Fred washing Princess

After breakfast we meet our small group which is Sara (English), Markus (Danish) and Tiffin (French) and us.  We also meet Mr Tree who is our guide for the day drive and he drives us to the jungle lodge where we will sleep tonight in hammocks.

On arrival there is a group there already who trekked yesterday and are seeing the elephants with us today.  We are doing the elephants first and the trek tomorrow.  It starts with Mr Tree explaining what the Mondulkiri Project does.  In his own words from their website:

"Welcome. My name is Mr Tree.  I have signed an agreement with Bunong indigenous elders to rent a large area of forest close to Sen Monorom to protect it from logging. This area is now Mondulkiri’s newest elephant sanctuary.  I hope you will come and visit the Mondulkiri Project.  We offer you several jungle trekking options. We also provide opportunities to see elephants in the wild and plan to start an elephant breeding program.  This is a community project, with monies raised being used to protect forests for our elephant sanctuary and to support the Bunong people with employment, medicine and food donations to help preserve their cultural traditions."


Its a fun day and we meet the two elephants, Sophie and Princess, get the chance to feed them, watch them feed independently in the forest and later to help bath Princess.  Princess is so called because she is lazy according to Mr Tree - she won't take bananas with her trunk - we have to place them in her mouth, and she won't wash herself so either the tourists or her mahout have to do it!  Sophie on the other hand is more independent and washes herself daily which is important to keep their skin healthy.  Sophie was previously used in the logging trade and Princess to provide elephant rides for tourists but both will now remain in the jungle with the project until they die.  


In the evening we have a lovely dinner, play cards and other games then settle into our hammocks at about 9.30pm.  Its a weird experience and we hope we will sleep.