Just about everyone that comes to Chiang Mai does the same tour - trek through the jungle to see some hilltribes (namely the longneck tribe that slowly adds rings around their necks to force them to grow very long), a one-hour elephant ride, and a one-hour ride down a river on a bamboo raft. Though the trekking would've been cool, we couldn't help but think a photo-op with the longnecks would have been a bit exploitative, the elephants are notoriously mistreated, and Steph made it clear she had no desire to ride a bamboo raft. So, we decided it'd be better to spend our money where elephants are notoriously well-treated - at the Elephant Nature Park.
Elephants have always played a key role in Thai culture. They are revered and even worshipped here. They were used as tanks during wars and as bulldozers in the logging industry. When logging was banned in Thailand about 20 years ago (reduced forest land increased the intensity of flooding during the rainy season), many elephants became jobless with some of them transitioning into the tourist industry. This is when Elephant Nature Park founder Lek stepped in, providing free medical treatment for sick or injured elephants and slowly rescuing as many as she could. Today, ENP is home to 32 Asian elephants (and at least as many dogs). You don't get to ride them or watch them play soccer or paint, but you can feed them, bathe them, and love on these big, smelly, gentle (usually) creatures.
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| Steph at one of the "snack" sessions |
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| Surprisingly they didn't really seem to enjoy bath time |
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| I think this guy was trained to lay in the river and use his trunk as a snorkel, but it was still cool! |
It was an amazing experience to get to hang out with these rescued elephants for a day. We fed them two "snacks" - huge buckets of fruit - so had plenty of time to interact with them. I think my favorite part was sitting up on the viewing platform just watching the elephants interact with each other and with their mahouts (handlers). We heard amazing stories of elephant-elephant bonds, like when a blind elephant (tortured by former owners when it refused to work after it's baby died) showed up at camp and was immediately befriended by a resident elephant, who stays with her constantly. We also heard amazing stories of elephant-mahout bonds - apparently elephants are like dogs in that they live to please their caretaker. There is one elephant that is newer to the park and hasn't made any elephant friends yet, but won't leave the side of her mahout. Whenever he takes a nap, she stays beside him and watches out for him.
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| Or maybe my favorite part was the "elephant kisses" we got from an elephant named Hope |
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| Hope suctions her slobbery trunk to your face and blows snot all over you |
On the more depressing side of things, we watched a National Geographic documentary about the horrible torture that is still used today to break an elephant's spirit so it will become obedient. They lock it in a cage for days, torturing it and starving it, then drag it around with it's legs tied together until it follows obediently. It's especially saddening considering what good memory elephants have - ensuring they'll never forget that experience. Under Thai law, wild elephants are protected but domestic ones are classified as livestock so they aren't protected at all. Their numbers in the wild are declining very fast and few people seem to care. If you're looking for a rewarding vacation, come to Thailand and volunteer at the ENP for a week and lend a hand! Anyways, enough of that depressing stuff, maybe some pictures of baby elephants will cheer you up. So cute!
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