Choosing the right elephant park in Thailand

Like a kid at Christmas, I didn't sleep the night before I went to the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai. I was so excited and also a little apprehensive, because like any sane person I physically detest animal cruelty.

This post covers:

• why it's important to do your research first
• what we did at the Elephant Nature Park
• how we got there from our hostel
• overall impressions

One for the family album

Do your research

You'll be bombarded with elephant trips when you travel to Thailand or Laos. With most offering packages that include riding and bathing the elephants. Despite elephants being pretty big animals, it really hurts their back to have some silly ass human(s) on them - so don't add to the problem.

Later in our travels, we were in Luang Prabang in Laos where every elephant package advertised riding them. Having spoke to a few travellers on the way, most seem to be against it - so I think slowly people are starting to realise that it's wrong. I can see why people do it naively though, because you ride horses and even donkeys, which should be in the same category, but unfortunately we view them differently.

Despite some elephant camps claiming they care for them, they might not treat them very well. It's a really sad fact that even though the elephant is a national symbol for Thailand, they're still massively mistreated in the country. 

The government don't fund any of the parks either - so paying extra to see the elephants actually helps to pay for their upkeep and even pays to actually retrieve the elephant from its abusive owner. Makes you question the world we live in doesn't it?

The Elephant Nature Park

We found the Elephant Nature Park on Instagram as we follow some of the elephants stories on there. It seemed to be the best one around in terms of how they care for the elephants they rescue.

They rescue the elephants from all sorts of shit circumstances like: other camps that mistreat them, circuses and labour work such as logging and trekking.

Enjoying his sugar cane <3

They also have cats (approx. 600), buffalo and dogs that they've rescued from things like the bad floods in Bangkok back in 2011.

The real bosses of the park

We chose the 2 days, 1 night package, which includes:

• two lunches, one breakfast and one dinner
• transportation to and from Chiang Mai to the park
• admission fees
• park guides
• overnight accommodation

It was £135 each, a bit pricey if you're a backpacker, but when else do you sleep with elephants? They also do half days and other experiences too for a bit cheaper.

Getting there

The park is about an hour and a half north of Chiang Mai. Your tour guide comes and picks you up from where you're staying Chiang Mai in a mini bus.

On the way to the park, we were told to watch a video that came down on a screen in the mini bus. It was very emotional to see. It showed you some of the circumstances that the elephants had endured. 

You hear the most heartbreaking ways that humans 'break the elephants souls' in order to fully control them. They do this by tying the elephant's legs around trees and only giving them minimal food and water. When the elephant shakes his back and forth, that's a a sign it's in distress. 

It really is the saddest thing in the world to see. How in God's name can you have a conscious and do this to animal?

We were also given some house rules when you're interacting with the elephants at the park. For example, don't stand directly in front of the elephant because they won't see you.

What we did

Here's what we did over the two days:

First day

The first day you get to firstly feed the elephants with the rest of the tourists who come for the day experience - this starts about 9:30am. The elephants don't need telling its feeding time, they just come up to you naturally to get their fix of bananas, watermelon and pumpkin.

We then went on a walk around the park, which is all open with no fences around the ground and a big river that flows through it. The reason why they don't have a fence is because they wanted the river in the park so the elephants can bath in it, but the river is public property, so they couldn't cut it off. This means that if an elephants roams out of the park they just have to hope they come back. Some even join other camps across the river.

As I stood on the bank of the river, with 40 other humans, all with their cameras and phone snapping away whilst a family splashed about in the river, I thought: how are we the dominant species here?

You have lunch around 12.30/1pm. The food is to DIE FOR. It was all veggie and full of so much flavour. You get to choose from a variety of dishes from a massive buffet, that includes things like: spicy papaya salad (my new fav thing), spring rolls, noodles, fries and all sorts of other dishes.

After lunch we were able to check-in to our accommodation for the night. Each couple had their own bungalow that was located near the 'Cat Kingdom' where they house all the rescued cats (although most cats just roamed around the park). Our bungalow was directly behind the pen where the elephants come to sleep! It was so incredible and surreal to suddenly see a massive elephant go past your bedroom window.

Our digs for the night

After an hour of getting used our new digs, we met our guide again who took us down the river to see an elephant family. I didn't know this before, but elephants have nannies. The nannies aren't usually related to the family, but care for the children like their own.

After you've had dinner, which is an array of gorgeous veggie food again, the mahouts (the elephants keepers), did a musical performance on the landing. It was adorable. They played flutes and the drums to the tunes of Auld Lang Syne and Happy birthday.

Second day

Up at crack of dawn, we awoke to the sound of trumpets - probably the best alarm you could have wished for.

You get to do a private walk with a family in the morning, which is an absolutely amazing to experience. You see them walking up the bank of the river towards you. So majestic and graceful. It makes you feel a bit inferior to such beautiful creatures. Also makes you think, why the hell did they put up with humans? They could easily retaliate, but they don't.

One of the elephants we were told not to get up close to or take pictures of her because she is still so mentally scared from how she was treated years ago. How sad is that? I mean what person in their right mind does that to animal? This really got to me and I felt overwhelming guilt. I'll never forget it.

You also saw elephants damaged by land mines that were left over from the Vietnam war, called the 'secret war'. You saw the chain lines around their legs, and how their backs were arched because of the heavy wooden seats they had on their backs.

One elephant, that was about 90, didn't have any more teeth. Elephants teeth actually fall out at certain age. We made her balls of sticky rice, bananas, seeds - which actually looked really yummy. When we got there to feed her, there were a few other elephants around; one with a deformed leg, which he was born with.

The park lets the elephants roam around naturally and do as they please. They have some routine, like breakfast and dinner time. Before dinner they always take a bath in the river, then dry off by putting mud on themselves. They do this to keep the sun off too - suncream for elephants.

As you're with the same group for 2 days you really get to bond with them. We met some really nice couples from Finland, American and the UK.

Over the two days you have 2 tour guides. We had Mint (sorry forgot the second guides name) who were so knowledgable about all the elephants in the park and answered all your questions.

Overall impressions

Probably the best thing we've done on our trip so far. It was very emotional, but also an absolutely awe inspiring experience to be up close to these beautiful creatures.

It was also a very hands on experience - you feel totally safe and at one with the elephants. I'd totally recommend doing the 2 day experience because you feel that you have more quality time with the elephants without the big crowd. Also, by day 2 you've already taken about 50 pictures of the elephants so you can just enjoy it without thinking about your Instagram.

The Elephant Nature park truly is a rehabilitation centre, which is why so many people chose it over other places. You can see yourself that the elephants are well taken care of and have finally found a happy life after being in captivity.

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