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Published: June 27th 2008
We left Bangkok by train which took us, very comfortably, overnight to Chiang Mai in the North of Thailand. We'd signed up to volunteer for a week at ENP, near Chiang Mai. The park was setup 13 years ago by a Thai woman called Lek. It is a sanctuary for elephants of all ages and backgrounds. A majority of them are residents of the park because they have been victims of abuse and cruelty in one way or another. Lek owns a majority of the elephants, although some are on lease.
The Asian Elephant is fast becoming an endangered species with their numbers dwindling due to their services becoming surplus. They were originally used in the logging industry, which was made illegal in 1989. Since then many have become redundant, either working in trekking camps, begging on city streets or being sold to Burma where logging is still legal. The park is a safe place for the elephants to live a happy and free life in an environment similar to that in which wild elephants would live.
We learnt a lot in our time at ENP about the morality of 'tourist' elephants and the cruel ritual each elephant goes
through to become domesticated and learn the commands needed for elephant trekking, street begging, painting and working in the circus. We watched a DVD of the ritual, which is called 'Pha Jarn' and involves the elephant being squeezed into a cage in which it cannot move. It is then tied up and beaten literally until it has no spirit left at all. It is speared by sticks with nails in the end in the face and its sensitive points behind its ears. This can go on for days or weeks until it learns specific commands. It was one of the most disgusting things we have seen and cannot believe that it is legal.
This is not something that ENP advocates, but it tries to educate its visitors in their new techniques of elephant training called 'Positive Reinforcement'. This involves the elephant getting a treat when it follows a command. This is equally as effective, but is not cruel in any way. All of the elephants at the park are not trained for anything other than to move them to various locations. The park assures everyone that every elephant owned by the park will never work a day in its
Feeding Time
Mike feeding baby Faa Sailife.
The park was at full capacity, holding 34 elephants. Most of the elephants are orphans and have formed herds of their own families, making the park even more like their natural habitat. The park is also home to 50 dogs and 21 cats who roam the park freely and are not at all bothered by the presence of free roaming elephants. Most of the cats and dogs have been abandoned on site and were clearly very well trained as we did not see a single cat or dog poop anywhere!
Each day consisted of the same schedule, beginning with morning chores. Contrast to the pleasure of being up close to elephants the daily chores were at times quite grueling. There was, however, something strangely satisfying about the hard labour that made it fulfilling. After a hearty breakfast each day at 7am, we had to report to the volunteer area where we were assigned various chores. These ranged from cleaning out the elephant poo from their shelters, feeding platforms and riverside, mucking out the cows and buffalo, emptying bins and sorting out recycling amongst others.
The chores began at 8am and went on until 9.30am each day.
The heat made the chores much more difficult and within minutes we were usually dripping with sweat. They were all necessary jobs to the daily running of the park and were
After the morning chores we would begin a morning project. The morning projects ranged from such tasks as cutting grass, building work, varnishing, making signs and weeding. These tasks were really enjoyable and were our chance to leave our own individual mark on the park. At ENP there are no health and safety or building regulations to follow for each of the tasks - everyone just did the best they could and hoped it worked out. For each task we would have to scavenge for raw materials to use. The emphasis is for the park to re-use as much as possible and recycle whatever it can.
During our time at the park we helped build a new tool shed, put up a new fence, tried our hands at tree surgery and created various signs. One of the more demanding jobs involved weeding one of the corn fields which resulted in lots of scratches over our arms. Another was grass cutting (grass = 1 metre long and 2
inch thick corn stalks), which was an arduous task each morning and consisted of cutting down the corn stalks with a machete - Rambo style! This task was usually completed by Burmese migrants, but they had just been arrested and deported so the task fell to the park volunteers. The purpose of the grass was to feed to the elephants each night. With an average elephant only sleeping about 4 hours a day, they each spend 18 hours a day eating - consuming about 1/10 of their own weight a day, which is a lot for a 10,000 lb animal!
By the time the morning projects had been completed, pick-up trucks filled with elephant food arrived. We had to ferry all the food to a preparation area where it was treated and sliced into manageable mouthfuls. Breakfast for the elephants was served at 11.30am and consisted of a variety of fruit including watermelon, pineapple, cucumber, pumpkin and bananas. It's safe to assume the elephants received their 5-a-day!
