Travels in Thailand: Elephants!

Yesterday was tigers, today elephants. Today was an experience I will never forget. Janina booked this excursion from home and she did a great job finding the perfect one. Everyone said that we had to ride elephants when in Chiang Mai, but it just didn't seem right to do that, so Janina found the Elephant Nature Park. The drive to this was about an hour up into the mountains outside of the city. We got picked up at our hotel with a couple from Charlotte and a family from Ohio. On our drive, we watched a video that explained the history of elephants in Thailand and the mission of the founder of the Elephant Nature Park to create a sanctuary and rescue elephants that were mistreated due to the tourist industry, logging in Burma or land mine accidents. She acquired the land and started the reserve in 1995. Today she has 32 elephants. Some are severely injured, some were orphaned and rescued. She brings them all to the reserve, cares for them and gives them a beautiful environment and freedom to live. The oldest elephant is 80 years old, and the youngest only 2 months.

We learned about the elephants and had an opportunity to feed them in the morning up on the porch. Two elephants came to greet us, one was blind from being mistreated and the other was her best friend who always stays right by her side. Next we went down and walked among the elephants and saw the natural family groups that they form. They gave us rules for walking by elephants like stay on the side or in front of them- I think the one that made me a little nervous was when our guide said if I say run, you have to run. Not to sure what that was all about and luckily we didn't have to find out! Later that day, we went down to the river and helped to give them baths. We all got buckets and tossed them on the elephants as they played in the water. Once again, we returned to feed them again before departing. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience. It is so nice to know that people like Lek exist in the world. In addition to the elephants, the reserve houses 400 dogs, rescued from life on the streets in the city and from the floods in Thailand. Many roam around and hang out with the elephants and others are housed in enclosures. All are fed, played with and loved. Once we got home, we were really hot and tired so we enjoyed the pool and happy hour with our new friends from the day. Later that night we went to a nice local restaurant called Hot Chili and then called it a night. No plans for tomorrow yet- we decided to play it by ear and take advantage of a day with no itinerary.