A trunk-full of a day.

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Woke up excited today for what we (correctly) anticipated being a highlight of the entire vacation.

The Elephant Nature Park
is where we booked our trip to Chiang Mai with, and the package we selected gave us one full day at the their park.

Their park, in short, is a conservation/refuge that currently has 33 elephants. Click the link above to find out more, as it is an amazing organization run by an incredible woman.

Anyway, their representatives picked us up with a small group of others, and we took the 1.5 hour drive to the park. In the van, we watched a documentary made for The Animal Planet that featured this exact organization. We learned how back in the day when Thailand did more logging, elephants were used as workers, hauling loads up and down the mountains. When Thailand banned logging, many elephants were out of "work". Many of their owners, in order to make money, have taken elephants to busy downtown areas as a way to beg for money. Not only has this proven to be dangerous for the elephants, they have been abused and beaten endlessly to learn "cute" tricks to promote tourists giving money. Additionally, we learned how the same tactics in beating elephants are used to train them to paint.

The elephant nature park does not support whatsoever the street begging and painting that elephants are forced to do. However, they take a neutral stance on places giving elephant rides, as long as they are not using hooks or force to keep elephants "in-line" (though it is hard to determine if a place is using these or not). These elephants eat up to 600 pounds of food per day and if their owners cannot obtain money to feed them food, they will die, so some touristy things like riding may seem wrong, but the elephants might die otherwise. However, the Nature Park does not offer rides, and hopes one day to release elephants who can live on their own, back in the wild, with government protection.


Okay, enough of the politics. We arrived at the park, a beautiful place with other animals also freely wondering around (water buffalo, cats, and dogs). With the 30 or so elephants, they have formed about 6 families. Two of the families have babies that are about 7 months old.

We first got acquainted with the park, its rules, and safety precautions. We then were able to touch some of the elephants that came to the feeding area, hoping to get some early snacks. After this quick introduction to the park and some of the elephants, we walked around the fields, where more elephants pranced around. Each elephant is paired with a person, called a Mahout. The Mahouts have a special relationship with the elephants, and are the ones responsible for them basically 24/7.

We were lucky to meet up with one of the babies as it's family was busy feeding. A lot of other tourists were around, as were many volunteers who pay to work with the elephants for several days to a few weeks. We weren't able to get much time, but we had the whole rest of the day ahead.

Next up, we got to feed another family of elephants. As all of these elephants were rescued from different situations, none of them are actually related, except of course the newer babies that were born while at the park. However, the elephants have all formed bonds as herds of 5-7 elephants each and would always be found together. For feeding, the elephants swing their trunks up to your hand that is holding fruit or veggies (watermelon, bananas, goards) and then bring the food into their mouths. The adults can and frequently want 10, sometimes more bananas at a time, still in the peel! Their teeth and mouths are so strong.

It was seriously a mesmerizing experience to be able to feed such huge, loving creatures. It was all about to get more fun when we heard we would next go into the river with some of the elephant families to bathe them. Knee deep in water, we each had a bucket to fill with water and pour on the elephants as they too stood in the water. We just had to be careful not to get stepped on! We were also given a brush to brush their skin. The elephants definitely seemed to enjoy the water bath in the heat of Thailand, but also love immediately getting dirty right after, as they go to the mud and cover themselves with mud and dirt... a natural sunblock.

One thing for sure at the park is, when the elephants don't want to do something, they are not forced to do it. For example, when they wanted to leave the water, they did, and when they wanted to go somewhere else, they did.

As the elephants rested in the shade, so did we, with a wonderful buffet style lunch. Some of the best food we've had, and a lot of vegetarian options for Staci. Elephants are vegetarians too!

We spent some more time feeding the elephants, and getting some one-on-one time with a family with the two baby elephants. The founder of the organization was there too, and she is such a friendly, warm-hearted person. During this time, both of us were lucky enough to get kissed by an elephant, so magical.

After watching another sad, but good documentary, we got another round of bathing the elephants in the water before saying goodbye to the babies again, one of them sleeping and snoring which was so cute.

This day was one of the best we had, and wish everyone, if they travel to Chiang Mai Thailand, will go to The Elephant Nature Park. Support Them! Save the Elephants!

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Photos

At the Park..
Hello Elephant!

Friends
An elephant and it's Mahout.

Family
Here, a baby elephant is getting fed, while mama keeps an eye over things.

Feed Me!
This elephant is hungry!

Staci gets her turn.
It was so fun to feed these beautiful creatures.

Cuteness
We got to pose with the elephants

Don't be jealous
Don't be jealous that I got a big wet kiss today..actually, be jealous, as it was the best kiss i've gotten from an elephant.

Bath Time.
This was a relatively shallow area where we could give these elephants a bath and scrub.

Goodbye Elephants.
Saying goodbye to the elephants at the park. We'll miss you!

Comments

[Mom/MD]

This was indeed a wonderful experience that you will remember all your lives! So glad you got to do this.