Elephant heaven

We've read about Elephant Nature Park long before starting the trip and were very anxious to go. We spent three days in Chiang Mai waiting before two places on a tour opened up (we originally had a reservation but it turns out that 'somebody' made the booking for the 22nd of December instead of November, oops... That somebody surprisingly not being me!).

Elephant Nature Park is a rescue for elephants set up about an hour north from Chiang Mai in a lovely valley by a small river. It was established in 2003 by a local woman who was long before that involved in rescuing the elephants from all around the country. For centuries the elephants in Thailand have been used as domestic animals, mainly in logging industry and for transport. When logging was made illegal in the 90s many elephants were suddenly out of job and ended up on the streets of big cities or in amusement parks as entertainment for tourists. Although elephants are revered animals in Thailand and their statues appear in every temple, only the wild elephants are specially protected while the domesticated ones are considered cattle and treated as such. This park takes care of 34 elephants in total at the moment, many of which were hurt by their previous owners, blinded or mutilated. Here they are not used for any kind of show for the visitors, they live freely around the park and slowly recover from the tortures they suffered.

We had great expectations and they were fulfilled completely! When we arrived, we learnt more about the park and its mission, we got to feed the elephants and heard about their often heartbreaking stories and after a superbuffet lunch the best part came - we went to bathe them! Believe me, being in the river scratching the back of such a huge animal is something absolutely fantastic! We loved it! Our only regret was that we hadn't booked to stay a night or two. The place was very quiet during the day even with all the visitors around but at night it must be even more special. So if you go (and you should!), stay overnight and enjoy this little peaceful stretch of land and its marvelous giant inhabitants.

Here are some pictures that hopefully explain better than words what a great place this is, for us it was by far the best day in Thailand yet.

How many elephants do you see? 

Eat your banana... Good girl!

A little bit of splashing

And scrubbing

The park also rescued many dogs after the floods of 2011

New friends 

After four days around Chiang Mai it's time to get out there to explore the green hills of the north of Thailand. We're heading to the small town of Soppong and we'll be taking a local bus to get there, wish us luck!