“Come on we gotta go!”  my voice was straining with impatience as I implored my new Norwegian friends to follow me down to the river.  My new friends had worked themselves into a bit of a malaise as they sat on the porch of our bungalows in the heat of the day enjoying one of their favorite activities.  I was making a last effort to try and convince them they needed to come participate in my new favorite activity.  “It’s almost 10:30 and all the best elephants will be clean if we don’t go now!”  My enthusiasm was not putting any motion to their feet and seemed only to be producing more questions, no action.  I forget sometimes that new friends I’ve only just met 2 hours ago don’t know me.  These recent strangers have little reason to take me at my word when I suggest they REALLY need to see something.  I could see that there was about as much chance of me prying them away from their pursuit of leisure as there was of them stopping me from my pursuit of fun, so I shouted out directions as I left for the river in the off chance they decided to follow later.

 

Nepal – Elephant Bath Time – Images by Pete Niesen
 

 Elephant bath time in Chitwan National Park Nepal is not something to be missed.  For me it had become the cornerstone of my day, some visitors found it an amusing event to check off on their sightseeing bingo card of Nepal, I saw it as a free ticket to one of the best water parks ever.  Each day the Elephants are lead down to river for a bath after a morning’s safari tromp through the jungle.  The elephants carry a platform of swaying tourists piled on their backs through the hot and muddy jungles so as you might imagine a bath is  a welcome relief.  At bath time all harnesses, straps, blankets, and tourists are removed and the elephants enjoy an hour of splashing about in the river.  The mahouts use river stones to scrub various parts of these giant beasts while tourists and village children splash about with the elephants in one big brown swimming pool of fun. 

Once in the river the elephants will obediently lower their heads allowing people to climb up their face, using their trunk as an elevator. Once you are solidly perched on their back they will unleash a fire hose stream of water at you.  If the spray doesn’t knock you off then the elephant will demonstrate just how puny we humans are by making a small twitch of her shoulders that never fails to toss tourists and village children alike into the river.  Once you regain your feet in the river its important to remember to laugh with your mouth closed because any minute a jet of water will be fired at you from the trunk of some nearby elephant who is committed to making sure the people get just as much river bath as the elephants do.  The river is no place to linger, its best to get yourself back up to the high perch of an elephants back quickly.  Anyone caught at water level is an easy target for marauding village children astride the juvenile elephants who are intent on scoring the most points by blasting tourists.   Occasionally an elephant will kneel and roll over on her side allowing you to fling yourself across her back like some cartoon character draped over an enormous barrel, then she will sway and lumber to her feet and the battle continues atop your mount. 

 The village people and the elephants never seem to tire of the game and it can continue for an hour or more depending on the number and stamina of the visitors willing to play.   The river current is slow in the shallows and the marsh muggers (small subcontinent crocodiles) don’t dare approach when the elephants are in the water so for an hour or two one section of river becomes the best water park on earth.  And when its all over there is a convenient thatch hut on the bank with cold beers waiting…the perfect end to a bath.

 My Norwegian friends did finally make their way down to join the raucous, but not until the following day. I of course attended elephant bath time every day I was in Chitwan and had the good fortune to make friends with 2 of the elephants with the best aim.  By day three my elephant and I were able to pick off tourists at 5 yards with a single jet of water.  Rarely did I have to resort to jumping from my elephant onto the back of another to fling a tourist into the water, but sometimes I did anyway.  For 3 days in the jungle I was the most well bathed I had been my entire time on the subcontinent.

I know many of you have come to follow this blog for its wealth of greta parenting tips so here is another one.

 Good Parentling Note #37 – Kids are reluctant to take baths, but not with elephants!  I think this is just one more good reason to keep an elephant in the yard, or at the very least a communal elephant in your neighborhood.

 Link to full gallery