Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai

Our main event in Thailand, we had booked whilst in the comfort of our own home back in the UK. I had heard a lot about the various elephant sanctuaries in the north of Thailand and thought going to visit one would be an awe-inspiring experience. I was not wrong.

We had opted to do the 2 day, 1 night stay rather than just a day trip and I’m so glad we did. We were collected from our guest house in Chiang Mai early one morning, and slid into the last 2 empty seats on the minibus. Our guide, Tim, told us it would take about 90 minutes to get to the sanctuary, and that we’d have a movie shown to us en route giving us the background information on the awful ways that elephants are treated in various places in Asia, and explaining a little more about the sanctuary.

There are an abundance of elephant sanctuaries in Thailand, especially in the North. You are bombarded with offers of elephant treks and elephant riding – all places that treat elephants inhumanely. If you want to go to visit the elephants, do your research and please go to a legitimate sanctuary that cares for the animals in the way it should. Absolutely no riding – we learnt how the seats placed on elephants break their backs, cut their skin and cause them no end of pain, ferrying around up to 500kg up to 12 hours a day. There are sanctuaries that say they don’t use chairs as it is better for the elephant, but riding elephants at all is truly awful and not an activity that should be undertaken. Their backs are very weak and should be curved – the amount of damaged elephants we saw at a neighbouring site when we were there with flat backs, carrying people around, was just heartbreaking.

After driving up various hills and through different elephant camps, we finally arrived at our sanctuary. My goodness it was just breathtaking. Acres of open land, a beautiful mountainous horizon and a sparkling river running past in the glow of the sunshine. The centre of the camp was a huge wooden structure where we were quickly taken along with a large bucket of watermelons and cucumbers to feed to one of the elephants! This was just a light snack – apparently it takes 8 buckets to fill them up. They need to eat 10% of their bodyweight each day, and on average the elephants weigh somewhere between 3 and 5 tonnes! The sanctuary spend 3-4 million Thai baht (£70,000 -£90,000) per month to feed their seventy elephants.

It was very surreal when the elephants appeared. Led along by their mahouts (elephant trainers – many of whom had come from backgrounds where they treated the elephants incorrectly, and had been retrained since coming to the sanctuary) they were using no chains, no sharp sticks, simply just coaxing them with the promise of some food. We were shown how to feed them the fruit and vegetables - standing behind a red line, we held out dripping chunks of watermelon to be met by a snaking trunk sniffing out the goods.

You then place your hand on top of the elephant’s trunk and place the food onto the bottom of it for them to put in their mouth. You should never touch the elephants trunk if you don’t have food to give them, and as some of the poor elephants that had been rescued had been blinded and couldn’t see us, we were advised not to touch the trunks without confirming that we were safe to do so.

The food was quickly gobbled up and we were taken around some of the grounds to meet different families of elephants. We learnt a lot about the lives of these majestic creatures, and of the horrors they had been through before being rescued. I am happy to say that all elephants we met were happy and whilst some of them were injured, either by humans or stepping on landmines, all were clearly dearly loved and being taken care of.

It was so bizarre to be in the middle of this vast expanse of land and to have elephants wandering past you! We got to touch some of the friendly elephants, and got to watch some of them have mud baths!

We were taken to lunch after this – the sanctuary is entirely vegan and puts on a buffet lunch and dinner each day for it’s guests and volunteers. The food was beautiful – at least 20 dishes varying between hot curries and noodles to fresh salads and fruit. We went crazy and totally stuffed ourselves, of course, and chatted to some of the people in our group.

After lunch, we went down to the river to bathe the elephants – one of the highlights! We were each given a plastic bucket with which to throw water over the elephant as it stood there eating watermelon. They need to be bathed each day to get rid of the dried dirt and potential bugs that may be nesting there. We squealed with joy and laughter as we also got soaked, and enjoyed every moment.

After this, we had a few hours free time before dinner was served. We were taken to our rooms and when presented with them got one helluva shock. We were expecting basic bamboo huts, similar to what we have been staying in so far in Thailand.... But what we got was a gorgeous cabin on stilts, complete with double bed, single bed and sofa, writing desk, big bathroom and front AND back porches! Gobsmacked, we lay our things down and danced around the room. After a shower to wash off the dirt of the day, we relaxed on our beautiful balcony, listening to the sounds of the elephants nearby.

At dinner time, we met up with two ladies from our group – Andrea from Manchester and Heather from Canada. Andrea is a dental nurse with a wicked, dry sense of humour, and Heather is a fantastic lady who was supposed to be travelling to Thailand with her husband – he ended up not being able to make it so she went without him! Fantastic. We had a wonderful evening, drinking beers and telling stories, and avoiding the ‘mahout show’ like the plague. The mahouts all gathered together in a room to put on a music show for everyone, and from what we could hear we were not at all disappointed to have missed it.

We bid goodnight to our new friends after a night of hysterical laughter, and slept like logs. Breakfast was served bright and early at 7am and following that, another guide, Apple, took us out on a walk to meet yet more families of elephants. She told wonderful stories and explained to us how she had dreamt of becoming a mahout, but because tradition dictates that it can only be men, working as a guide was as close as she could get. We also met the founder of the shelter’s husband on our walk – a guy from the USA whose life work is now to rescue elephants. There is so much trust between some of the elephants and him – he sat UNDERNEATH the elephants belly, and is treated like a member of their family.

Apple insisted we do a 'heart' photo - I tried to explain that we were not that kind of couple but she wasn't taking no for an answer... Harry really let the side down here, not having a clue what we were supposed to be doing.

We bathed another elephant, watched them play in the river and ran away a few times (when an elephant walks towards you, you GET OUT OF THE WAY!) and saw a whole family delve into a deliciously muddy bath. We then made up some food for one of the older elephants who had no teeth! We had to go through a huge stack of bananas, peeling only the very ripe ones and putting them in a big bucket. To this bucket, we added cooked rice, oatmeal, salt, cooked pumpkin and a few other mushy bits and pieces. We had to mush all this up with our hands and form it into balls which was kind of disgusting, but also a fun experience! We fed these balls to the lovely aged elephant and took in the surrounds. By now, seeing herds of elephants wander around felt normal, and as I looked around the incredible scenery I was sad to have to leave. Whilst we hadn’t done much physically strenuous, I was exhausted from the sensory experience of it all – there is so much to take in and it is quite an emotional experience too.

After a final lunch, we bid farewell to the sanctuary as we headed back home in the minibus. It was honestly one of the most incredible experiences I’ve had and I am delighted that I got to be a part of something so special. Elephants are beautiful creatures, and the chance to touch them, hug them and look after them was just indescribable and I would so recommend that you take the chance if you get it. As I mentioned before, do make sure that you support a proper sanctuary, as there is still so much ill-treatment of elephants going on in the world. This is the wonderful place we visited for those that are interested: https://www.elephantnaturepark.org/