Elephant Nature Park

One of the first things you thing about when you think about Thailand are probably elephants. On our trip through/to Thailand me and my boyfriend wanted to make an experience with elephants so I started to gather some information about elephant camps and the well-being of elephants there. After visiting a lot of websites and contacting World Animal Protection (they were really helpful and answered all my questions and even sent me a list of “good” elephant camps/parks), whose motto it is to “Help tourists make animal-friendly choices ‘Before they book'”, we’ve decided not to book an elephant tour where you could ride elephants. Why you ask? Because after watching a video that explained that riding an elephant is nothing natural for elephants and that they are tortured and torn away from their family as babies, I started looking for an elephant experience where I could be sure that the animals are treated well. The video I watched about how elephants are really treated to get them to let you ride them is a little bit ironic and you have to stick to the end, but still it’s really worth watching:

The Elephant Nature Park

That’s when I found the Elephant Nature Park and decided that that’s exactly the experience I wanted to make: watch the elephants while they have fun and get in contact with them while they are safe and not chained up. There are a lot of 1-day and more-day visits you can choose from, but be aware to book soon enough. We unfortunately missed the time slot for our favourite two tours – “Pamper a Pachyderm” or “Sunshine for Elephants” – and had to stick to the “Single Day Visit”. Still it was a one-in-a-lifetime-experience (or hopefully not ;-)).

“Established in the 1990’s our aim has always been to provide a sanctuary and rescue centre for elephants. The park is located some 60km from the city, and has provided a sanctuary for dozens of distressed elephants from all over Thailand.” – Elephant Nature Park

The Single Day Visit

After we’ve been picked up at our hotel we drove to the Elephant Nature Park, with a short break on the way to buy some refreshments (soft drinks, fresh coconut *delicious*, …). At the Elephant Nature Park we’ve got a short instruction from our guide concerning the agenda for our visit. During the whole visit we had the opportunity to feed the elephants, watch them be themselves, bath the elephants in the river, watch a short movie about the Elephant Nature Park, eat lunch and feed the elephants once again.

The best thing is that the elephants can walk freely, are not chained up and I didn’t see one metal torture stick.

Briefly summarised: All in all I must say that the visit to the Elephant Nature Park was an awesome experience and if we manage to be once again in Chiang Mai we definitely will do one of the other single-day-visits.