Elephant Nature Park

How exciting!  We get to see elephants today!  It seems like no one had a problem getting up out of bed this morning!  We met at our bed & breakfast's dining area and ate some breakfast and eagerly awaited our guide to pick us up.  Our host informed us that the Elephant Nature Park typically gets to Baan Orapin at around 8:30 so we ate and hurried to get ready.

Just as predicted by our host, our guide to the Elephant Nature Park, Earn, arrived at 8:30.  Already in our van was a couple from Italy and a girl from Hong Kong...we also had to go pick up one more couple from England before we made the hour and a half journey to the Mae Taeng Valley, about 40 miles north of Chiang Mai.  We settled into our comfortable van and then Earn showed us a video that was recently featured on Animal Planet regarding the plight of the elephants in Thailand.  Just 100 years ago...hundreds of thousands of elephants roamed Thailand.  Today...only a couple of thousand left.  The video also featured the Elephant Nature Park's founder and owner, Lek Chailert, and how she is working to change the traditions in Thailand in a desperate effort to save these beautiful creatures.  After watching the emotional video, we couldn't wait to arrive at the park to spend our money to help in any way we could.

Driving up a mountain on a small windy highway, we saw many elephant training camps and tourists attractions.  Tourists crowded the small highway, sitting atop these gorgeous creatures.  Though we can't place blame on these tourists, for they likely do not know what those animals go through for our pleasure, it is hard to stay objective as we make our way higher into the mountain to our gorgeous valley.

The Elephant Nature Park was started in the mid 1990s by Lek Chailert, a woman who is from the tribal villages of Thailand.  Lek grew up with elephants and has always had a strong love for them.  In the mid 90s, she got four elephants to rescue and since then she and her volunteers have rescued and helped countless elephants.  Today, her park is home to over 30 elephants.  Thailand has a very contradictory relationship with these creatures.  Thailand reveres them and prays to them, evident in all the elephant images around the country.  At the same time, they have become such a tourist attraction that these elephants are subjected to exploitation for tourists' sake.  It's a money-making industry and because of that, many people who are not used to elephants or have any training in caring for elephants have now gotten their hands on some elephants and they are suffering as a result.  In countries where elephants exist (India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, other SE Asian countries, parts of Africa, etc), there is a ritual whose name literally translates to "breaking the spirit."  People cage the young elephants in cages that they barely fit in, deprive them of sleep, food, and water, and literally beat them and "break their spirit" until the elephant becomes submissive to the human.  They leave this ritual with tons of scars and bloody marks on them - all in an effort to make the elephant a domesticated animal.  Well, Lek is trying to change all that.  Her money, her efforts, her park - all dedicated to rescuing elephants that have been beaten, used illegally in logging, used in circuses, etc.  There are no tacky tourist shows here, you can't ride on the elephants here (those horrible contraptions that you see up on the elephants' backs are terrible for their backs), they're not required to do anything here.  The only requirement - they roam free learning to enjoy their life as an elephant again.  Lek, a modest tribal woman, received money from a wealthy American from Austin, Texas to help her buy the land upon which the park currently sits.  There is nothing but green valley and a river than runs through the park.  Her hopes - to rehabilitate these elephants and lobby for enough change in the laws that one day those who practice animal cruelty can be punished accordingly and so that enough protected jungle and forest will be left so that she can one day release some of her elephants into the wild.  To read more about Lek, click here:  http://www.time.com/time/asia/2005/heroes/sangduen_chailert.html

We got to the park and were excited to see 2 of their newest additions - Chang Yim (Smiling Elephant) and Pha Mai (New Sky) - a one month old female and a 3 month old male just born at the park.  They made us scrub down, nervous that our mosquito repellants and sunscreen would harm the babies (it's unfortunately happened at another park).  We got to see the tiny hairy little babies (the hair lessens with age), but didn't get close enough to touch them as elephants are very familial and form tight herds.  The babies' aunties all crowded around the babies and protected them fiercely, and rightly so!

After exploring the park for quite some time, cameras clicking away constantly, we got to help the volunteers feed the elephants at around 11:30 am.  Each elephant has its own preferences - some like pumpkin more than watermelon, some like bananas more than pumpkins....each elephant's basket had what they liked.  We all spread out and started feeding the elephants.  These big creatures, as you can imagine, do not stop eating!  This is only one feeding in the multiple they'll get through the day.  They informed us that it costs the park and Lek around $250,000 (that's US dollars) to feed the elephants for a year.  After feeding the hungry elephants, it was time to feed ourselves.  Although not everyone at the park is vegetarian, they try hard to serve only vegetarian food.  This is because in addition to the 30 something elephants they have, they also have rescued countless cows and water buffaloes from the slaughter house, in addition to 70 something dogs (including one 3-week-old puppy), and a number of cats (and yes, they all live together in relative harmony).  So the lunch bell rang and the volunteers (many volunteers stay there for one week, two weeks, one month, etc) and us "day volunteers" scrambled for the lunch buffet line and we all ate happily.  The food here, just as TJ and Melissa remembered, was delicious - simple, but delicious.

