Animal Heaven

Loading watermelon into the truck
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We just got back from a 2 day adventure at Elephant Nature Park located an hour and a half north of Chiang Mai in the Mae Taeng Valley. We've been trying to figure our how to explain this place, but really can't seem to find the words. It truly is one of those places that you have to see for yourself to believe it.

We had no idea what to expect heading up to the Park, having heard great things about the lady who runs it and seeing all the brochures and photo albums filled with people having one-on-one contact with the elephants in the travel agency, we thought it would be a pretty cool place to go see some elephants.

We were running out of the water like a scene straight out of JAWS

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Before we left the city, we stopped at a market and our proceeds went to buying a few truckloads of watermelon and bananas for the elephant's lunch. As we neared the park, heading along the bumpy dirt roads, we passed a few other elephant trekking places and our van passed within inches of elephants carrying tourists on their backs.

Upon arrival at Elephant Nature Park, we were greeted by a really friendly Australian lady, who led us around the park for the day. She told us all the facts about elephants, like that yes, they do indeed, cry tears of sadness, don't like to be petted, they do not "dance" - the swaying you see in zoos is to keep circulation going because they are living in captivity where there is not enough room to move around in (just to name a few).

Now that's a lot of watermelon
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They feed the elephants once a day with all the food bought with the money paid through tourism. Elephant Nature Park is a 100% non-profit organization and strives on donations, volunteers and tourism alone. Feeding time was great and it was amazing to be able to look an elephant in the eye while feeling it's trunk wrap around your hand to get the food. Man, do they eat! We were giving them full watermelons and bundles of bananas like it was nothing. Elephants only digest 40% of what they eat. Cruel to think that the elephant was made that way being the biggest walking animal on the planet, so you can only imagine how hungry they are in poor living situations. 500 baht ($15) per elephant worth of food a day. There are 39 elephants at the park. It might not sound like a lot but I assure you, this is A LOT of money for Thai people to pay every day on "merely an animal."

Just walking into the Park, Kevin petting a baby
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Washing the elephants was one of the coolest things I have ever done. We were a very small group (8 people - there are usually around 25 in a group) so you can imagine the mayhem of 15-20 elephants splashing around in the water with only a few other people (us) and their mahouts (full-time elephant trainers). We were a bit outnumbered... and outsized. The elephants seemed to really enjoy getting scrubbed down - they have a very thick skin and you need to scrub really hard to get the dirt out of the cracks. Two elephants started fighting/playing and we had to run out of the water like it was a scene from Jaws. It was a little intimidating having an elephant plop down at your feet ready for a rubdown. They are very unpredictable. We were charged by a baby elephant a few times while there. You either run or you stay and try to stop them (where you will be mauled) - hmm, let me think... we ran. They really just want to play and run after you.

Max, the tallest elephant in Asia. He has a lot of back problems and wounds from trekking abuse
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Lunchtime (for us) was delicious! The food was so amazing there. They have the nicest live-in cooks. We ate with the people in our group and the volunteers that live there for months at a time. After lunch, I was drinking tea watching the bamboo rafts float down the river when a cat swiped at my hand, startling me and causing the entire mug of HOT tea to pour all over me. When you go to a place where you're hands on with elephants all day, it's weird to think that you get hurt by a cat and not the 15,000 pound creature. I had an ice pack on my stomach for half the day, but don't worry, I'm fine now.

Lunchtime!
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They show you a documentary about the owner, Lek, Elephant Nature Park and Thailand elephants. It was the msot awful thing I have ever seen. For a country that seems to regard elephants so highly (they are all over EVERYTHING you see here), the abuse of the elephants is horrifying. Every elephant in Thailand that is used in the tourism industry (shows, trekking, etc.) has been ripped away from their mother and been beaten with sticks with nails on them since they were at least 4 years old. In order to "train" the elephants, the Thai people pen the elephant up, binding their legs and beating them non-stop for days until they are beaten down into submission.

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Lek, this little Thai woman has started such a wonderful project to save Asian elephants and let them live happily in the wild. She doesn't turn any elephant away. After this video was released exposing Thai elephant bruatilty, she has had many death threats and had to go into hiding. When they couldn't kill her, they went for her next softest spot, injecting her favorite elephant that she nursed back into health as a baby when nobody thought it was possible with arsenic. Other than that Thai culture does not believe in putting animals down, but beating them is ok, apparently. One of the elephants at the park's foot has been blown off from an old land mine, another was in the trekking industry so long that he has severe back problems and wounds (elephants are not built for carrying heavy things on their backs). Another great thing about Elephant Nature Park is the amount of dogs and cats that Lek has taken into her care, there are dozens of them all over the park who were badly abused and neglected. They are the gentlest dogs (although very loud and tend to walk into your room early in the morning - haha).

"Most people get hurt by elephants when they throw caution to the wind trying to get a great photo."
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We were the lucky two that spent the night at the Park. They put us up in this insane treehouse suite. We had mosquito netting, no hot water, a treehouse lookout, the whole nine yards. The views were incredible at night, we seemed so much closer to the stars and you would think there was an elephant sleeping in the room with you, the sounds were so loud at night. We were even greeted by an elephant at our doorstep in the morning - no mahout in site - just a tad intimidating. It was indescribable.

Washing with a mahout
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We hung out that night with all the volunteers, drinking and playing Pictionary. They were all from either Canada or Australia and were volunteering for a month or more. We got some great travel advice for our next stops in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. You would not believe these people, they have jobs and they still travel 3-5 months a year. Wow.

The next day, after the early morning run-in with the elephant, we had breakfast and headed on a 2 hour walk with the elephants with some of the mahouts. Oh, you know, just another day walking a foot away from an elephant in Thailand amidst the most beautiful scene you could imagine. Sparkling river, beautiful green mountains, elephants running wild.

They'll sneak up on ya
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We took on the volunteer's duties for the day as we had already done the whole tour thing. The Thai massages are really coming in handy now after carrying so many huge bags of fruit! Kevin and I really wanted to be a part of the cause for the day, not just laze around like we could have done. We also had made friends with the volunteers and it didn't seem right watching them slave away as we drink tea and lounge around, so we definitely got our hands dirty working for the day and washing and feeding the elephants a few more times.

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All-in-all, it was an incredibly eye-opening experience. We have so many things to say about this place that I can't put down into this blog. Writing this just doesn't do it justice. You have to go there and experience it for yourself. Instead of going and riding an elephant, where you sit on its crumpling back, go to this wonderful place where you can look an elephant in the eye and find out the truth of what is going on with the diminishing Asian elephant. Don't just go for a day. Stay a night or two or three. Or volunteer for a month. I know it's something we will never forget.