elephas maximus by moonlight

i am in thailand for fall break. i was in bangkok for the first few days of my trip, and now i am staying by the beach about an hour outside phuket, in the southern part of thailand.

it is quiet here. i am staying in a simple wooden bungalow, about 20 yards from the beach. tomorrow i will take a boat to the similan islands. we will snorkle and explore the islands, and spend two nights on the boat.

last night i went walking along a dirt road near the bunaglows. there were no streetlights, but the sky was clear and the moon was almost full, so it was not hard to find the path. along the roads were fields with palm trees, and sometimes rows of rubber trees. i saw no people. after walking some time, i noticed something in a field to my right, about 30 yards away. i looked closer and realized that i was staring at an elephant eating in the field. i then heard something moving in the plants on the other side of the road. walking a bit further, i saw another elephant eating palms, not more than ten yards from me with no fence or barrier between us.

as i understand it, the people here keep domesticated elephants. there are lots of places where tourists can ride an elephant through the jungle, and i suppose the elephants are mainly used for this purpose (perhaps others?)  i'm not sure how their owners keep track of them, but they seem to roam more less freely. at night, they put large piles of palm leaves into the fields for them to eat. the workers at the bungalows tell me that elephants often come down to bathe in a nearby spot where a river meets the ocean.

i have no idea how to approach an elephant properly, but i couldn't resist moving closer to them. i walked up to one, speaking in calm tones. it was picking up palms leaves with its nose and eating them. eventually i got close enough to pet its nose. it pushed its nose against my hand, and seemed to investigate me a bit. the nose is so muscular and so skillfully employed, i believe it could have easier knocked me down just using its nose if it had wanted to. but the elephant was not aggressive. nor was it very interested in me. it simply continued eating.

i approached the other elephant, and got a similar reaction. i imagine that these elephants were more of a curiosity for this human than humans are for these elephants.