January 24, 2019

For our last day in Chiang Mai I had something quite special lined up. And, as it turned out, it was just as amazing as I’d hoped.

We sprang up early and got our day packs ready for a full day out. We were headed to Elephant Nature Park. I’m on a ferry without WiFi right now, so I can’t confirm specific specifics, but I know that logging was banned in Thailand in 1989. This put thousands of elephants out of work. Unfortunately, these laid off babies were trained for trekking, tourism shows, and other work that was often just as detrimental to their health and happiness as logging. Through the whole transition, Elephant Nature Park (ENP) was created by a woman who had a dream to help these gentle sweet giants. It was slow at first... and the elephants still didn’t quite hold their place in the humans’ hearts as they do now. But eventually, ENP has developed into an oasis wherein elephants can enjoy the relaxed and profound lives they’ve always deserved. Though there are dozens and dozens of elephant “sanctuaries” in Thailand that claim to be nice to their residents, that’s not actually the case very often. Choosing where to put our money was a very important task. And after visiting ENP, I’m sure we chose the best possible place to do so. 

An ENP van swung by our guesthouse and picked us up early that morning. We rode about an hour and a half north of Chiang Mai and into the countryside, all the while picking up other visitors like us. As we were getting closer to the park, we started having elephant sightings! We were getting excited.

I’ll tell ya this, I had NO idea how big of an operation ENP was running out there. When we arrived we started to see just how monumental it had become! There were over one hundred employees, maybe two hundred! All running around taking care of certain sectors; guest transport, elephant care, hospitality needs, tour guides. I didn’t even know before we got there that ENP houses over 300 hurt doggies from all over Thailand! They also care for dozens of cats! So there were vets for all of these animals in addition to all of the elephant care techs. This was massive. 

SO many visitors were there with us, I don’t know why I thought our van was the only van bringing guests. We were 4 of about 100 guests. They split us up and gave us the run down of the whole show.

First we would feed the elephants. Stay behind the red line, WASH YOUR HANDS, don’t trick the elephants, and remember that be baby prefers watermelon over bananas.

Feeding them was a trip! We all reached out with bunches of bananas, melons, pumpkins and the big ladies would loop their trunks around the prizes and shovel them down the hatch like it was a handful of skittles. So easy. They loved it! We loved it! Every day those girls can eat 10% of their body weight, so this was just 1 of many feedings for the day. We were happy to be a part of breakfast.

Next, our sweet guide took us to meet a few choice girls. She told us all of their rescue stories. Some were so heartbreaking. A few of the girls we met were over 60 years old... they were grandmothers! They’d been dragged all over the country, beaten, and forced to work without commission for decades. We met a sweet girl who still wore a cast on her leg from when she stepped into a trap. We even met a lady who’d had her right front leg blown up by a landmine in Myanmar. Their stories were heavy. But they were safe and secure now. 

(No male elephants were in the park area that we visited. The males are too aggressive and honestly don’t wanna chill with the ladies. They’re solo bros, they live across the river! Sometimes they sneak over...)

We met many ladies who had best friends. We met some who’d volunteered to be nannies for rescued orphans! They were all kind to us.

We had lunch after our first little tour around the grounds. Lunch was all vegetarian, of course. It was displayed on a 30 foot long hot bar. We slammed down so much food. That sounds aggressive reading it back now... but we seriously ate like ENP residents. It was DELICIOUS. 

Next, we met more elephant girls. And we met a naughty toddler. She charged for us a couple of times... once it was because a tourist had her umbrella open! Baby was just curious!

Each elephant in the park is assigned a mahout. A mahout is the elephant’s human. The mahouts stuck with their elephants all day. They know each other very well. We were lucky to see one human bathing his companion in the river! She was HUGE, the biggest girl in the park. She stood there happy as a clam while he asked if she wanted more water! She always did, and she’d open her mouth and (seemingly) smiled as he flung bucket fulls of water on her tall back. Eventually she toppled over! He took the opportunity to splash all over her! It was darling! 

Then she was done and she left! Bye!

We saw some feeding, some dirt bathing, and some splashing around. All the while our guide was teaching us about each animal and her history/care. It was awesome to learn about how that kind of operation is handled.

One other thing, the dog section of the park was just so wonderful. I saw at least ten doggos with special back wheel contraptions designed to help them get around after being hit by scooters etc.. They were being walked (and sometimes ran!) by volunteers who come from all over the world. Some volunteers even opt to adopt dogs they meet at ENP and bring them back to their home countries!! Is that not amazing!?

*cries* Then time to leave. 

It was a great experience and something everyone needs to see if they’re in Chiang Mai, I’d say. Hopefully the way people think of these incredibly intelligent creatures is changing with time.