The elephants always lurked around the platform at about 11am knowing that breakfast time was near. Feeding the elephants was great fun as we really got to know some of the
Mike building a wall
How long will it stay up? elephants personalities this way. One of the elephants named 'Hope' (one of the younger elephants) was quite fussy at times and he sometimes only wanted to eat bananas!.To feed the elephants we placed the fruit into their trunk, which they would curl into their mouths. Or we called the command 'upper', and the elephant would lift up its trunk and open its mouth so that we could place the food directly onto its slimy tongue.
After the elephants breakfast it was our feeding time, which was just before bathing time. This took place at a river which runs through the park and is a great way for elephants to cool down, have fun and get a back scrub. The elephants become weightless in the water except for their trunks. They float about, roll over and the younger elephants play with each other. It was an amazing experience to be so close to the elephants, scratching their backs and washing behind their ears. We had to be aware of the babies, who, although playful, could be dangerous as they can get carried away.
The elephants skin is surprisingly tough and is about 1 inch thick. They apparently love a
Poop Scoop
Victoria cleaning out the cow and buffalo sheds. good scrub and water fights at the river were common with the Mahouts (elephant handlers) as well as the elephants themselves.
When they return from the river, the elephants always covered themselves in mud. They flicked it over themselves with their trunks, with the younger ones rolling around in it. The mud acts as a natural sun block and helps keep the elephants cool in the heat. It did also occur to us they're just making themselves dirty again despite our earlier efforts!
After bath time each day, we would work on further projects which were usually the same as the ones we began in the morning but the groups rotated to take on a new task. They lasted for about 2 hours and after this the elephants had yet another bath time at 4.30pm, where the earlier bathing ritual was repeated. Usually we chose to be spectators for this session, which was not quite as hands-on, but equally as fun to watch as we had a birds eye view of the whole bathing area from a tree-hut.
At 5pm there was a mad dash to the showers to ensure that we could clean the grit, grime
and sweat of a days work off before the water ran out. Showers were ice-cold and so, as you can imagine, did not take long! However after a long day in the sun, the cold shower was quite refreshing and we adapted to it quite quickly.
The accommodation on the park that we were assigned was quite basic. Our lodging consisted of a bamboo hut with two single beds covered by a mosquito net. Air conditioning took the form of a fan, which was much needed at night. Despite being basic, the accommodation was fine but did take a couple of days to get used to. I (Mike) had a particular problem with the huge spiders that seemed to live in the bamboo in our hut. Some people said they were poisonous, some said they were not but they certainly would not die in one swipe so we opted to leave them so as not to piss them off. They were about the size of medium sized hand opened out and moved like lightening! Not the best room mates. Despite this, and the simplicity of the accommodation - being surrounded by incredible views and waking up to passing elephants
was more than enough to make up for it.
Breaking the week up from the daily schedule we took part in two trips. One was to a local school and the other was a trek to Elephant Haven. The local school was immense fun. We were herded to a classroom - the girls from the class linked arms with Victoria and literally dragged us in. There was no teacher in sight and it was left to us to decide what we wanted to do. The children in the class were a variety of ages and wore scout-style uniforms. Classes are based on ability and not age so there was a mix from around 10 to 15 years old. At first we were not sure at all what to do then another volunteer (Jade) suggested we play hangman using English words. They seemed to really enjoy the game and there was never being a lack of pupils wanting to participate.
After an hour or so of this we played a fun (although, probably not educational) game of 'Duck, Duck, Goose!' We all sat in a circle and one player would walk round patting everyone on the shoulder calling 'Duck'.
Tree Protection
Victoria tying a blessed cloth to a tree for protection The person they tapped calling 'Goose' would have to chase them around to the starting position and if caught they would swap roles. We played this for quite a while in the end, with each round being greeted by a roar of excitement!
By the time we came to leave, Victoria had been declared one of the girl's best friend and Mike had been declared 'old looking'. Although a couple of rounds of volleyball before our journey back soon proved them wrong - hah!
