Skip to main content

Northern Thailand 2017 - Elephant Nature Park Part 4

During the short planning period for this trip, I came across many articles about the mistreatments of animals, especially elephants in the tourism industry.  For many years we've associate Thailand and India with elephants... which means elephant riding, elephant shows, etc. It turned out that in order to have elephants be ridden and do shows, they had to undergo such cruel treatments it's so sad.

After reading more about this matter online, I decided to go to Elephant Nature Park, the pioneer of rescue and rehab centre for elephants and other animals. They don't offer rides, nor shows. What we got to see were beautiful elephant herds roaming free.

To go there, you have to book and pay through their website. They have different program options depending on what you want to do and how much time you have. I opted for a half day program and it was just enough for us. The fee included hotel transfer as well as buffet lunch.

As arranged, we were picked up at our hotel in the morning around 8:30 am. We hopped on to the minivan and continued picking up a few other guests and then proceeded to the park located about 90 minutes from the city centre. Aside from the driver, we had an English speaking guide with us. I think he was one of the volunteers. On the way, they played us a video first introducing the park and safety guides, and then to a more serious documentary about how elephants were abused for riding, shows, begging, and logging. They were broken, beaten, left to starve, stabbed, and more to train them to do what humans want. We were all so sad after seeing that video and Miss Kiki said that she was glad she didn't ride an elephant.

Not long after we arrived, it was time to give the elephants some bananas. They came and gathered in an area where visitors can grab the bananas provided and feed them to the elephants. Miss Kiki was a little scared but excited at the same time. She was very happy when a baby elephant took food from her hands. She also got to touch the trunk when that happened and it was unexpectedly dry and rough. :D







Shortly after, our group leader took us out on the field for a tour. We saw many elephants, small and large, young and old, enjoying their time eating and playing. It was truly magnificent to be able to come close to them without being separated by a cage, a fence, or a car window. Even my mom who is not a field person seemed to be having a good time.







Miss Kiki was a little hesitant to touch... but she did and was surprised by the way their skin felt.





We came back to the centre for a buffet lunch, and afterwards we headed back out to view their bathing time.








It got too hot for the Omas at that time, so they went back to sit while Miss Kiki and I continued on our tour...







Close to the end, there was a baby elephant that kept following us, and in the end ran to one of the participant and started chasing her. It turned out that she had a banana in her camera bag! Lol...

We left the park with mixed feelings... It was definitely an experience we won't soon forget...

Note: Sorry it took me a long time to continue with this series... I've been procrastinating because I couldn't really decided how I wanted to approach this matter. Anyway, it's done!... Stay tuned for the second part of this day in Part 5

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Nintendo Switch Sleeve Tutorial

Hi! I'm Kirana from woofkiki.blogspot.co.id . I am going to write an introduction for this blog post. We bought a Nintendo Switch in Japan.  I really liked it and played with it almost everyday. If you're wondering what a Nintendo Switch is, it is a video game where you can basically  "switch" everything. The joy-cons and even the game! You can also connect it to your TV. It would be nice to bring it around with you, but when you put it in your bag... Oh no! The screen scratched! So, this is a sleeve that will fix that. Let's get started!😊 Kirana Now the tutorial (by Kirana's mom)... 1. Make your pattern according to the picture below. It is basically a 6"x24" rectangle with a semi circle at one end. Note: this is not a printable pattern 1. Cut your outer fabric, lining, and batting(optional). In this tutorial, I used minky for lining and a pre-quilted fabric for the cover, so I didn't need extra batting. For batting, I recomm...

Japan Winter Holiday 2017 Part 7 - Otaru Sakaimachi

On our second day in Otaru after we had breakfast and ice cream , we continued walking to Sakaimachi. This shopping street is one of the busiest in the city and is where a lot of Otaru attraction is located. In front of one of the stores there, we saw this cute dog wearing a Minion outfit. Of course Miss Kiki jumped and squealed and asked if she could pet it. We asked permission from the owner to take a picture with it. Along the street they have rock statues in the shape of famous characters like Anpanman and Mickey Mouse. With Anpanman It was a very nice day, we were able to walk around and had fun without feeling cold even though there were a lot of ice and snow. Check out the platforms they set up on the hill. We think that it's to prevent snow slides... Most of the buildings there were old style,,,  Many shops sell fresh seafood and they would cook it for you by order. As we walked past a souvenir shop, we saw a poster for these snowball make...

Japan Trip June 2016 - Part 9 - Osaka

It was a super hot and bright morning and we were all packed and ready to ride the train to Osaka. We had no excuse to take a taxi so we walked to Kyoto Station... It was a rather short ride considering we moved cities, it was still around noon when we arrived at Osaka Station. The AirBnb property I had booked looked close to the station on the map, but it was further than expected. We were so sweaty by the time we got there, mostly because of our backpacks and our suitcases! I was very impressed Miss Kiki carried her backpack without complaints even though it was pretty stuffed by then. Taken from Osaka Station We had to change our wet and sticky clothes upon arrival, and after a bit of rest we decided to head out. First to Tenjimbashisuji Shopping Street listed on a tourist guide just over 1 km away. It was so hot and sunny I regretted not taking a hat for any of us. I was lucky I hadn't forgotten to bring my sunglasses. When we got there, we real...