With our bellies full, and some time to spare, Vanessa and Dawn went to the gift shop and got some things.  This was "good" shopping - the kind where you know your money goes to a good place.  All the money goes to the care of the animals.  The simple gifts all designed by volunteers and Lek herself.  Then...it was bath time!

We all ran to the river with the elephants and got in the river (don't worry...we were told all the thorough safety instructions before) to help bathe and cool off the elephants.  Buckets in hand, we all threw water on the elephants and got some amazing pictures in the meantime.  After all our hard bathing work, the elephants just roll around in the mud after ... not to be rude or anything but for elephants, mud is like a natural sunscreen, so they roll in it after getting bathed to make sure they stay cool and protected from the sun.  We had some more free time from atop a canopy-like walkway as we just sat and watched the elephants roam and enjoy their day.  This was also when the two small herds of elephants with the two baby elephants got to have their bath time.  We all ooohed and ahhed as the babies played and stumbled along the river banks.

Before heading into the conference center to watch the documentary about Lek and the elephants, Lek came and spoke to us and explained a bit more about the park and her projects.  Though this camp may cost a bit more than the traditional elephant camps with the tourist tricks, her money goes to rescuing elephants, helping them, and lobbying for better laws against animal cruelty.  It was so inspirational to hear her speak.  One Italian woman asked what the laws in Thailand were for those who participated in animal cruelty and for the elephants that remain in the wild, they are only slightly better off than those "owned" by people.  Those "domesticated" elephants are treated as livestock - like cows and chickens - and they are offered no protection under the law.  She even told us of a story recently where someone called her telling her that an elephant had been burned and that they needed her help.  Her and her medical team got to the elephant expecting some burns, but instead found an elephant that had over 80% of its body burned by a man who was so angry that the elephant wasn't doing what it was told, he doused the elephant in gasoline and then tried burning it alive.  When Lek called the police, she was basically laughed at.

The animals that you can encounter here all have amazing stories - from Jokia who was beaten and shot in the eye multiple times for not "doing her job" and now has been lovingly accepted by another female elephant who literally holds her trunk and tail to help her get around - to Hope - a young male elephant born in the jungle orphaned at only a couple of days - to a female that is one of the aunties of Chang Yim who had her foot blown off by stepping on a land mine in Myanmar.

We then all went into conference center and watched the documentary that was made about Lek and the park.  This was the second time that TJ & Melissa had seen this documentary (and obviously the first for Vanessa and Dawn) and it was just as hard to watch the documentary again as they even showed the actual ritual of "breaking the spirit", something rarely ever caught on tape.  We all knew we had come to the right place - this is where our money has been most wisely spent.  Vanessa went to spend more money at the gift shop while Melissa and TJ accompanied her.  Dawn wandered around the park taking amazing photos.  While Vanessa picked out a necklace designed by Lek, Melissa caught sight of the 3-week-old puppy, Moo Ouan or "Fat Piggy", and just cuddled with it.  Lek had just rescued this puppy the day before from a hill tribe that thought black puppies were "bad luck" and instead ate them.  So this puppy was very lucky indeed.  All the dogs at the park are actually up for adoption and some have even been adopted by volunteers and taken back to America, Europe, etc.  Melissa was exceptionally close to putting the puppy in her back pocket and just flying home with it!  Vanessa settled on a gorgeous elephant necklace - a small reminder of her new friends.

Afterwards, it was time for a second feeding for the elephants so we got to feed some of them again.  The power is amazing but what is more amazing - the dexterity those trunks possess!  They can pick up the tiniest things with their massive trunks, sensitive to every touch.

Some elephants hadn't a chance to get in the water yet as they were playing earlier so a few elephants decided to have their bath time after this feeding so we got into the river again and played with them.  We then just spent the rest of the day taking photos, enjoying the lush scenery in this little hidden valley, and petting the elephants.

We then, unfortunately, had to head back into the van and head home for the day.  We got home to the hotel, washed the remaining mud and gunk off our legs and then headed off to dinner right by our hotel, a restaurant right on the river's bank appropriately called Riverside Restaurant.  We ate delicious food while we got eaten by more mosquitos and then called it a night.

Today we might not have done a whole lot, but by far this may have been our most emotionally fulfilling (and of course sad) day.  We were wiped out.

Good night...