Elephant Tales from the Phu Wua Mountains by the Mekong River

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December 2009

Elephant Tales from the Phu Wua Mountains by the Mekong River

South East Asia Volunteer News - December 2009

Written by sven

Friday, 27 November 2009 10:18

Elephant Tales from the Phu Wua Mountains by the Mekong River, extraordinary travel and volunteer experiences.

If you like to be trapped in an uncomfortable tree top platform from mid afternoon day 1 to late morning day 2, with no chance of climbing down if you happened to need to, then Phu Wua is for you!
If you are interested in wild elephant trekking rather then the tame elephant riding around the beach resorts in touristic south Thailand then Phu Wua in the far northeast is definitely for you!
If you want to try hot Isan/Lao cuisine made by the local villagers and not adapted to the tourist palate then the Kham Pia village experience is for you too!

When we, Openmindprojects, first discussed with villagers how to try to attract visitors to their village with the help of volunteers they listened to us with incredulity. Why on earth would any ‘farangs’ (foreigners in Thai) want to come to their village, plant and harvest rice under a merciless sun, much less trek in the mountains looking for wild elephants, that are dangerous and a threat to their crops? It would take two years before they agreed it may be a good idea to try.

Our volunteers have been going to the village teaching English to children together with the local teacher, whose English was not much better than that of the children and they have been teaching the adults to, to speak English to tourists, to guide them on treks. They have been making trail signs, English brochures, post cards and even a website to promote sustainable and community based eco tourism. Quite some tasks for the volunteers but mostly they loved it.

Today Phu Wua is an eco destination still in its infancy, but mentioned in the Lonely Planet, and therefore all the more alluring the adventurous eco tourist pioneers. Boonlerd, the local head of the project, has redecorated his old traditional style house to welcome eco tourists and volunteers.

The Phu Wua Mountains are located by the Mekong River over looking Laos on the other side of the river. It was once a stronghold of communist insurgents during and after the Vietnam War or the ‘American War as it is remembered in Indochina. They were to a degree supported by their cousins in Laos, on the other side of the river, by the communist Pathet Lao (Lao People) movement that later came to power and still is.

The mountains are the last remaining part of a vast forest complex that used to be the home to animal species like the highly endangered Java rhinos and Siamese crocodiles, maybe as late as into the 1970s they could be seen there! There are still trees named after the rhinos. Tigers would prey on the villagers’ cattle in those days and the ferocious and awe inspiring Asian bison, the gaur, that served as model for the worldwide successful Thai energy drink, Red Bull, Krating Daeng, was still hunted for its meat. Until today a herd of wild elephants has survived the human encroachment, poaching and logging and may be spotted in various parts of the forest and on top of the mountain depending on season.

The first step towards wild elephant watching from a roughing it overnight in a simple tree top platform is getting to the remote mountain temple, which is a challenge as such finding the temple hidden in the mountains. You can just about get there during the dry season with a 4 wheel drive.

Once there you are rewarded by meeting with the Buddhist monks and a chance watching some wild soft shell turtles in the nearby ‘nong’, small lake.
After a short rest Bunleerd or one of the monks may take you to the clearing in the forest where the monks give bamboo shots and salt to the elephants and where they have built a number of tree top platforms, each just about housing 2-4 persons. These platforms were however not built for big ‘farangs’ but for lightweight and agile monks and rangers!

Climbing up to the platform in one of the trees, up the wooden steps nailed to the trunk, with no safety net, is not a task for the faint hearted, but you are rewarded with a nice view and a good chance of watching the elephants coming to feed on the food and salt placed there.

‘There they come! The first one is a young female, scouting out the terrain for the others, is it safe? No humans around?’

They arrive just a half hour before we arrived and climbed the trees, lucky for us, good for them. Don’t know who would be most scared, we or they.

Staying overnight, watching unknown dark shadows stalking down under the trees makes for a nice memory and an exciting story to tell friends but it sure is on the roughing side of the traveler’s grade 1-5 scale.

Morning arrives, and a beautiful sunrise is met with a large number of bird songs by species unknown to us but recognized by our local, experienced trekkers.

The fact that the shadow passing by last night and by some of us was believed to be a tiger but actually was a wild pig doesn’t diminish a most different of nights, as unforgettable as uncomfortable☺ There is no bed, no chance to visit a bathroom, so not a good idea to have an extra beer before sleep! But a sure chance of watching these the last wild elephants in their natural habitat.

A year before, two of he major elephants bulls fought it out and the 60 plus veteran lost in a fight that raged over several miles and left uprooted tree trunk as evidence of this fight between the giants of the mountain.

The rangers found the giant’s decomposing body in a creek. It took many of them to get it out, take it to another place where it was left for some two weeks before the proper Buddhist funeral and cremation of the body. Our volunteers were invited, an amazing experience! They were also invited to help with the cremation, a somewhat unpleasant task considering the state of the long since dead body.

Our friend, the hermit monk on the mountain brought some remaining bone parts, the skull, ribs, and tusks to his home cave in the forest
He told us how one day the younger elephant bull who had won the fight , smelled out where he thought his rival was hiding. He arrived, made several unsuccessful attempts to get into the cave to finish the old elephant off while our friend was anxiously watching from on top of his cave to see if there would be anything left of his home…..

There are many other captivating stories told about Phu Wua by the elders some about the Vietnam War. Difficult, unimportant, today to know on whose side they were in those days. There is still an old wreck of a US aircraft that crashed on the mountain, probably on its way to the secret and illegal bases that the CIA used to have on the Lao side of the Mekong River. The elders also remember the rhinos and tigers that once roamed the mountain forest but are now gone, as a result of war, poverty and overpopulation. Our volunteers regularly come back with new stories to tell, about their experiences and that of the villagers. You should go there to find out!

How to visit, go to www.wildelephanttrekking.com or www.openmindtraveler.com .

If you want to volunteer go to www.openmindprojects.org

By Sven Mauleon, the co founder of OpenmindProjects, an aid and development organization, with projects in SE Asia

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