Water For Elephants

December 19, 2016

The phone rang very early this morning - our driver and his wife had just driven up to meet us in Chiang Mai.  They had never been before, and were going to spend a couple of days before driving us back to Pattaya.  Glad to know they arrived safely - we would meet up later.

We planned to visit the Elephant Nature Park today, and were picked up from our hotel around 8:30 a.m.  Our guide for the day, Koon Katiya, led us to a van where two young people were already on board.  We stopped once more to pick up a family of five, then watched a video about the center as we drove through the beautiful hills of Chiang Mai.

scenes at a rest stop en route 

 


The Elephant Nature Park is an elephant rescue and rehabilitation center founded in 1996 by Lek Chailert.  She buys elephants out of bad situations, like logging, elephant trekking, street begging and elephant shows.  They have all been abused or injured in some way.  Some received injuries by stepping on land mines in Burma, on the Thai border.  Some have torn or missing ears from handlers, or mahouts, who put their hooks through their ears to control them; others are blind from abusive mahouts as well.  You will never want to ride on an elephant's back once you learn what they must endure, although I'd like to believe some mahouts are kind and caring with their animals.

The place runs quite efficiently - long tables are set up for each small group that arrives, up to around 250 people a day.  In addition to the one-day visitors, they seem to have a consistent army of volunteers who come to help for a couple of weeks at a time.  Feeding all those people, plus the seventy-plus pachyderms means no shortage of work.  In addition to the elephants, they also care for a couple hundred dogs, cats and some buffalo that were relinquished by farmers who no longer needed them for working the fields.

our table

We gathered at our assigned table and the safety rules were explained: always stand where the elephant can see you, don't touch their ears, only touch the ones they say you can touch, and stay behind the red line on the platform.  The family of five had a little trouble with these easy guidelines, and guess what?  They were from America - sigh.  We enjoyed the other two people in our group - a young man from Denmark and a young woman from the Netherlands.

A laundry basket of small, halved watermelons was brought out and we took turns feeding the elephants that came up to the platform.  Some took way more turns than others...guess who.  It was cool to see the animals devour a half watermelon like it was a piece of candy.  And they were quite polite about waiting for their food to be handed to them.

Our guide then took us out for a walk of the grounds, meeting several small "families" of elephants.  Most of the animals arrive individually at the park, but soon develope new bonds with other residents.  One blind elephant was inseparable from another that seemed to be her guide.  Nearly all the elephants in the main area are female, with a few young males in the mix.  Once the males reach maturity, they have to be placed in a separate area because they become aggressive.  Pregnancies are avoided, as they don't need more mouths to feed.

the trees all have protective walls around them -
otherwise the elephants destroy them!

posters show elephants before and after they
received care at the center

This one has a broken foot

This is "Sexy Lady" - she wears a flower in
the hole in her ear.  The hole was made by her
former mahout's hook

They didn't realize an elephant they rescued was already pregnant

Walking back toward the platform, we passed several buffalo casually grazing in a field, unfazed by the presence of humans.  We could even pet a couple of them, and got quite close, as you can see.

no zoom lens used!

Back at the platform, we enjoyed a very tasty vegetarian buffet lunch - lots of veggies, rice and fruits.  The flies enjoyed it, too!  During our break, some visited the little gift shop, and others stopped into Cat Heaven, a structure that houses more than one hundred rescued cats.  Pass.

colorful group of students on a field trip

one of many with torn ears from mahout's hook

Somebody took Tim's chair

Volunteers preparing "food balls" for the animals

In the afternoon, we took another walk around the property, and watched as a family happily frolicked in the water.  The elephants seem really happy and well cared for, despite their physical disabilities.

The blind one, on the left, with her constant companion

We trudged down to the river, quite low now that rainy season had passed.  The older elephants were a bit reluctant to get into the water, which for them was apparently bit chilly.  The old girl we came to bathe had to be coaxed in, finally backing in just to her ankles (do elephants have ankles?)  We threw little buckets of water over her, and soon discovered why everyone should stay on the same side of the elephant.  Unless you wanted to get wet.

with our guide and our Scandinavian friends

We washed up and piled back into the van for the long drive back to the city - a nice opportunity for a nap.  It was an educational and eye-opening day.

The symbol above the dome light is made
by monks who are often brought in to
bless new vehicles.  Almost all cars also
have the Buddhist floral arrangements hung on their
rear view mirrors to protect them

We met up with Mick and his wife for dinner - a place that seemed a good bet because of the crowds, but turned out to be not so great.  Slow service, forgotten orders, and a little kid at the next table vomited right there in the middle of everything.

We wandered through the Night Bazaar together, where Tim and I happily discovered a cribbage board for sale, something not easy to find in these parts.  (Cribbage is our latest obsession.)  We enjoyed the live music coming from the Hard Rock Cafe as we passed, and the chanting of monks drifting out from the nearby temple.