The following day, at lunch time, we began our trek to Elephant Haven. Elephant Haven is exactly that - an area where the elephants are able to roam free for the evening, just as they would in the wild. In the park they are usually chained up at 5pm until 7am. This is for their own safety as they would cause untold amounts of mischief if left alone without their Mahouts. The local farmers would not hesitate to shoot them if found grazing on their crops.
Our trip began with a 4km walk to a river, but this leg was done without elephants as they got scared by a car and ran off
Elephants at Haven
Hope, Jokia and Mae Perm roaming the jungle at Haven. back into the park with their Mahouts in pursuit! Once at the river, we waited for the Mahouts to retrieve the 5 elephants that were coming to Haven, before making our crossing. The elephants walked across but we took a rickety bamboo bridge. On the other side we walked a further 3km through the jungle and were treated to lush green vistas en route.
We walked in single file amongst the elephants, stopping occasionally so they could have a quick chew on some grass as we made our way deeper into the jungle. The route was quite small and it was surprising how elegantly the elephants negotiated the terrain. Once we had reached our destination the elephants were free to roam as they wished. Hope was visibly elated as he came right by the camp and decided to roll around in the mud right beside us.
The camp was quite small and our beds were mere blankets surrounded by mosquito nets on a straw-mat floor. In the evening the Mahouts provided the entertainment, performing various village songs as well as some western songs on a home-made drum and some other wind instruments. Before bed, our main guide, Pom,
talked with us around the camp fire about the history of some of the elephants and the park itself which was very engaging. At this point we were surrounded by the sheer dense blackness of the forest with only the occasional distant shrill of the elephants and constant buzz of insects for company.
The next morning, after a breakfast of toast and fruit we had to go and find the elephants. They never wander too far but the Mahouts knew where to look by following footprints and the elephants poo. They knew which elephant was which by the type of poo and the size of the footprint. We only walked for about 10 minutes before we found them.
On the journey back we each were given a piece of blessed orange cloth. We had to select a tree and tie the cloth around it. This would protect the tree from being cut down, acting as a deterrent to over-zealous farming. If this tree is cut down, then the Thai's believe you will have bad luck for life. Much of the surrounding forest is being eaten up by farming and agriculture, destroying the elephants natural habitat and this is
Time to cool down
with a healthy dose of mud! a method of trying to preserve as much forestry as possible.
On our way back from Elephant Haven, before reaching the river, one of the male elephants, Phu Pa, decided he wanted his wicked way with one of the female elephants - Jokia. He wasn't bothered by his audience and decided to try and mount the poor (blind) Jokia. This was not the first time we had seen Phu Pa in action and his skills with the ladies are legendary at ENP. He was brought in specifically for his 'reproductive prowess'. On this occasion, Jokia managed to escape. She was clearly not in the mood for any elephant lovin' that morning.
The trek continued back over the river and to the road where we walked back to the park - with the elephants this time. It was one of the highlights of the trip as we were walking side by side with Mae Perm, Jokia and Hope. They entertained us all the way back to the park. Hope stopped half way, deciding that he wanted to drink some of our water. He lifted his trunk and let us squeeze the bottle into his mouth. Further on, upon reaching
a muddy puddle the elephants also enjoyed sucking up the water and splashing it over themselves to cool down. Thus soaking everyone in the way. It was a fantastic walk back.
Final plaudits must go to the chefs at ENP who are amazing. The food was always as yummy as it was plentiful. The variety was exquisite with lots of thai curries, fresh fruit, rice, gorgeous hot dough balls and the absolute best mango sticky rice we had ever tasted. Our plates were always piled high and we always left feeling very satisfied.
By the end of our week we were exhausted but wished we could have stayed longer. We learnt so much about the elephants during our time at ENP and had got to know a few of their personalities quite well. We will miss the elephants and couldn't recommend the park higher to anyone interested in visiting.
Thailand Part 1 is nearly over. The markets and temples of the laid-back Chiang Mai are what we will be exploring over the next few days. A thai massage will also most definitely be on the cards. After that - next stop, Laos!
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mum
non-member comment
wow
O my god how lucky are you guys,it looks absoulutly amazing. Can see what hard work you've put in but well worth the experience,you are so lucky. Don't like the sounds of the size of those spiders though,don't know how you coped. Photos are fab,soooo jealous. Love you loads. Mum and Gary xxxxx