Sleeping With Elephants: Chiang Mai, Thailand

Overnight trip to Elephant Nature Park

...sleeping with giants, cycling through rice paddies, and planting trees with the local children = the perfect weekend.

I once said I had a love affair with Thailand. Elephant Nature Park is a big part of that love affair... maybe obsession is the word I'm looking for.

The sanctuary is home to 32 elephants, all of them rescued from an abusive tourism industry. They roam free everyday, unchained and happy to spend their days bathing in the river, grazing, toppling fruit trees and chasing the dogs around the park. They don't perform tricks, they don't paint, they don't dance, they don't beg for money in the streets of Bangkok or Chiang Mai, and they don't carry tourists on their backs anymore...they just simply exist as nature intended, as gentle giants.

The State of Asian Elephants Today...

Asian Elephants are struggling to survive. No one knows exactly how many are left in the wild, but here in Thailand the numbers are in the low hundreds. People say that in 30 years or so, they'll be wiped out from the wild completely because of loss of habitat, cities expanding, poaching and the black market ivory trade that still persists throughout Asia.

Let's put one thing in perspective. The number of wild elephants in Thailand are in the low hundreds. The number of domesticated elephants working in the tourism industry are in the thousands.

Thai people revere elephants. Elephants are the vehicles of kings, they were tanks in times of war during the ancient kingdoms of Siam, they're spiritual guides, they're demi-gods and symbols of luck and grace so important to the foundation of Thai history and culture. You can't go a city block anywhere without coming across an elephant in one form or another, and even worse it's harder to go one night in Chiang Mai or Bangkok and not come across baby elephants begging in the city streets for food and money.

How did this happen? As most atrocities do...lack of education and awareness.

Asian Elephants have a tradition of being domesticated. This has existed for nearly 2,000 years already. They were used in battles, they were used in royal ceremonies, more recently used as loggers in the money making Teak industry, then finally today used as entertainment. When the government banned logging in the 1980's, thousands of elephants and their owners were out of work and dying in the jungles. So the idea of elephant tourism was embraced to initially help them...until now, it's just spiraled out of control.

Tourists come to Thailand with the big idea of riding on the back of an elephant in a green jungle. What they don't realize is everything that happens behind the scenes. The process of training an elephant happens at a very young age. Around 3 or 4 years, babies are separated from their mothers and placed in violent crushes: sleep deprivation, torture, cutting, bashing, and gouging from metal hooks are common place in a training process that can last months.

The theory is barbaric: break your elephant at the youngest age possible and teach him to fear man. It is the fear and constant reminder of the trauma from this training process that allows tourists to ride elephants today.

The more elaborate the tricks an elephant is taught, like circus performance, the longer the training process and the more violence involved.

What's happening now in Thailand, is that every year more and more tourists demand elephant entertainment. More efforts are being put into building this elephant tourism industry, and less energy focused on restoring the dying wild populations. The cycle of suffering needs to stop. Tourists need to make educated choices, people relying on elephants for work and livelihood need to be given access to a new set of skills and work, and elephants need to stay off the city streets and remain in the forest where they belong.

What Elephant Nature Park represents, is a new hope for the future generations of Asian elephants. Domestic elephants who have been rescued from abusive owners and street begging are brought here to the sanctuary to live out their lives in peace. The only interaction with tourists allowed are feeding times and bathing times. Tourists directly bring joy to elephants, and not the other way around. The point, is to spend a day or a week in the presence of elephants acting as they would naturally in the wild.

Elephant Nature Park is my heaven on earth. It's a wildlife rescue project, a community development arm and a source of inspiration for all of us around it. The founder, Lek, has her hands in everything: working with elephants, stray dogs and wildlife rescued from illegal trafficking; reaching out and hiring from within Burmese refugee camps; tree planting and forestry development to restore the jungle; creating jobs for local farmers since 32 elephants demand a lot of food sources; sending volunteers into local communities to help with funding and construction of every day needs like water tanks, temples, bridges, and roads...she can do anything. One day at her park and you'll be overwhelmed with the amount of good work being done, I guarantee it.

Overnight at the Park....

One of the first things I did when I got back to Thailand this month, was visit the park. For anyone with a couple days to kill in Chiang Mai, I highly recommend staying overnight. Day visits are great too, but overnight allows you to see a lot more of what rural life in Thailand is really all about.

The park highlights include washing and bathing with the elephants twice a day, as well as up close encounters with feeding every day. There are babies that are constantly playing and getting into trouble, so keep your cameras loaded for some awesome photography.

The accommodations are nice, and the food is mind-blowing. Your night's stay will be more than comfortable. An extra full day at the park will allow you the time for a bicycle tour of the area if you're game.

Ride through the forest, across the Mae Taeng river, through fields of rice paddies and flowering tress, and hike the steps up to the local forest temple with a guide from the park more than happy to teach you the basics of Buddhism and temple history.

And there's always something going on at the park that needs a few extra hands. When I was there it was my dear friend Lek's (the founder) birthday. In honor of her, the local community and children worked hand in hand with volunteers to plant 500 trees in and around the park as her yearly "Green Forest Day" program.

If you have a couple days, stay overnight. If you're limited, the one day visit will be just as awesome. Prices and booking information can be found at the Elephant Nature Foundation website here....

If you have more time, consider volunteering for the week. Read about my experiences volunteering here...(Prices and booking for volunteering is also available at the Elephant Nature Foundation website.)

Asian Elephants are not the only ones suffering: gibbons, monkeys, bears, tigers...so many animals need your help in Asia...volunteer your time and energy into making a difference next time you travel.

Video: Moon Bears in Laos & Vietnam need help too!

more info here...Animals Asia.org

For a list of volunteer organizations I've worked with here in Thailand, scroll to the end of my post here 'Thailand: Paradise or Not?'...

If you have shared similar experiences with wildlife conservation or community development projects around the world, please share them and let us know where we can lend a hand next!