Lampang Province-Elephant Nature Park

Rough housing...
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Went to the Elephant Nature park in lampang. It’s in the jungles of north Thailand atop a beautiful mountain. One of the top highlights of my trip! Amazing. The center is run by a lady name Lek. She is working to save what’s left of the Asian elephant. Up close and personal with these animals doesn’t even describe. National geographic did a documentary on her and how she is trying to change the way these animals are trained. She has some baby elephants that are learning through positive reinforcement. However changing the culture of Asia is a very large undertaking. I watched the doc while there and was shocked to learn of what happens to these animals.

Feeding , They are like dogs!
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Want to know how the elephants learn all those commands? They go through a torture called the Crush pin,  at around four years of age. They basically rip these elephants from their mothers. National geographic filmed some raw footage . It was horrific; I almost couldn’t sit through it. I’ll spare you the details in writing. Both farm and Tourist camp elephants all are taught this way. Not all, but most of the tourist camps treat their elephants like crap. Why is it people go to Africa and see the elephants out in the wild, take their photos and are happy with the incredible experience they just had. But here, people make these animals drag their fat Asses around all day and perform stupid tricks.

Yes, thats me scrubbing a elephant.
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Ok, Ranting I know.. They have rescued around 40 elephants from some unimaginable situations here in Thailand.

So, moral of the story, if you come to Thailand don’t do any of the Damn elephant treks.

Even after learning of what happened to the elephants that were there, it was a magnificent day. Got to feed and give baths had a great lunch and met a new friend. Sara from Toronto, she is heading to Chaing Mai also, we plan to meet up the following day.

I included lots of pics!