Every city we've visited in Thailand offers adventure tours that include an elephant trekking trip. Even in Pai we came across three tour companies with elephants chained to enclosures, ready to take us into the jungle for less than $7. This is very popular with tourists because it seems so "Thai."
However, after some internet searching, I discovered the Elephant Nature Park, an elephant rescue an hour and a half north of Chiang Mai. The elephants at the reserve have 50 acres to roam around, and they have been purchased from trekking and logging companies when they became too sick or injured to work. To visit these elephants we had to pay almost $70 each (a lot more than the trek), but the money pays for the habitat and the huge quantity of food required in an elephant's diet. They aren't chained up and they receive medical attention on a regular basis.
The day began when our tour guide, Chet, picked us up from our guest house. We hopped in a van with 6 other guests and rode to a local market to pick up a truckload full of bananas for the elephants. We then drove to the park, watching a DVD on the way that featured the park in a televised documentary.
At the park Chet went over safety procedures. One bit of advice that I really listened to was, "When the elephants run, we run." Our first stop on the itinerary was feeding time. Loads of fruit were prepared by volunteers who work at the park and each elephant had its own bucket. The buckets were lined up on the platforms and we got to place bunches of bananas and halved watermelons onto the elephants' trunks. Kind of slimy at first, but really fun.
Each elephant has a mahout (handler) that follows the elephant around every day, making sure they go to feed at the right time, show up for bath time, etc. The interesting thing is that the mahouts may have been previously trained to use physical force to discipline and injure the elephants they worked with in Burmese logging camps, but now they have learned how to use positive reinforcement to respectfully handle the elephants. And since all of the elephants have been rescued because of injuries or malnutrition or a whole range of poor treatments, they require a lot of care and patience. The mahouts obviously had a close relationship with their elephants that was cool to observe.
One of the most touching stories about the elephants was Jokia's rescue. She was previously a working elephant at a logging camp. She was forced to work while pregnant and when she gave birth, her baby rolled down a hillside and died. Because elephants form relationships and are very close to their families, this experience was very traumatic for Jokia. When forced to continue working, she resisted and turned on her handlers. They felt threatened and stabbed at her eyes, leaving her entirely blind. Naturally she was no longer valuable at the logging camp, so the Nature Park purchased her. When she was introduced to the other elephants at the park, another female imediately adopted her and began to show her around, as if she knew Jokia was blind. We could watch the two of them wander around the park side by side. Very touching.
After the elephants ate we were treated to a tasty buffet. Following lunch we changed into swimming gear and followed the elephants to the river. We were given buckets and brushes. At first it was a little scary to follow a 3 ton animal into the water while it splashed and rolled around, but their mahouts were nearby to make sure we knew what was safe. We poured buckets of water onto the elephants and they seemed very happy to receive so much attention. We were shown to a viewing platform and a parade of adorable baby elephants and their moms and aunties walked to the water. It wasn't safe for us to bathe them since babies often get scared and their family group is quick to protect them. And we saw an example of this while we were on the platform when a nearby temple set off fireworks, causing elephants all over the park to begin trumpeting to each other. They quickly got into their herds for safety. I was glad to be elevated enough to watch and avoid being trampled.
During the day there were two feeding sessions, two bathing sessions, and another DVD documentary about elephant abuse in Thailand. The tour guides also asked questions and gave away two reusable shopping bags that say "Banana Bag". Pete and I were the only ones to answer the elephant trivia, so we both left with a bag.
It was such a neat experience and I'm glad we paid a little extra to see the elephants in a nearly natural habitat instead of contributing to the cruelty of trekking tours. One of the more interesting facts we learned during the day is that the Asian elephants are endangered species in Thailand, but that only applies to the wild ones. People or villages can own elephants as if they are livestock, and the endangered species protection does not apply to those elephants. It has to do with a long cultural history of using elephants for work, but it also means there are a lot of owners who don't care about their elephants and just use them to make some money.
Pete thinks I'm becoming an elephant activist, but I'm just interested since I knew so little before. And besides, they're just so darn cute!
