Day 5 - Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai Province

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On Day 5 we woke up early to get ready for our day at the Elephant Nature Park. It is a sanctuary for Asian elephants that began in 1995. The park is located in the rainforest of the Mae Taeng Valley. This park differs from other elephant tourism opportunities because it is a non-profit that aims to give tourist and local people an “eco-tourism experience of conservation and education”. Mike booked this day trip pretty far in advance because only a certain number of visitors are allowed in the nature park per day.

After putting on our bathing suits and “rainforest clothes” and packing bug spray, sunblock, cameras, and a clean change of clothes, we were picked up by our Elephant Nature Park guide, Earn (pronounced the way it’s spelled). We took the 1 ½ hour ride out of Chiang Mai to the Nature Park in a van full of Aussies and Brits. During the ride we watched a documentary that educated us on the park’s mission, founder, and previous work. We instantly loved Earn, our guide for the day. She is just about the sweetest, funniest Thai person you could ever meet. Her English was excellent and that really enabled us to learn a great deal from her throughout the day.


We arrived at the park after a beautiful drive through the scenic rainforest valley. There are 36 elephants living in the sanctuary (all but 2 of them were rescued from their lives as work elephants in tourist camps or as street beggars in Thai cities). We were greeted by elephants in the distance and about 10 barking dogs who have also been adopted by the nature park. We had an introduction to the park where we learned about the elephants, their previous life stories, and rules for our interactions with them at the park. We met the other people in our group for the day as well as the park’s staff and volunteers who will remain at the camp for an entire week for an eco-tourism vacation.

Around 11:30 we had our first opportunity to feed the elephants! We were introduced to them all by name (we were standing on a wooden deck/pavilion and the elephant sanctuary area was directly on the other side). Each elephant is trained with loved by their own kwan/mahout/elephant trainer. The kwan is in charge of his own elephant’s well-being and safety and thus, keeps all the guests safe as well. The kwan would tell us when it was ok to touch or feed his elephant. We fed them pumpkin, bamboo, and watermelon chunks from huge baskets with each elephant’s name written on it. Only the kwan is allowed to feed his elephant by the mouth; we fed the elephants by the trunk. I almost forgot - first we got elephant kisses!!! It felt like a slobbery, dirty vacuum on my cheek!!! Don’t worry, it’s all captured via photo.

We had an amazing thai vegetarian buffet lunch with over 15 thai dishes to choose from. These people sure know how to feed their visitors!!!

After lunch we watched the elephants in their fields for a while and then headed down to the beach to bathe them!!! Mike had a bucket and I was given a scrub brush and we entered the river with our elephant and her kwan. We had a very gentle old lady elephant. I was definitely scared at first that she would step on my feet and crush them, but alas, she didn’t do anything of the sort and her kwan continually gave us directions that allowed us to enjoy her company. She was so big!!! We couldn’t even get close to really cleaning her off. It didn’t help either that she was constantly throwing mud on her own back. After bath time in the river, we walked up onto a wooden, stilt pavilion and engaged in another discussion about elephant behavior and conservation. From this stilt pavilion we enjoyed the free-roaming elephant friends below and the beautiful mountainous views all around. It was more beautiful and peaceful than I could ever describe. I will never forget that amazing image.

For the rest of the afternoon we watched a documentary that showed us some of the elephant treatment in Thailand that has caused this park to become a necessity. The elephant population in Thailand has dramatically decreased over the past twenty years and the now endangered population of elephants in Thailand is at risk for extinction. We learned so much that I’m struggling to get it down in the entry….so you’ll have to talk to us about this life-changing day in the future.

We got a chance to meet the two baby elephants at the sanctuary after another feeding session. One baby was crazy over Mike and kept wrapping his trunk around Mike’s arm. Sooo cute! The babies are incredibly fuzzy and adorable looking. We spent more time enjoying the breeze and beautiful surroundings while watching elephants from the elevated stilt pavilion before heading back to Chiang Mai around 5 pm. The funniest elephant is often described as being “super naughty” by the staff and volunteers. She constantly runs away from her kwan and we got to watch as she repeatedly swam across the river (“elephant scuba”) until her kwan followed her and then ran back to the other side as soon as he reached her. Hilarious. That “super naughty” elephant is quite a handful. We witnessed this “naughty routine” two different times during our visit.

Mike and I have loved every day of our Thailand vacation so far, yet the Elephant Nature Park stands out (hands down) from all of our other experiences here. We encourage everyone to check out the website of this amazing place and we can’t wait to show you our photos when we get back.

www.elephantnaturepark.org

After showers and thai massages we went out for dinner and drinks with some Brits we me at the Nature Park. We knew they were young but, ha ha, turns out they were 18!!! We had fun sharing traveling stories about Thailand and enjoying thai food at the Night Bizarre near our guesthouse.

We went to bed around midnight, thoroughly exhausted from our best day yet.

-BK

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