February 2-4- Elephant Nature Park

A month before our vacation, our extreme-environmentalist travelmate (Amanda) decided she HAD to do some eco-tourism at the very beginning of our trip.

Eventually she decided on a week-long stay at the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai. At this park, you help look after abused elephants. And we encountered some difficulties. Lisa was directly on board, Ali and Suze wanted to go for 2 days, 1 night, and I was totally against the idea (scooping elephant poop is NOT my idea of vacation, and the 50 dogs also at the place sounded a wee bit intimidating).

Eventually we decided that Lisa and Amanda would go for a week, and the rest of us for 2 days and 1 night.

The minute we stepped into the compound, I insisted that Ali, Suze, and I should book another night. It was INSANE.

The buildings looked just like the home on the blue lagoon, except 50 times the size. Everything was made of bamboo, with all different levels of stairs and foliage EVERYWHERE.

AND

37 elephants were just walking around, as well as 50 dogs, 15 cats, 10 water buffalo, and 2 baby pigs.

We got to feed the elephants, and twice a day we'd all go down to the river and give the elephants baths (which consisted of throwing pails of water on their backs, and avoiding the trunks of elephants with naughty mahouts, who would encourage their elephants to spray us!). We also had to be fully dressed, (we were told jokingly this rule existed so the mahouts would concentrate on their elephants, and not on women in bikinis). It felt kind of biblical, all of us running into a river, fully-clothed, to wash elephants.

One morning we went for a walk down in the field with all of the elephants. This was slightly terrifying, but also really cool. The different family groups were all spread out, so we walked from group to group, while our guide told us stories of the individual elephants.

Domestic elephants in Asia have it ROUGH.

After spending time at the elephant sanctuary I would highly discourage anyone to participate in elephant activities. No elephant treks, buying elephant paintings, watching elephant soccer matches, or buying food to feed to street elephants.

According to the elephant sanctuary, in order to train elephants, many Thai people believe that a terribly cruel ritual called 'pajeon' (literally 'crush') must be preformed on the elephants in order to break their spirits. We watched a video on it at the elephant sanctuary. They rip elephants away from their mothers at age four (in the wild males wouldn't leave until eight or ten, and females even later). Then the poor elephant is stuffed into a cage so small it can't move at all. Then for a week it's absolutely tortured. They take sticks with sharp metal ends and stab the elephant. The elephant we saw on the video was gushing blood from more than 50 wounds. All the while a shaman is blessing the elephant, as if this cruelty is somehow holy.

I can't say for certain that every working elephant has been subjected to this treatment, but most probably have.

After pajeon, some elephants are lucky enough to be well-treated by their owners; but not all.

Max was working the streets of Bangkok, when he was hit by an 18-wheeler. His front two legs were broken, and he is skeletally thin.

Lily's owners pumped her full of meth to get more work hours out of her.

Jokia was made to work logging while she was in labour. She had her baby at the top of a hill, and it rolled down the hill and died. She was unable to save her baby. She laid down and refused to work anymore. Her mahout used a slingshot on her eyes to make her move, and he permanently blinded her.

Most of the 37 elephants have similar horror stories.

I built fences, shucked corn, and helped build a dam, all the while watching EXACTLY where the money I had spent was going. It was a fabulous experience.

If you're ever in Chiang Mai, be sure to check it out!