Elephant Nature Park - Day Trip

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An amazing day spent feeding the elephants, bathing with the elephants and being educated about the plight of the elephants in Thailand.

Since logging has been banned in Thailand most elephants have been effectively "out of work" and forced to work in elephant camps where they give tourists rides all day (the seat on their back is actually really bad for them as they have weak backbones), paint pictures and do unnatural routines, or even beg on the streets of cities. Domestic elephants in Thailand are subjected to a ritual called "pajaan" which means "to crush". When the elephants are still babies they are forced into a bamboo trap where they are poked, prodded and beaten with wooden sticks with nails in the end for a whole week. At the end of the week the elephant's spirit has been "crushed" and the elephant is then able to work in a camp, because he has lost his spirit and can be ordered around easily. We watched a video of the ritual and it really is heartbreaking and doesn't make any sense for a country who seems to love elephants so much.

Lek, who is the woman who set up the park, has made it her responsibility to rescue as many elephants as she can from this horrible life. She usually has to buy the elephants for a lot of money. There are now 38 elephants at the park, each with their own individual, and usually very sad, story. Most of them aren't related but they have made their own little families - the babies now have "aunties" who love them as much as their mum's do! An indication of how loving and intelligent elephants are.

One elephant called Jokia was blinded in both eyes by her owners - they fired a slingshot in each of her eyes when she refused to work. She only did this when she lost her baby because she was forced to work when she was pregnant - she gave birth while working on a slope and the baby rolled down the hill and died. Obviously Jokia was depressed after this and didn't want to work any more. When Jokia arrived at the park after being rescued by Lek, Mae Perm, another elephant, knew straight away that Jokia was blind. Mae Perm immediately became her "eyes" and has looked after Jokia ever since.

Lek's dream is for all elephants to be released back into the wild. This isn't possible at the moment because there just isn't enough land for them to live on.

Anyway, we just wanted to let you know about the Park and what an amazing place it is to visit. If you come to Thailand please don't ride the elephants or go to the shows or feed any elephants you see on the streets. Elephant Nature Park is all about the elephants - go here instead!! xxxxxxxxxx

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Photos

Mae Boon and mahoot
Mahoot's are the people who look after the elephants from morning til night. The elephants have a mahoot each and the mahoots have similar personalities to their elephant!

Hope
Hope has to wear a bell so people can hear him coming, because he's very naughty and chases after you!!

pregnant ele'
can you see her bump?!