Elephant Nature Park, Thailand

Stopping for a quick butt scratch on the long hike to Elephant Heaven - a mountaintop forest sanctuary where the elephants can roam free and search for medicinal plants to supplement their generous diet. Each family group gets to make this trip once a week.
By tying these crimson strips of cloth to the larger trees, we alert the local villagers that they have been identified as sacred by Buddhist monks and therefore cannot be cut. Saving trees helps fight erosion and keep local water resources clean and sustainable, helping all local people and elephants. Hope is the only long-term resident of the Nature Park who has not had to go through the cruel 7-day torture session used to "break the will" of young elephants so that they can become working elephants. He was found as a young calf after his mother was killed and raised by the park's founder, Lec. With his "will" fully in tact, he can be quite a rascal. The mahouts call him a "cheeky bugger".

Our glorious and couragous leader, Mammoth.

Bath time. The elephants at the park get 2 baths a day which include hand-scrubbing from the volunteers and day-visitors.
Our volunteer crew.
Overall, this was an amazing and memorable experience. We lived for a week on the grounds of the nature park. Every day we woke up for breakfast at 7:30 and reported by 8:00 for our first round of chores. These would include cleaning up elephant poo, cat poo, cow and/or buffalo poo. Who ever thought that cleaning up poo would be so rewarding?

After our first round of chores, came the morning project, which involved fence-mending, drainage digging and other physical work. Before lunch, we fed the elephants and after lunch bathed them. Then, we reported for the second round of chores/projects, which often meant shucking corn or chopping grass.

By far the hardest day of work was chopping 230 bundles of corn by machete and then carrying the bundles over muddy rice patties to the truck for delivery back to the park.

The food was great. Dinner was especially tasty and the many Chang beers that we enjoyed over conversations with fellow volunteers felt well-deserved. After dinner we had an hour Thai massage. The lodging . . . OK, but not so great.

The side-trip to Elephant Haven (at the top of the page) was definitely the highlight of our week. We hiked to an overnight camp where we stayed with the elephants in a wild setting. It was a long and muddy hike but the food and the view that we enjoyed from the sleeping platform made it worthwhile. Before bed, the mahouts sang us songs on improvised flutes made of PVC pipes and drums made of anything they could hit.

Pom, mother to all of the elephants. They listen closely to every word she says.
The elephants at Elephant Nature Park have been rescued from a number of terrible situations. One had his foot blown off by a landmine. Another was blinded with hooks when she refused to work because her baby had just died. The stories go on and on. You can meet the entire herd HERE.