I love elephants so, naturally, it’s been my lifelong dream to do a Guinness record on the back of an elephant. However, I never thought it would actually happen until I visited Thailand this January.
The Thai people are really into elephants! Elephants are adored and revered here. These largest of land mammals used to work in the forests hauling timber, but since that activity was banned, hundreds of elephants have ended up in elephant camps where their upkeep is paid for by giving tourists rides on their backs. The elephants are very well cared for and quite accessible. In one out of the way camp, I was allowed to play a game with a baby elephant where I pushed her and she pushed me back. The only problem was that nobody told me how to end the game and she ended up pushing me down a hill!
A couple of weeks ago, I went to one of the largest of these elephant preserves, the Maetaman Elephant Camp in Changmai, and proposed the idea of attempting to break the record for the most squat thrusts in a minute on the back of an elephant. A squat thrust is an exercise in which you start off in a push up position, legs fully extended, pull your feet under you into a squat, and then push your feet out again into the push up position. The owner of the park, Anchalee, didn’t bat an eyelash. She thought my plan was superb and, in fact, she arranged for me to come back to the camp the next day to do a practice. And that is the difference in a nutshell between the U.S. and Thailand. At home I’m considered a lunatic, here I’m looked upon as a visionary!
Of course, my main concern was that the elephant might be uncomfortable with me bouncing around on top, but the mahouts assured me that the elephant wouldn’t mind in the slightest. They said we could easily attach a platform to the howdah, the wooden chair that the tourists sit in. It would just be a matter of finding an elephant that could stand still for a full minute and they chose a gentle giant female named Kam Mee for the job.
I told my friend, Udar, the good news and the next day we arrived at the camp with a platform. The mahouts, all from the Karin hill tribe, were intrigued by the project and within minutes we had the platform attached to the howdah and secured onto Kam Mee’s back. I hopped on and Udar timed me for the minute and counted the number of squat thrusts. Everything was going fine until Kam Mee decided to shift her weight to one side and I almost rolled right off!
Since then I’ve done several more practices and Kam Mee has improved tremendously. We make a great team. We’re going to attempt the squat thrust record in a few days and people have been reminding me that, if we’re successful, I should petition Guinness to send two certificates – one for me and one for Kam Mee. I’m all for it, but I know that Kam Mee is far above wanting mere name and fame. And that is why, to celebrate our anticipated victory, I’ve arranged to give my patient elephant partner something much more meaningful to her – a full cartload of bananas and sugarcane!
