Elephant nature Park is a sanctuary for abused, injured, orphaned and sick elephants that have been rescued from all over Thailand and into Burma and Laos as well, where elephants are still used for logging. The park was started back in 1995 by Lek who had a vision of creating a home for these elephants where they could roam freely and know love and care, sometimes for the first time in their lives, for what ever time they had left.
There are 31 elephants currently at the Park, ranging from 11 months to 90 years old, many with a variety of injuries or ailments such as Lily who is missing a foot where she stepped on a landmine in Laos, or Max, the biggest known elephant in Thailand who was made to beg in the streets of Bangkok by his mahout and was hit by an 18 wheeler, breaking two of his legs. Almost all of the elephants have previously been tortured so the mental scars of these amazing intelligent animals are heartbreaking to see, as they rock back and forth or fidget nervously.
I originally planned to go out to the park for a night or two but once I arrived I decided I wanted to stay and volunteer for a week. They have 20-40 volunteers each week, all starting on Mondays and the first day we didn’t do any work but rather got to look at the Park as the day visitors, just enjoying the surroundings, the elephants and having a good time.
Elephant feeding time is at 11am and 4pm each day and as soon as the bell is rung you see the elephants come charging to the feeding platforms, if they aren’t already there in anticipation! After each feeding comes bath time when the elephants head down to the river and everyone climbs in with them to throw water on them and give their backs a good scrub.
Its very surreal to be walking to my hut and have to deviate down another path because there are two elephants having a tussle blocking the path, or to be sitting on a bench and have an elephant come to sniff at me in hopes I might have some food.
The accommodation is very very basic. Shared bathrooms with cold showers, toilets that require manual flushing (with scoops of water) sinks with no water. I’ve got a room to myself which is good considering there is very little space. The huts are bamboo with almost more gaps than walls and the bug situation is horrendous, thank god for the mosquito nets! So all in all nearly as primitive as the tree house back in Laos except that I have electricity here. Not quite sure how I will cope with no internet for a week though :P
There was welcome ceremony led by a local shaman tonight followed by dinner. I got so excited when I saw the local massage ladies start to arrive and set up mats on the floor that I went straight over after dinner and asked for one. It was about half way through that I suddenly remembered I was supposed to be at the group introduction meeting for all the volunteers, never mind I will just work out who is who as I go :P
