Thursday, May 2, 2013

Day 53 (Apr 27, 2013): Chiang Mai, Thailand Part III: Baan Chang Elephant Park

The Quick Facts:

* Spent the day at the Baan Chang Elephant Park, a rescue organization that buys elephants who are either being mistreated/abused or worked in the logging trade on the Thailand/Myanmar border (for which it is illegal to use elephants)
* During the day, we got to feed the elephants, ride them (bareback!), and then bathe them

The Good:

* The whole day!  We had an excellent time and the elephants are really sweet animals.

The Bad:

* Nothing.  Although the hairs on the elephants are quite rough (Carrie says they need some conditioner), so they don’t feel that great.  But, not a huge deal in the grand scheme of the experience.


Another “thing to do” while in Chiang Mai is to go to an elephant sanctuary to learn about and interact with elephants.  There are many companies that do this, so it was important to find one that a) rescues elephants, b) provides them with a good home, and c) designed a program that does not exploit the elephants in any way.  Carrie did a great job in hitting all three categories!

 

When you get there, they give you a uniform for the day.  It also gives us a glimpse into what Carrie would like if she ever goes to prison one day….

 

First you feed the elephants, who are vegetarians and really like bananas and sugar cane.  Check out all those bananas!

 

And here are some elephants and us feeding them….


 

Next on the agenda was teaching us all how to ride the elephants.  Here I am…a natural!


 

And here are a few pictures from our actual ride.  I started out sitting behind Carrie (as instructed by the elephant people)…

 


…and now I’m driving the bus!

 

Finally, we took the elephants down to the lake for their bath, which they really enjoyed.  The elephant that Carrie and I rode just went into the lake, laid down on her side, and waited for us to come with our brushes and buckets.  We had a lot of fun!

 
 

 
 
And that was our day.  Here are a couple other elephant pics.  This is the house they stay in:

 

 The working end of an elephant, oh my!

 

Scratch scratch scratch

 

Check out those tusks (well, just the one tusk but you get the idea)!

 

And finally, before we got to the park, we stopped at this business that makes paper out of…you guessed it, elephant poop!  I’m adding that to my list of “things to make out of my own poop when I get back to the US”.  Now you can have your coffee and read the morning paper, all courtesy of Andy Donaldson’s dinner last night.



Follow me on Twitter at @adonaldson1214

No comments:

Post a Comment