Tuesday 13th March – The Elephant Jungle Sanctuary

After failing to make even a dent in the massive breakfast buffet, we were picked up by our driver on the dot of 8am.  We were shown to an open-backed truck with another couple.  At first I thought we may be being transferred to meet lots of other tourists on a bigger bus, but no, these were our wheels to reach the sanctuary.  The driver had two more pick-ups until there were 8 of us squeezed in the back and, by an amazing coincidence, the Irish couple who were in the opposite bunks to us on the night train the day before got to ride in the cab with the driver.

The view out of the back of our cosy transport

A local taxi

Now, that's just childish.... but funny!

We had a break for refreshments before we continued out of the City and wound around some still-being-made mountain roads, ascending into the jungle. 

Half a road leading up the mountain

Local store

Eventually we arrived at our location.  Elephants jungle sanctuary has nine different sanctuary locations around Thailand.  They house domestic elephants that have become too much for their owners, so they are used to humans and therefore safe to interact with.  They do not ‘use’ the pachyderms in any way, for farming for example, and they have a strict ‘no riding’ policy.  This is a sanctuary. The elephants are here to be looked after and just left to do what elephants do.  We had done our research to ensure that we were supporting an ethical elephant experience, unlike some of the animal shows and zoos that we had seen posters for whilst in Phuket.

On arrival we were each given a stripy ‘Karen’ elephant handler top.  I think more to protect our clothing than anything. They are not too flattering.  We were then given an introductory talk about the sanctuary and about the six elephants that we would be meeting there that day.  The herd here consisted of five adult female Asian elephants and one year-and-a-half baby male elephant. We were shown how to feed them bananas without losing our fingers or getting our toes trodden on.

We then walked up a nearby steep hill and got our first views of the elephants and their handlers at the top.  As well as this lifestyle working for the elephants, it also works for the local communities.  The men used to have to go and work in the City and send the money they earned back to the rural villages, but now they get to do a full-time job whilst still living locally with their families. 





As we had been warned, the elephants knew exactly what was going on and were not shy in heading straight over towards us where they knew the food was coming from!  What do you do when a full-sized elephant is heading towards you at speed?  Hold a banana out to it as quickly as possible or, if you’re out of bananas, MOVE! They do not mess around when it comes to eating bananas.  They can shove as many into their mouths as they want by all accounts.  We had each carried a small bunch up the hill for them, but these were gone in no time at all.  Luckily their handlers had reinforcements.  We must have spent nearly an hour with the elephants feeding them and watching them interact.

Feeding the baby male elephant

 

 

 

 

The elephants knew where their handlers were hiding the bananas!

Then it was on to an unexpected treat, a swim in a waterfall to cool off. Not everyone went in, but we braved the icy waters to get some photos and then we got even more involved when one of the locals invited us to first jump in and then use some of the slippery rocks as a slide into the pool.

Then it was back to the sanctuary for a buffet lunch and a long break.  Everyone was then told to strip off to their swimwear and get into the pond with a pan and scrubbing brush… it was bath time! It disintegrated into a water/mud fight pretty rapidly whilst we waited for the adult elephants to make their way down the hill and join us. We threw water all over our elephant and gave her a scrub here and there, but it wasn’t long until they chose to move on to the next area of the spa… the mud bath!  Things got even messier there as mud was thrown and/or patted onto the elephants and us.  Once the adults had finished their appointment we had to move out of the water for the mother and baby to come down.  Despite being half the size of his Mum, the baby is unaware of his size and strength and so they can’t trust him in the water with customers as he is too fast on his feet. Never mind, we still got to watch from an amazing viewpoint.  A little too close at times actually, as the baby managed to soak me as part of his bathing ritual.   

After the bathing session was over, we washed ourselves down as much as was possible in the muddy water before changing into some dry clothes.  Our day with the elephants was sadly at an end, but what a privilege to have spent time with these amazing and intelligent animals. A true highlight of Thailand for us.

Sadly, we still had to do the return two-hour journey in our truck but that couldn’t take anything away from the day.  The staff there were so welcoming and grateful for our visit, as were the elephants because our custom keeps them in bananas, we got given a couple of gifts – hand woven shoulder bags and a ‘Karen’ shirt each.  Not sure if I’ll be wearing mine?!

We took it easy for the evening, sticking with room service for dinner (below) so that we could download and review all of our photos and video footage from the incredible day. I tell you one thing though, the skin on my legs was the shiniest ever after my mud bath today!