roganjosh

Yesterday I got to hang out with 30 elephants at the thai elephant nature park outside of Chiang Mai. All of the elephants have been rescued - some because they were too abused or injured to work in the logging or trekking industry anymore, some because they were orphaned. The stories of where the elephants have come from are pretty sad, but the park itself is fantastic and all the elephants seem to be happy to have the free run of their new home. Every day tourists and volunteers turn up to meet and feed the elephants, who are remarkably fussy eaters! You can hand a piece of pumpkin to one of them, who’ll curl their trunk around the food, chew it a little and then toss it aside to reach out for some delicious watermelon or cucumber!

The feeding was pretty hands (and trunks) on, but the highlight of the day was when we followed all of the elephants down to the river to wash them! We splashed in to where the elephants were lying down, threw buckets of water over them and then started scrubbing them down with brushes. After enjoying that for a while the elephants haul themselves out of the water and back up the banks to get good and dirty again in the mudbath! The mud keeps them cool though, and acts as a sunscreen for them. The younger elephants are just like enormous puppies, jumping on each other and barging their way around the pool. The elephants are so quiet when they’re walking, and we were so close to them, that if you concentrated too much on taking a photo you’d suddenly here someone saying “look out” and turn around to see a one ton elephant about to brush past your shoulder.

Seeing the elephants playing with each other and their mahouts was fantastic, and so much more fun than going on an elephant ride where your only interaction with the elephant is to be sitting on them. Most of the elephants have suffered some major trauma in one way or another, but it’s great that the park’s founder, Lek, has managed to find a place where they can enjoy life and they’re cared for. Visiting for a day was great but I think next time in Thailand I’ll be signing up for a week’s volunteer work! It’s hard to think of a better day out!

(Chang is thai for elephant)

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 12:52 am and is filed under travelling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.