When in Thailand, go see elephants. It is worth every penny. Word of advice though, go to an elephant sanctuary not just any random elephant place. We learned that sanctuaries rescue the elephants and treat them well. Other places chain their elephants up and abuse them. Soooo, my two cents, go to a sanctuary… you’ll make everyone happy!
Our day started off by getting picked up around 8am to take a bus up a mountain to the sanctuary.
Upon arrival, we quickly changed into our “play clothes” which consisted of basketball shorts and a tshirt. Then we went straight into an informational meeting on how to correctly interact with the gentle giants. She reminded us that elephants are elephants, tamed or wild. If we take one wrong step, we could get trunk slapped. It’s basically like feeding a toddler, if they don’t want what you are feeding them… they will throw a fit. And by fit, I mean hit you with their trunk and throw the banana on the ground.
I only got trunk slapped once by Jackie Chan, a baby elephant who is the troublemaker of his family. He was cute, I’ll give him that! But next time, I will just feed him a little quicker.
(Exhibit A, the culprit)
We spent about an hour feeding them their favorite treats! You’d be surprised how dirty we were from banana guts and mud from our new friends. Thank goodness we were in our play clothes. After the feeding frenzy, we learned how to make elephant medicine. The elephants take their daily dose of smashed bananas, turmeric, and tamarind wrapped in banana leaves. Most of these elephants come from a background of abuse, so having a regular routine is important. We learned a few verbal commands to help us coax them into eating their medicine.
(Our little helper when making the medicine)
We took a quick break to eat Pad Thai, a common Thai dish. Then we geared up for our jungle trek with the elephants. We paired up with others in the group, so that we could co-parent an elephant together. We had to make sure we grabbed our bag full of sugar cane so that we could bribe our elephant child to follow us through the jungle. Once ready, we headed out into the green depths of the jungle.
Jess and I took Chow Mein (which wasn’t really her name, but we couldn’t remember her real one so we made up a nickname for her). Chow Mein was one of the biggest elephants at the sanctuary, so we were a little scared at first. But it took no time for her to warm up to us. Lets just say the sugar cane treats worked! Chow Mein loved to eat, so we were a bit slow on the trek because she had to stop every so often to rip a random tree branch off to gnaw on. She even got a little cut on her trunk because she was so excited to eat the leaves.
(Chow Mein taking a snack break and me trying to bribe her with sugar cane… it wasn’t working if you can’t tell. PS: sorry for the poor quality of photo, my phone was in a baggy so that it wouldn’t get wet)
While on the trek, I had one of those moments of “What is my life?!” I couldn’t believe that I was in the middle of a Thai jungle, giving commands to this huge elephant child of mine and bribing her with sugar cane, all while trying not to fall in the mud! (The mud won that battle, I fell once and Jess fell twice).
Half way through the walk, we could stop to give our child a mud bath. Yep, you heard me right… a mud bath. Jess and I were bad parents because we chose not to get in. I’m 100% sure it wasn’t just mud, if you know what I am saying. I don’t think Chow Mein was sad about it because that meant she just got to roam off a little to eat some more leaves.
(Chow Mein chowing on some bamboo)
We finished our trek at the river. We were able to strip down to our swimsuits and hop in with the elephants. The sketchy mud brown water wasn’t too appetizing, but I hopped in anyways. The elephants absolutely LOVED it! You could see the pure bliss in their eyes as they whipped their trunks in the water and sprayed their back. They were so relaxed, so much that they pooped in the water. I like to think they were little bath bombs of exfoliant!
After our river extravaganza, we said goodbye to our elephant children! Then we harnessed up to go zip lining across the river. It was a quick ride, but definitely the icing on the cake to a great day.
Something about spending 8 hours with a giant who could trample you in a second, just fills the soul. If you ever get a chance to go to an elephant sanctuary, go! I promise you, you won’t regret it!
(Family photo)
