Chiang Mai - Elephants

bed count: 16

Phuket to Chiang Mai was a straight forward journey, especially in comparison to Langkawi to Ko Lanta. We flew from Phuket to Bangkok and then onto Chiang Mai. Staying in the Montri Hotel, which might sound posh, but it's only a tenner a night.

We'd booked to go to the elephant sanctuary yesterday, but this was almost overshadowed by a less pleasant event. Alec left the camera on to charge (well hidden) while we came downstairs for breakfast yesterday. I'd called to say there was some laundry to be picked up and when Alec got back to the room the laundry was gone, and so was the camera.

It turned up eventually, in the room, but moved elsewhere, unplugged and fiddled with, which didn't inspire much confidence.

Other than that Chiang Mai is quite a nice city. The night bizarre is very nice - much, much more chilled than KL and with a really good 'food street'.

So - as I say, we went to the Elephant Nature Park just outside Chiang Mai yesterday. We chose this park as it has an ethical approach, based on rescuing abused and orphaned elephants and campaigning to improve the conditions of domestic elephants in Thailand.

We were picked up by mini-van yesterday morning and taken first to the local market where we helped to load 2 pick-ups full of bannanas and corn-on-the-cob to feed the elephants. From there it was a 1 1/2 hour journey through very pleasant countryside to the park.

We were greeted by one of the long-term park volunteers and guided onto a web of platforms which are quite handy in keeping humans ut from underneath the elephants feet... There she went through safety instructions (i.e. - keep out of 'trunks reach') and explained the history of the park and the 28 elephants there. Boy could that woman talk...

We then went on to feed the elephants, some of whom were quite cheeky and tried to pull the basket towards them so that they could guzzle the food more quickly. Most of them eat the bananas whole, but the baby of the group (a really cute 3 month old) had to have them peeled for him.

After having lunch ourselves we then got to go down to the river and bath the elephants, which involved chucking buckets of water over them, scrubbing them with floor scrubbing brushes and getting very wet ourselves.

It was a great experience - being able to be in such close proximity to such majestic animals and learn about their individual personalities and family groups. I have read stories from many people who have been to elephant camps in the area who have said afterwards that they felt like they had participated in animal cruelty because of the conditions the elephants had to endure. I am so glad that our trip wasn't overshadowed by this and that it was so evident that the animals were being cared for and respected as they should.

Anyway - the internet cafe is about to close, so more pics of elephants in a few days.