Walking with Elephants

So I want to talk to you about a place in Chiang Mai, Thailand we visited this year called Elephant Nature Park. ENP is an elephant rescue and rehabilitation centre who have rescued elephants, dogs, cats, buffaloes and many other animals since the early 1990's. The Elephants on this park have mostly endured a hideous past including stepping on land mines, logging, tourism work and being subject to a practice which is used to 'Break an elephants sprit' which includes chaining them up and beating them - they even say that some elephants try and kill themselves when going through this by stepping on their own trunk.

As you can expect if you are going for elephant rides this is not the place to go - and I would also urge you to reconsider this activity after spending time here and learning about what an elephant has to go through to be able to carry people around - particularly when the iron seat is involved.

The first day we had a short health and safety talk about the Elephants and what is expected of us whilst we are staying within the park. Most of the animals have had a very tough life and as a result struggle with mental health problems. Following the H&S video we entered the camp and headed out to meet the herd. It started out with strolling around meeting some elephants and their mahouts - becoming familiar with being around the amazing creatures - hearing their stories - feeding and generally just being.

Lunch time came - all the food was vegetarian and very very good! As a meat eater I have to say that I could of quite happily stayed longer then 2 days and I would not of missed meat.

The afternoon was when we checked into our accommodation for the evening - Very basic but peaceful. Bathroom facilities, bed, mosquito net and a small balcony over looking the elephants, I personally loved it. We took that time to freshen up and I headed out with the intention of getting a Thai massage whilst Jack chilled in the room. On leaving the cabin I was greeted by a very sweet black dog guarding our step who then escorted me to the main area. As you can imagine I thought this was great and very pleased about making a new friend.

After being walked by my new friend to the main part of the park I went up onto a balcony over looking the rest of the park where the elephants were getting ready for night fall. This is where I had my first thai massage and it was amazing. I felt incredible afterwards - like a new woman. I was so relaxed at this point I headed back to our cabin and picked up two cold beers on the way which I though we could enjoy watching the sunset on our balcony with the elephants wandering in the distance. Idyllic.

Unfortunately the relaxed atmosphere did not last as that night at around 3am the hounds awoke! Once one dog howled they all started howling and thats 400 dogs worth of noise. As you can expect not the best nights sleep. We did however, surprisingly feel quite fresh the following morning on our way to breakfast. This time when leaving our cabin we had our little black dog friend but also another dog had stayed and made camp on the seats outside. It is very difficult to stay mad at dogs especially when they give you the puppy dog eyes.

After breakfast we headed out for another stroll around the park and today we met the baby elephants. As incredible as this was it was also quite frightening as they don't realise their size and how strong they are and when they come running towards you that is a pretty scary ordeal.

After spending the morning being chased and meeting more of the herd we headed towards the river where we and the elephants got to cool off. Splish splash this was lot's of fun!

After a cool down it was time for lunch and a break out of the hot thai sun. That afternoon we made one of the older elephants with no teeth soft food balls made of rice, pumpkin and other soft fruit. They looked a little like this:

Being at ENP felt like a retreat - although it had wifi access it was wonderful being away from modern life and literally 'getting away from it all'. I felt in harmony with all the animals wandering the grounds of the park which is located in the midst of the mountains - breathtaking!

Seeing these beautiful animals at peace was incredible and I would highly recommend this place to anyone to visit.

Above: This elephant broke her leg when she was younger - I understand she tripped whilst logging. When ENP rescued her her leg had set and healed this way. As she was managing to get around without any discomfort they decided it would be too traumatic to break and reset her leg so instead they left her alone and now she will spend the rest of her days at peace at the ENP. As you can see she is still smiling!

I have posted a link to the website below so you can see for yourself the amazing work happening at ENP.

http://www.elephantnaturepark.org

LJx

#elephant #nature #park #thailand #chiangmai #travel #dogs