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Published: July 31st 2008
We're now up North in Chiang Mai which has lots of pretty temples and monks wandering around!
Spent two days and a night at the Elephant Nature Park - a sanctuary for abused elephants. It is amazing!! The elephants roam freely and it is a natural environment for them, the mahouts reward good behaviour instead of traditional ways of training elephants which is punishing and abusing them. In hilltribe villages, trekking camps, etc all elephants go through a ceremony when they are young which involves trapping them in a small cage (a crush) with little sleep or food and the locals stab them with big sticks with nails on the end to break/crush their spirit so they will be obedient. At the nature park they are trying to raise awareness of this and prove that elephants can be taught without the cruelty.
The park was brilliant and very relaxed. Whilst there we fed the elephants (they eat a lot!!!) and bathed in the river with them! On one occasion two excited young elephants ran into the river play fighting, heading right in our direction - we had to make a quick getaway!! All the elephants seemed very happy and
were smiling and laughing a lot!! At the park they have an elephant who is believed to be the tallest in Thailand - 11ft!! He was called Max and was at the park because he was taken to the streets of Bangkok for tourism and was hit and injured by an 18 wheeled truck. There were also some cute babies (some had been born at the park) - their parents were extremely protective of them and huddled round to protect them!
Our home for the night was a hut in the jungle! The bathroom window was huge with no glass (basically the bathroom was outside!) and in the back garden (the jungle!) roamed a host of elephants, buffalos and other jungle creatures. Luckily the many dogs who lived at the park took it upon themselves to patrol the huts to scare off the snakes!!
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Kateypops
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Thats nearly made me cry about the elephants :-( Sounds like you're having lots of fun. keep the photos coming. stay safe my lovelies xxx