Email subscribers: to see all photos and videos, click the title of the post above in each email. Your browser will better display media. Yesterday, we had one of the best experiences of our lives: spending a day up close with elephants in a sanctuary south of Chiang Mai, part of a Karen tribe community. We took a full-day elephant trekking and river bathing tour – joined by 2 people from France, 3 from Switzerland, and 2 from the UK. At the beginning of the drive from Chiang Mai, we watched an educational video about the mistreatment of elephants in Thailand for tourism, logging, and entertainment. Though logging was banned in 1989, it is still practiced illegally, and many elephants are exploited. They are often captured at a young age, separated from their families, and physically and emotionally abused to submission. Travelers should take extra care to visit ethical eco-tourism operators, and should never ride elephants or pay money to see them perform. Elephant Nature Park was founded in the 1990s to give sanctuary and a new life to abused and broken elephants trafficked in the entertainment industry. When they arrive at the sanctuary, they rehabilitate and form new families with strong, protective bonds. The sanctuary has also rescued hundreds of dogs, especially after severe floods in 2011 that inundated 65 of Thailand’s 76 provinces. Fortunately, similar parks have opened and there is an increasing focus on ethical tourism. According to our guide, the Thai elephant population is now steadily increasing. We strongly recommend taking an elephant trekking tour (we took this one) instead of visiting the actual park because is it highly interactive and you will closely bond with the elephants – our guide told us that you cannot get nearly as close at the actual park. We spent the day with three female elephants. The youngest, Aree, was four years old, and the other two were 30 and 39. Elephants’ life spans closely mirror our own; they can live up to 80 to 100 years old. FeedingWhen we first arrived, we spent about half an hour feeding the elephants sugar cane and bananas. They collect food in a stack in their trunk and then stuff their mouths and chew with thunderous crunching and slurping. Elephants spend 18-20 hours per day eating, as they can only digest 50% of their food, and only need four hours of sleep per day. Hiking (and more feeding)We all received a large tote bag filled with bananas to take with us on the hike so we could continue feeding the elephants. They approached us and eagerly held out their trunks for more food. If we didn’t immediately respond, they attempted to reach into the bags themselves to get it. We returned to the Karen community for lunch sans elephants (they were taken to another location for more food). The khao soi, stir-fried noodles, and fresh fruit were all delicious and vegetarian. After lunch, we changed into our swimsuits and were given traditional Karen shirts to wear. We then walked to a shallow, mud-filled pool to reunite with the elephants. It was a chilly day for northern Thailand, so the elephants were initially reluctant to get in the water, but they eventually had a good time. We splashed around with them for a bit, then walked with them to the river to bathe them. BathingRobert fully submerged himself in the cold water with the elephants while I took photos and stuck to wading on the sideline. Once the elephants were cleaned, they picked up dirt in their trunks, and deposited it on their backs. Elephants’ skin is an inch thick, and they don’t sweat, so they can overheat in the sun. By covering themselves in a layer of dirt, they protect themselves from sunburn. We made and fed the elephants one last afternoon snack – rice balls with mashed up bananas and grains (their favorite), and then began our journey back to Chiang Mai. We learned a lot about the elephants, and were sad to leave them at the end of the day. The Thai word for elephant is Chang (also the name of our favorite Thai beer). Elephants are extremely intelligent – they can recognize people and language and follow spoken directions. We were able to appreciate this by spending time with them and helping to care for them; riding, circus tricks, and forced entertainment are harmful to the elephants, so it is very important that tourists do not go to places where they are practiced.
Robert and I enjoyed our time with the elephants so much, and we strongly recommend this experience to family and friends. For more stories about the sanctuary’s herd, please visit this link: https://www.elephantnaturepark.org/category/elephant-herd/. You can support the park by donating to Save Elephant Foundation: http://www.saveelephant.org/donate/
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September 2018
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