Thailand Part II: Elephants

On to part two of our Thailand adventure!

Tom, our guide

On our second day in Chiang Mai Kaelin and I went to an elephant sanctuary where we took part in an elephant mahout training course. Baan Chang Elephant Park is a private sanctuary that primarily rescues begging elephants and elephants from logging camps and tries to provide them with a better life. They work with the recognition that while they provide the elephants with the best care possible, it is still not an ideal environment for the elephants. The owner's dream would be to release the elephants back into the wild, but there is currently nowhere for the elephants to go that is protected. As such, he continues to put the money that he makes back into the park, buying more land for the elephants and building structures to protect them from the heat and the rain. It was nice to go to a place where it was obvious that everyone there really loved and cared for the animals and wanted nothing but the best for them.

Om nom nom

Anyhow, we started our day by getting a longer version of the above information and then moved on to feeding the elephants. As a group, we were provided with four giant baskets full of sugar cane and fed them by the handful to the elephants. 

"Can I have some more please?"

After we ran out of sugar cane we were given a lesson on how to get on and off the elephants and then what commands to give them to get them to turn, go and stop. We sort of got the impression that what we were saying had no real impact on the elephants, since they seemed to know the drill and looked like they were just paying attention to their mahouts anyhow. It was still fun to pretend like the elephants were listening to us though.

After our lesson we had lunch, which was in a pavilion that overlooked where the elephants were getting their second bath of the day. I doubt I will ever have a lunch like that again.

"And here is your shoe."

After lunch we went on our bareback elephant ride:

Elephants are big and far away from the ground

We were seriously worried that the mahout was going to get stepped on while taking these pictures

Once we got back we got to help give our elephants a bath. The water was absolutely filthy, but it was so much fun to be washing an elephant that I didn't really care. They also had shower facilities for us to use afterwards, which helped a lot.

So that was our day with the elephants. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience and something that I will never forget.