I’ve delayed writing this post, because I don’t think anything I write will do Elephant Nature Park the full justice it deserves.
Ever since our initial research into the park we have been unbelievably excited about visiting and when we realised we would be able to stay for 6 nights as volunteers, we jumped on it. Costing us pretty much the same as our weekly budget was just a bonus. Included in our weekly volunteer payment was all of our accommodation, transport, meals and the experience.
We were picked up from our accommodation in Chiang Mai and taken to the Elephant Nature Park office in the old city to finalise payments and paperwork. We were given a volunteer t-shirt, water bottle and water sling before we headed off. We started talking to people immediately. Everyone was so friendly and you could tell that everyone was just as passionate as us about the cause, meaning we knew immediately it was going to be a good week.
After an hour or so drive we arrived at the Elephant Nature Park. My initial thoughts were that it looked like a working animal sanctuary. It wasn’t pristine and touristy like I imagine other elephant camps to be. Good! We don’t want to be at a tourist elephant camp. We tucked straight into our lunch, a vegan buffet. Yes, you read that right. We ate vegan for the entire week. At the park they said that the elephants eat vegan, therefore so should the humans. I won’t talk about the food again during the blog, because the selection was amazing. We ate amazingly well during our time there, but couldn’t help but dream about cheese and eggs. It didn’t help that the man part of an amazing couple that we met was from Italy and over facetime his Mum kept showing the table the gorgeous looking food she was cooking. Don’t worry Mario, we have had our fix now!
We settled into our rooms and got used to our bearings. Our room was right behind an elephant enclosure and over the coming days we would be woken by elephants trumpeting. Such an amazing noise. We watched a documentary on the first day, which was very hard to watch. Many people left during the documentary and most people had tears in their eyes by the end.
So many people visit Thailand and other Asian countries where there are Asian Elephants. Top of the Thailand bucket list for many people is to ride an elephant, either as part of a day trip or as part of a multi day trekking trip. What people don’t realise is the cruelty that these animals endure from a young age to be put into the tourism or logging industry. At a very young age, around 4 years old, elephants are put into a contraption called ‘The Crush’ and undergo a procedure called Phajaan. Usually this procedure lasts for 7 days and involves the elephant being trapped in a small cage and being hit and harassed until the ‘spirit’ has left the animal. It is then felt that they can be trained. I found these videos on youtube, which are very similar to what we watched during our time at elephant nature park. Please be prepared for some distressing footage.
We were told by one of the volunteer coordinators that he believed there were only 10 elephants out of the 70 at Elephant Nature Park that had not been through this horrible ritual. It makes me sick. Once the elephant has been ‘crushed’ the cruelty doesn’t stop. Training continues with similar tools being used to harm the elephant. We heard about how elephants in Thailand are often used for street begging. Mahouts take their elephants into cities and use them to beg for food. Tourists then pay to feed the elephants and in term fund the cruelty. Often baby elephants of 1 year old are taking from their mothers to be used in this way. Elephants feed from their mothers milk for up to 4 years and the bond between them and their mother, and the rest of the herd is so strong.
Many of the elephants at the park have been involved in illegal logging in Myanmar. Not only are these elephants worked to the bone, but many of them have received horrific injuries from standing on landmines. We heard about one of the elephants at the park who stood on a landmine and then had to walk for 8 days back to the road from the jungle. All of these stories just broke our hearts.
We were shown a lot of before and after pictures of the elephants at the park. The transformation of these elephants was unbelievable and it was so lovely to see them looking so happy and healthy in their new home. The founder of the Save Elephant Foundation is called Lek. She is a truly amazing and selfless woman. I encourage you to read more about her here http://www.saveelephant.org/about/founder-sangduen-lek-chailert/
After watching the documentary we all felt desperate to get stuck in and help as best we could. I felt all week that I wish I could have done more. I know that we made a difference, that the elephants and other rescued animals at the Elephant Nature Park were being fed and cared for as a result of us being there, but I wanted to do more. I will write another post explaining the more positive side of the story. I’ll tell you all the chores we got up to and the amazing experiences we had with the people who were working there and the elephants and dogs that we spent time with.
If you would like to read more, and I encourage you to, here are some links:
https://www.elephantnaturepark.org/
There is also a BBC two documentary out at the moment that shows some of the work that is happening at Elephant Nature Park.
Simon and Becky's travels 