Huay Pakoot: a village experience

The early morning wakeups, I thought, would be a hassle. Yet with the scenery, and the somewhat vocal roosters, it was a joy to wake up to the beautiful village with a warm breakfast not too far away. After breakfast in the peaceful village, depending on the day; Ele Grass Cutting and other events (e.g. Basket Weaving, English Teaching and base duties), or casually trekking through the forest with 5 wonderful elephants and their mahouts would occur at 8am.

What may seem like a barrier to an outsider, the language (Packinyo) proves an excellent tool to get well acquainted to your host family- even if there are a few miss communications every once and a while. This, however, would have been my favourite experience within my time spent on the program. Being at the forefront of learning and developing a handbook to learn a new language is phenomenal, and sharing this experience with a bunch of diverse individuals only inspired us even more!

Not to neglect the elephants, though as they are, of course, wonderful. From your first day feeding your elephant bananas, to health checks every second day, it seems as if there is an instant connection. The beauty of walking with them comes not only from Tong Dees’ ridiculously slow pace, but the time that you then get to spend with the other volunteers and their somewhat distressing Elephant Baby Voices. Hiking, personally, was a breeze. If you are a little unfit, it may be a struggle, however no one (in my time) couldn’t finish a hike. They generally span for 2-3 and half hours, with every second day being data collection. This would involve, observing their behaviour in terms of trunk touching from one Ele to another, eating, defecating (always exciting to prod poo!) and who they spend most of their time with while foraging naturally.

While the Ele’s favourite meal seems to be musah-toh (pounded chili)- from the Mahouts perspective; as a volunteer you start developing an understanding of the plant biology to really double think when that answer is given. Rather, you quickly find that Va Su (Bamboo) and Boo Kay Sah (Corn) is on the menu. Luckily, this information has been offered to be analysed by a behavioural analyst, and along with our own interpretations- we are able to determine whether one Elephant is spending more time alone or with a particular Elephant instead.

In between data collection, there is a lot of free time where you can choose to visit top shop to buy 2 baht cookies and other food, or rather spend time with your host family and help them cook: it’s really up to you!

My time spent in Huay Pakoot was unforgettable, unimaginably rewarding and overall one thing I would definitely tell others to do. It’s easy to leave a footprint on such a recently developed program, are you ready to leave yours?