January 27th, 2023
I apologize in advance, but this post is going to be me gushing about elephants. You have been warned, please feel free to skip.
We grabbed a croissant and some coffee, checked out of our hotel, and were picked up the morning of Jan 26 by a van which would take us to “Elephant Nature Park”, apparently the oldest elephant sanctuary in Thailand.
We had met a Canadian couple at a restaurant in Bangkok who recommended this place to us as “the leading edge of ethical elephant treatment” with “great food, basic sleeping arrangements, and lots of opportunities to see elephants.” We looked things up online and to be honest, there was not a ton of information, but we decided to go for it.
We arrived around 10am and met our guide, Joe. It turns out the park has over 200 acres of land, and 160 elephants! All of the elephants have been rescued, mostly from illegal logging groups but some from tourist attractions where they offer elephant riding and/or perform forced elephant breeding (everyone wants to see baby elephants), some from street begging, and a couple from the circus. There are only ten males on the property and they are mostly kept separate across the river to prevent fighting.
Most of the females are on our side of the river. We wandered around meeting the various herds, and Joe told us their names, whatever he knew about their backstory, and anything he could about their personality. We saw a baby elephant with her mom and nanny who was getting hosed down by her mahout (or caretaker). She was just shrieking with delight and rolling around in the water and mud and drinking the water. Every time he tried to stop she would get upset and try to pick the hose back up with her trunk.
We also met a lot of elephants that had odd injuries: scars from illegal logging hooks, or broken backs /legs from forced breeding, or stumps for legs where they had stepped on a land mine. Many of the very old elephants had gone blind. It was very sad, but also happy to see that they seemed to have found friends in this place, and they ate so much good food, and by all appearances, they just searched for happiness all day long.
We stopped for lunch for a delicious vegan buffet. Max and I piled up our plates because we wanted to try everything. We sat on the lookout and watched the elephants some more. In the afternoon, Joe continued our elephant tour! He told us so many interesting stories and has been at the park for over seven years. The elephants always seem to be eating and have to eat about 150 lbs of food each, per day.
We checked into our hotel room and it is very nice. So much for basic accommodations! We think they must have done some upgrades during COVID. Then we went to the area where they have the rescued dogs. Apparently there are about 600 dogs here. We walked along all the kennels, and eventually saw a volunteer who asked us if we wanted to see puppies to which we replied “obviously??”. We got to play with around 25 puppies which was so fun. We stopped around 4:30pm because we were told it’s quite something to “see the elephants come in” whatever that means. No one gives us very detailed schedule information around here.
We got back to the viewing platform and were waiting around, then a herd of about 18 elephants rounded the corner and started splashing through the river toward us. An older British lady who has volunteered here for a bit explained that this herd, headed by an elephant named Kamala, likes to head into the mountains each day to forage for food, then come back for a meal and to sleep at ENP in the evenings. It was incredible to see them. They were all rescues as well, mostly from riding camps, but they seemed to have escaped with few injuries and were super healthy and strong looking compared to the ones who stayed around the enclosures. There was food left for Kamala’s herd placed in big piles, and they ran up and started demolishing the water melons, bananas, banana trees, and sugar cane.
Next, one of the baby elephants and her mom and nanny came out and got to finish off everything Kamala‘s herd didn’t eat, then go for a swim in the river. They looked so happy just playing and splashing and bathing themselves as the sun set. It was beautiful to watch. We went in for another delicious vegan meal, and sat out on the porch listening to the sounds of the elephants snuffling and snorting. It was very very peaceful.
In the morning, Max felt sick. We think it was a stomach bug of some sort. We went for breakfast and coffee, but he ate just bread and peanut butter. Today, we had a new guide named Chi chi. He brought us across the river to hike out to some highlands with four elephants, and when we got there we got to feed them watermelons and bananas! Two of the elephants were over 70 years old, and didn’t have many teeth and ate slowly. But one of them was an absolute eating machine, and the bananas disappeared as fast as Max could give them to her! We also met an elephant that was rescued with two others, and was found to be pregnant. Apparently that is the only way ENP ends up with baby elephants. Then we headed back for some more coffee. Our group walks so slowly, it kills me. Where is the hustle??? We have so many elephants to see!
Next, we went to cat kingdom which contains 2000 cats you can play with. I was definitely more keen to see elephants, but we had some serious cat lovers in our group. It kinda sucked to wait around there while trying not to pet too many cats - they all rub up against you looking for love, but Max and I are both allergic. We caved a few times.
After that, we got to do the sky walk, which is a big raised walkway that lets you see the elephants from one of the faraway herds without disturbing them. It is such a beautiful area to get to hike up into. The elephants were super cool, and we got to feed a few more, although Chi chi seems to know a bit less about their names and backstories than Joe did.
We made it back to check out of our hotel and go for another amazing lunch, but it sent Max over the edge. He decided to have a nap instead of doing the afternoon activities because his stomach really hurt.
Me and everyone else made two elephant cakes! You basically arrange elephant food on a huge circular platter, maybe 3 ft across. Nobody wanted to mix the “dough” with their hands, which was rice, bananas, baked potatoes, tarot and corn, so myself and a girl from Czech Republic stepped up. I shaped my weird mush into an elephant and a baby elephant shape, and other people chopped all the fruit and arranged it around the elephants to look like a sky and the grass. It turned out quite nice! We gave one cake to a newly rescued elephant, who is only 15 years old but very skinny becauseof her previous owner, and one to a grandma elephant who loves cake and soft foods. She shared it with her best friend, another grandma. It was fun to watch them devour our carefully crafted cakes haha.
Finally, we had just a bit of spare time, so Chi chi let us go back to a few of our favourite elephants from the day before. Then we all had to pile into the van and drive back to Chiang Mai. I was sad to leave! This stay will be a highlight for sure. There is an option to volunteer for a week which would be so cool to do someday! Or we could become mahouts for some of the elephants. The options are endless.
In Chiang Mai, Max was feeling better so we showered and went to an Irish pub for dinner. Unfortunately, after eating, he started feeling sick on the walk to some live music, so we headed to the hotel to relax and read our books. Probably a good decision. We have an early ish start to get to the bus station and go to Chiang Rai tomorrow! Hopefully Max feels better by then!
