Walking with Giants – Responsible Elephant Tourism in Thailand
We did the Care for Elephants project at Elephant Nature Park which is a full day programme of walking, feeding, washing and learning about these amazing creatures. You end up at the sanctuary after the morning session to see the whole heard (plus the 300 cats and 500 dogs that the sanctuary also homes!). It cost about £130 each for the full day (transport and lunch included). There are a number of options for visiting the sanctuary, many of which are more budget friendly BUT…be warned; there are a TONNE of ‘sanctuaries’ in Northern Thailand, may of which ARE NOT SANCTUARIES. If it is cheap and it is an experience with elephants, chances are they are mistreated. Do your research. But more about that below.
What to bring: decent shoes for the walk, change of clothes, swimwear and your camera!
Asian Elephant Dust Bathing
Our day spent pampering elephants in Chiang Mai was a genuine bucket list experience. We arrived at the Elephant Nature Park to be greeted by three beautiful, muddy, gentle giants who were patiently waiting for us to get the hell on with making their rice balls and chop up their watermelon for them. They made their impatience very clear by pointing their trunks towards the buckets of waiting watermelon or giving you a tap on the shoulder whenever you came close enough for them to harass you.
All of the elephants at the sanctuary (there are currently around 81) have been rescued from illegal logging, tourist riding camps, circus and elephant shows. Many still show the scars from their years of terrible abuse they suffered. Our three beautiful creatures had a combined age of over 180 years old and were missing some teeth, but still had their sass I can tell you that for nothing. I had not realised that I was going to spend the morning being harassed by 3 creatures more that 50 times my weight but that’s what I got, and I loved every minute of it.
We arrived at around 10am, made some delicious treats for the elephants and got on our way armed with a bag of bananas each. We lolloped along through a beautiful forest with the elephants stopping when they fancied for a rest or to chow down on some bananas. They knew full well what was in our bags and made it very clear when they wanted a treat. Each of the elephants had very much its own personality and to spend time walking with them, getting to know them and being bossed around by them was truly magical.
After a little trek for the humans and a huge amount of bananas for our elephant friends we stopped for some leaves (for the elephants) and a gorgeous lunch (for the humans.) We climbed up to a lookout point and ate our lunch looking over the forest. Elephants spend 18 hours a day eating (they truly are my spirit animals) and I could have sat on that lookout eating the yummy food for at least that long but alas, we had elephants to wash.
After lunch we climbed down to the river, grabbed our buckets and got washing. The elephants were already hanging out in the river waiting for their assistants to give them a good clean when we arrived and they clearly loved playing in the water and cooling off after a long morning of human harassing and banana eating. Top tip, even if the water is low in the river you WILL get soaked from top to bottom, take a change of clothes. We spend a good hour in the river having a water fight with the elephants (and each other) and when the elephants were ready they trundled out of the river and we dutifully followed. Loaded up with bananas, we made the trek back with our new elephant buddies / overlords.
After the morning of walking and bathing the elephants we got to see the rest of the herd. Many of the elephants at the sanctuary have old injuries from land mines, logging and general mistreatment at the hands of humans. They are cared for, given treatment and allowed to roam free in the acres and acres of land that forms the sanctuary (which is also home to 300 stray dogs and 500 stray cats plus some rabbits and chickens who seem to have snuck in…). There are SO many of these so-called sanctuaries in Chiang Mai but be aware, they can call themselves whatever they want but it doesn’t mean they treat the animals well. Elephants from these camps are still sent to be ‘broken’, a horrific, violent and soul-destroying experience for the elephant. During our trek we saw an elephant clearly in distress as we walked around the boarder of another camp. Our guide told us that they had been trying to work with this camp for years but they continued their bad practice. The elephant that we saw was rocking back and forth, pacing and was clearly in distress. Her baby had been taken away to be broken so it could come back and work at the so-called sanctuary. Please, don’t help to fund this terrible practice that is still, shockingly, legal in Thailand.
Elephant Nature Park is truly a sanctuary. It works with camps to re-educate them on the treatment of their elephants and rescues elephants (and cats and dogs and chickens and rabbits!) that are mistreated and in need of protection. They have a huge number of options for visits/ experiences, all of which respect the gentle giants that call the Elephant Nature Park their home.