Elephant Nature Park - Chiang Mai

We are writing to you today from a very hot, blue sky Chiang Mai after possible what was the best day of our adventure so far yesterday.

We had decided before we even left the UK that we really wanted to visit the Elephant Nature Park, which is set in the valley of two mountains about an hours drive north of Chiang Mai.
It was an early start, but after a spot of breakfast we were soon being picked up from our hostel (which we will write about in another blog) and we were on our way to the reserve. The first thing we noticed as we approached the reserve is the mist rolling of the mountain tops, the jungle creeping up the side of mountains and the river running straight down they middle of the valley. Lush green flood plains ran along both sides of the river and there we see 36 elephants happily grazing.

Now its probably appropriate to tell you why we wanted to visit this place and a little of the history about the reserve. The park was set up in 1995 by a local Thai lady called Lec. The reserve was set up to help and re-home domestic elephants that have been treated cruelly in both the industrial (logging) industries as well as the tourism industry. Some of the acts of brutality towards these amazing creatures is just beyond absolute belief. She wants to help rehabilitate these unfortunate animals and put them back into the semi wild at her park, which she calls Elephant Heaven.

In Thailand alone the elephant population has declined from 100,000 to just 5,000 since the 1980's. The lucky elephants that Lec has managed to rescue are now able to roam free around the 210 acres that the park now consists of. Each elephant has what is called a 'Mahoot' who is dedicated to his elephant to make sure that they never come to any harm. The bond that the elephant and Mahoot have is truly unbreakable.

On arrival at the park we were given a brief health and safety lesson and then we went to feed the 36 elephants some of their 14 tons (yes that right 14 tons) of fruit and veg that they demolish each day. This was an absolutely incredible experience and being so close to a giant was daunting to say the least. A particular highlight was being able to feed the two youngsters that they have at the park. One, 2 years 2 months and the other being 2 years 6 months, both of which their mothers had been fathers had been rescued by Lec.




Other highlights were being able to meet elephants that had been treated so badly in the past, but are now both happy and healthy.

One such elephant was a lovely lady called Jokia. She had been used to pull logs around, but when logging was banned in Thailand in the 1980's she found her self unemployed and was sold by her owner to a Burmese logging company (where logging is not illegal). Jokia was forced to work when heavily pregnant. One day she gave birth while working and saw her baby fall to its death down the side of a mountain. Naturally devastated she refused to work. On her refusal she was stabbed in the eyes with arrows and darts by her new owners until she worked. She is now 100% blind. You can clearly see now that her past is behind her and the park have give her a new reason to live. She has absolutely every right to never trust a human again, but the reserve have managed to build a bond and get her to trust humans once more.

Elephants seem to be able to build incredible bonds with each other, which is similar to that of humans. Even though every elephant was from a different background there was not one that had been refused from any of the newly formed herds at the park. A fantastic example of this friendship is one elephant who has such bad sores from having ropes and chains tied around her legs that she is unable to lie down to sleep. She has had to teach herself to sleep standing up. When arriving at the park she made best friends with another elephant and now the two of them sleep together standing up leaning on each other for support. This is absolutely incredible because her friend is able to lay down and sleep but insists on standing to keep her best friend company.

After feeding had taken place we were off to bath the elephants at the river. Seeing these beasts spraying them selfs and rolling around in the river is a sight to be seen. They clearly were having so much fun. What made the experience one not to forget was being invited into the river to give them a scrub and wash them. Once clean, the elephants came out from the river and very quickly covered themselves in mud to protect their skin from sun, before going on for their second feed of the day.

After a spot of lunch the whole process was completed again. Later in the afternoon we watched an emotional documentary that reinforced the whole point of the park. I cant begin to put into words some of the sights of the documentary so you will just need to take my word for it.

The day seemed to end all to quickly and before we knew it we were on the minibus home. We thoroughly enjoyed our day at the reserve. It was a day full of emotions, 100% moving, but absolutely unforgettable. Standing so close to a living giant that weighs near on 4.5 tonnes, but yet seems to be one of the most gentle creatures on the earth.

We both want to wish the park all the best for the future and i think we have found a charity that we would both like to help raise some of the minimum £250,000 just to be able to keep running. The money goes towards feeding and caring for the elephants, maintaining the park and most importantly being able to buy the elephants of the locals who otherwise would not hand them over to the park.

A truly unforgettable day.