the end of the trip became tired of the sweet watermelons. It was during the journey that Chantelle and I thought of a new name for Sai Rung. Seeing that her transition from a life of slavery to a life of freedom occurred during the night we knew that Star would be part of her name, the other part of her name comes from her beautiful golden eyes. So we named her Dao Tong or Golden Star.

Needless to say we were all really excited to be driving up the windy road where ENP is located, even Dao Tong seemed a little more alert. As we drove into the park boundary everyone had to keep low otherwise the trees would have knocked us off, because of this reason I couldn't see the hundreds of people around the platform and vet area waiting for Dao Tong's arrival. I climbed down into the cabin to help Darrick and the mahout untie the supports so she could be released into the freedom that Elephant Nature Park provides, it was my last act to help her and as the last bond was cut she slowly backed out of the truck. Although she didn't know it, Dao Tong had taken her first steps into freedom from a life of abuse, neglect, punishment and torture. I was incredibly happy for her, Chantelle climbed down from the truck and we had a teary embrace (which Jodi managed to capture on film). I was amazed at how many people had turned out and happy that they could all see this event first hand. Hopefully being there may have inspired them to follow a similar path to Chantelle and I.

The next several hours were a bit of a blur. After everyone had taken a few photos of the scene we moved away to try and give Dao Tong some room to adjust to her new environment. Almost immediately Mintra came over to say hello, it was as if she actually knew her from a former life as she was squeaking away while Dao Tong was happily eating some fresh cuts grass. After some lunch we shot our last interview with Adam and Tossaporn. It's been a little strange to be on the other side of the camera but it's been an interesting experience and I hope they captured some good footage of the rescue.

The past few days at ENP have been really great, I've met some more fantastic like minded people that I'm sure will keep in contact with and perhaps even collaborate with in the future. Dao Tong is slowly settling into her new surroundings but I'm sure is still really confused about the whole situation, I've been for the most part letting her be and I've heard she may have already met some potential elephant friends. But I know settling in will take quite some time, she has been forced to work for over 30 years, chained, tired, hungry and alone. Now she is surrounded by 33 other elephants, has as much food as she can eat and can wander around 40 acres of peaceful environment. It would be like being released from prison after a life sentence.

Chantelle and I are staying at ENP for 1 more week to work and relax with Dao Tong. We were going to stay longer but after going to Surin and seeing how many tourists love to see elephants perform under horrible conditions, we feel we can do more to raise awareness about elephant torture, abuse and slavery and how people can help end this blatant cruelty to animals. We plan on visiting the Lampang Elephant Conservation Centre which Melbourne and Sydney zoos openly support. We also are trying to find the elephant camps that sold elephants to these zoos. I truly hope we are able to help create a change for the elephants in Australia, a majority of them have too little space and are forced to perform unnatural tricks for cheering tourists. If we really want to help the elephants of Asia we must create change at home in Australia, after all its the uniformed Australian tourist who spends their Asian holiday riding elephants, buying elephant paintings and feeding street begging elephants. Hopefully we can gain a little more insight in the coming weeks to help us spread the word about the plight of the endangered Asian elephant.

I'm unable to post any of my DSLR photographs from Surin or the rescue at this time as I can't load them onto my iPad yet, the pics shown below were shot on my phone :-) Stay tuned for the next post which will be a photographic journal of the whole experience.

I want to thank each and everyone who has helped and supported us throughout our 2 year journey, it's been a life changing experience and I can happily say that it's because of your support that Dao Tong can now live a life of freedom at Elephant Nature Park. I hope one day you can visit her and all the other lucky animals here.

Thanks for reading,

Matt Rousu