The Best Christmas Animal Ever

Christmas Day was truly amazing. I was on a bus at 6:30 am heading to an elephant sanctuary in the mountains of Thailand.

*insert soapbox here*

The elephant sanctuaries exist to protect the elephants; Thai tourism has created elephant camps where tourists go to ride elephants, watch them fight and do tricks. Many of these elephants were beaten and taken from their mothers at young ages in order to train them for this. Studies have shown that this takes a negative psychological toll on the elephants. So if you want to visit elephants, visit a sanctuary, not a camp. 

*end soapbox here*

Our songthaew took us about an hour up the mountain. Then, we transferred to the back of a pickup truck and rode another 20 minutes on a dirt road up to the town where the sanctuary is located. There is less than a foot between the wheels of the truck and the edge of the mountain-- #donteverlookdown.

When we got to the camp the trainers gave us traditional clothing to wear. Then we were each given a bunch of bananas to feed the elephants. You can either hold out the banana and the elephant will take it with his trunk, or you can say “bon” and lift your arm; the elephant will lift his trunk and open his mouth so you can put the banana, peel and all, right in. The difference in size of the elephants amazed me—there was a 2 year old baby and a 40 year old mama. I stood about as tall as the baby but the mama towered over me. Their skin is incredibly tough and looks like wrinkled leather. They are very gentle animals. After feeding them bananas in the valley, we hiked up the side of the mountain with corn stalks and fed them corn atop the mountain. (Elephants eat more than 16 hours a day, sleep for 3-4 hours and bathe/exercise the rest of the day) Then we went down the mountain to a stream. All of the people went down first and then the elephants came down. It was amazing to watch these gigantic animals walk straight down the mountain. When it got very steep, they would cross their legs underneath them and slide down, then pop up at the bottom. It was very graceful to watch. In the stream, the small elephants rolled around and played with one another while the big mama waited for us to soak her skin in water, then laid on her side so we could scrub her. It was in the stream where I first heard the elephants make noises while they played with one another. The trainers were young thais who lived in the mountains. They loved watching the tourists squirm at the coldness of the water, so they would shout “1,2,3” and then run around and throw buckets of water at us. We got completely soaked. One of the trainers took Tash, Jenna and I to a small pool that fed into the stream via a waterfall. We jumped into the freezing water and swam there before going back to the valley to have lunch (pad thai steamed in banana leaves)

Visiting the sanctuary was an absolutely amazing experience. I am so glad I had the opportunity to interact with these wonderful, gentle creatures.