a day with the elephants

Being with elephants was something our whole family wanted to do on our trip this year, but we had some concerns about where to do that and how to reconcile the sadness we feel for caged animals. Thankfully our friends found us the perfect place to visit. The Elephant Nature Park was founded by a Thai woman with a passion and love for elephants named Sangduen Chailert (Lek). She has been named Asian Hero of the year and her work has been recognized by the Smithsonian and beyond. This beautiful property of over 300 acres was donated by a man from Texas who was so impressed by her work at her former rescue, Elephant Heaven. At ENP elephants are not chained up, are free to roam and no violence is used in their keeping. Most of the elephants are female and are leftover from the now illegal logging industry in Thailand. Some were blind, deformed or victims of beatings, broken bones or landmines. We learned so much on our day at the park - some of it sad and most of it absolutely breathtaking.

At this park people are not permitted to ride on the elephants (which is very common in Thailand). Instead these elephants exist in their own herds or groups that they have formed themselves, the idea is for the elephants to find their elephant-ness again. Because most were "domesticated" as working animals, they became livestock under the law and they could be treated as anyone would a dog or cow. They cannot be returned to the wild, but they can be treated as if they were free. The elephants here do not work for tourists, we work for them.

Tourists can visit ENP as volunteers for one day or longer and it is an amazing operation. We visited with our friends and were in a group of nine, with our own guide for the day. The slow, relaxed pace gave us time to process what we were learning, discuss with the children and enjoy our time together. Midday we were served a delicious vegetarian buffet, eaten family style with all of the volunteers at ENP.

Over our day we were able to feed, touch, bathe and walk amongst the elephants. After one day it was amazing to see the love, admiration and ease that our group felt for these giant creatures. It was hard to imagine wanting to ride one. A huge part of the experience is educating tourists and locals about the treatment of elephants. They are the most sacred animal in Thai culture but have been abused for centuries.

 

The highlight of the day was bathing two best friends, one blind (from being stabbed repeatedly in the eye to get back to work), one with a permanently damaged hip at the hand of their former owner. I will spare any more details as you can read tons on their website. Instead enjoy bath-time in the river.

The elephants were free to go in and out of the water and even decided to head across the river from us after the bath.

 

If you have the opportunity to visit the Elephant Nature Park, do not miss out. We all felt that this was a life changing experience.