Where We Be
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
| Half a day with these adorable baby elephants was just perfect -- something we'll never forget |
| Elephant Rescue Park -- Thailand |
Robin picked a fun day trip for us: the Elephant
Rescue Park. This was a half day excursion she
read about on TripAdvisor. It got great reviews,
featuring three baby elephants and one adult
female. It’s one of the newer, smaller elephant
parks in the area. The cost was 2200 baht each
(~$65 pp). A shuttle picked us up at 8:30 am and
drove us an hour to the private rescue park
located in the mountains north of Chiang Mai.
After a brief intro by our guide, Fan, we donned
special clothing provided by the park and went
to meet the elephants. We got to feed them
first, and you could tell how excited they were
about this part of their day when they got their
first bananas and sugar cane. One of the babies
was literally swaying her head with anticipation!
After the feeding we walked with them, keeping
them company as they ate whatever they could
find along the way. In time we reached a lake,
and here they happily wallowed in the water. We
helped bathe and scrub them -- the best part of
the day. They clearly love the water. The baby
we "adopted" definitely enjoyed squirting us!
Rescue Park. This was a half day excursion she
read about on TripAdvisor. It got great reviews,
featuring three baby elephants and one adult
female. It’s one of the newer, smaller elephant
parks in the area. The cost was 2200 baht each
(~$65 pp). A shuttle picked us up at 8:30 am and
drove us an hour to the private rescue park
located in the mountains north of Chiang Mai.
After a brief intro by our guide, Fan, we donned
special clothing provided by the park and went
to meet the elephants. We got to feed them
first, and you could tell how excited they were
about this part of their day when they got their
first bananas and sugar cane. One of the babies
was literally swaying her head with anticipation!
After the feeding we walked with them, keeping
them company as they ate whatever they could
find along the way. In time we reached a lake,
and here they happily wallowed in the water. We
helped bathe and scrub them -- the best part of
the day. They clearly love the water. The baby
we "adopted" definitely enjoyed squirting us!
| Our little group of six -- all dressed in red uniforms and rubber boots, banana bunches in hand -- ready to go and meet the elephants |
| We were instructed to hide the bunches behind our backs and present just one banana at a time lest the elephants take the whole bunch at once! |
| They really like bananas! They eat them skin and all. |
| Putting one banana at a time onto their waiting tongues is a unique experience |
| Can you tell Robin's having a good time? |
| After the feeding, we walked with them, keeping them company as they ate whatever they could find along the way. They particularly like sweet grass and don't mind help finding it. |
| These young elephants are eating machines! They pretty much walk and eat at the same time. |
| It was sweet seeing the bond between the handlers and their elephants |
| We paused to rest at a wooden pavilion on a hill and I donated my water bottle to one of the elephants to drink from |
| It was sooo hot out. Luckily we had straw hats, but it was still 100 degrees out and we were sweating up a storm -- so what came next was a relief. |
| Water! We walked downhill to this river where the elephants joyfully got themselves wet. |
| One of the youngsters even had her trunk twined with the fingers of her handler as they walked along! |
| This was the best part of their day -- and ours. The cool water was so refreshing after a walk in the hot sun. |
| Blowing bubbles was another thing our elephant liked to do. It was fun to see how each elephant had their own personality. |
| The elephant we spent most of our time with enjoyed squirting water at me -- notice how her trunk is positioned! |
| We got to help bathe them and scrub them down, pouring water on their backs |
| The big elephant, Mannoy, came over to say hello, photobombing our photo op! |
| We even learned their names. Pailin (female, age 3, playful, loves bananas, sways with anticipation), Nam Choke (male, age 2, energetic), Shabu (male, age 3, oldest but smallest, “mohawk,” gentle, slow eater, stays close to “stepmom”), and Mannoy (female, age 35, stepmom to the rest). |
| We headed back to the lodge, showered and changed, and had a tasty lunch on a wooden deck with a lovely view. As a sidenote, the yellow cosmetic the woman is wearing is a natural sunscreen used specifically by people from Myanmar. |
| Our guide, Faan, also makes lovely paintings of his elephant family here at Elephant Rescue Park |
| Just across from the river is a lake, and here they entered and wallowed around with great contentment |
| Huge bunches of green bananas await future visitors -- maybe you'll be among them! |
| They emerged looking refreshed. Many of these elephants were rescued from circuses and such, so they seem happy indeed with their new surroundings. |
| More than once the elephant and her trainer both disappeared completely under the water, like they were having a contest to see who could stay under the longest – but the elephant would "cheat" and raise her trunk above the surface to draw a breath! |