Day 23, Year 4: Love Those Asian Elephants
Date: Friday, November 14, 2008
Weather: Sunshine Mixed with Pouring Rain
Location: Admiral Marina, Port Dickson, Malaysia
It was a long and tiring day, but it was totally worth it to be see the Asian elephants at the Kuala Gandah Elephant Centre. The drive there took us four, not three, hours but that did include a stop for lunch. We drove north through the center of the Malaysian peninsula and enjoyed seeing the countryside. Most of it has been developed into palm oil plantations, and although they are beautiful and productive, these plantations are the very thing that has put the Asian elephant on the critically endangered species list. So it was very special to be able to spend an afternoon with them “up close and personal” as they say on the Centre brochure. When we arrived it was absolutely pouring rain, so we headed to the visitor center to view a video explaining the issues affecting wild elephants, their dwindling habitat, and relocation efforts. But our plan was foiled by a faulty video projector. So we, and a number of other people, waited out the rain under cover. On Fridays, 2:45 pm is feeding
time, and right on cue, the rains stopped and the sun came out. We tromped through the mud to go see the elephants in their enclosed pasture area. There were six elephants in the enclosure. Cek Mek and Mek Bunga, the Centre’s oldest citizens at fifty, were there, along with Mentopian, a thirty-five year old female from Myanmar and Abot, a teenager from Johor Bahru at the southern tip of the peninsula. These elephants are well trained and are used to capture the wild elephants that have to be brought to the Centre. We watched the elephants in their enclosure, watched the guides mount the elephants and ride them out to the river where they bathed them, and then we got to feed them (watermelon and papaya), pet them, and go for rides on their backs. Asian elephants are much smaller than their African counterparts. And because of that, they seem much more approachable. I still jumped back a few times when I would put a piece of fruit on an elephant’s tongue and the mouth started to close. But after a few tries, you learn that they are gentle and not going to take off your hand! And since half of the visitors today were under the age of ten, those of us “over ten” had to look brave. As the last activity, we were all invited to join the elephants in the river. Due to the rains, the river was muddy, the water level was high, and the there was quite a current. Mark and I decided to skip this last activity and spent the time watching a baby elephant with her trainer. She was a real cutie but had quite bellow. Once acclimated, she will be translocated to the national forest. Just as in Borneo with the orangutans, even the national forest is threatened with logging, but it seems the government here has better control of logging in a national forest than was true in Indonesia. For the elephants’ survival, let’s certainly hope so.
On the way home, we thought we were taking a short-cut, but in actuality; we ended up on the expressway going around Kuala Lumpur. It was six lanes of bumper to bumper traffic going at a snail’s pace. I felt like I was trying to drive from Boston to Cape Cod on summer holiday weekend. But we did get to see Kuala Lumpur (affectionately referred to as KL by the locals here) from the highway. It is a city of almost two million people and miles of tall buildings in not so great shape. Singapore
has set a new standard for squeaky clean cities for us and KL just didn’t measure up. But we can say that we spent two hours in traffic there on a rainy, rainy afternoon. As the sun set, the rains really started coming down and stayed that way all the way back to Port Dickson. We were shocked when we got to the marina to find that it hadn’t rained here at all.
Tomorrow we head south to Melaka. But first it is definitely time for a good’s night rest.
 |
| 081114 Day 23 Pahang, Malaysia–Kuala Gandah Elephant Center |
