After a few days of hanging out in Chiang Mai with Tina I hopped onto a mini bus to start my week of volunteering at the Elephant Nature Park. It was such an incredible experience! Every day we woke up to the sounds of elephants trumpeting and roaring (yes, elephants roar!) and fell asleep every night to the sounds of crickets and frogs!!! After waking up at 6:15 to do early morning yoga (we were lucky enough to have a yoga teacher amongst the volunteers) first thing in the morning (after breakfast, of course!) was morning chores - I usually got to shovel elephant poo, which actually isn't half as bad as it sounds. After that we would do various other bits and pieces that needed doing until 10:30 when the food trucks came to deliver tons and tons of fruit and veg for the elephants' lunch. We would make a long line and pass along the huge bags of pumpkins, watermelons, bananas, and cucumbers to the food preparation area. Then there was washing, chopping and disributing of all of the food into each elephant's basket. Finally (and by this stage the elephants are all waiting not-so-patiently to be fed), we would stand on the feeding platform and hand feed whichever elephants we wanted to. It was amazing how picky some of them were - apparently one piece of watermelon tasted much nicer than another piece! Many would try to steal food from other elephants baskets because apparently those watermelons tasted
even better!! Even more amazing, however, is how much control they have with their tentacle-like trunks (not surprising, I guess, when you consider that the trunk has about 450 muscles in it!). Only after the elephants had eaten everything in their baskets were we humans allowed to eat - and, ah, the food at the park was so so delicious!! For every meal we piled our plates with a huge variety of delicious dishes. After lunch (and multiple cups of tea) the elephants were bathed in the river and you could see how much they loved being splashed and scrubbed by heaps of hands! After the bathing it was time for projects, which could be anything from taking down old fences through aggressive thorny plants, picking mangoes with crazy
mahouts (people who take individual care of each elephant and are responsible for each elephant), collecting bamboo rafts and sitting on top of them on top of a truck (clinging for dear life) and then floating down the river with them, filling in potholes in the road, or 'cleaning' the elephants' mudpit! After projects we usually had time to have a much-needed shower before beer-o'clock (as the kitchen staff called it) and another scrumptious meal for dinner! By about 9pm every night we were completely exhausted, but each day was so amazing and challenging! Probably my favourite thing was just watching the elephants in our free time. They are such intelligent and social creatures - each was part of a family group, usually consisting of a baby and several aunties - and they are also amazingly quiet! Despite their huge size, an elephant can sneak up on you without you having any idea! I also met a lot of great people at the park, a few of whom I will be travelling with to Laos this week! So, all in all it was an excellent week. And if anyone is going to Thailand anytime soon, or knows anyone who is, I highly recommend that they go to the Elephant Nature Park for a very unique and unforgettable experience that doesn't harm elephants (unlike most elephants treks). If you really want to go on an elephant trek, insist that you walk alongside the elephant rather than on top of it (cuz elephants' backs are not designed to carry chairs and people).
After a few days of hanging out in Chiang Mai with Tina I hopped onto a mini bus to start my week of volunteering at the Elephant Nature Park. It was such an incredible experience! Every day we woke up to the sounds of elephants trumpeting and roaring (yes, elephants roar!) and fell asleep every night to the sounds of crickets and frogs!!! After waking up at 6:15 to do early morning yoga (we were lucky enough to have a yoga teacher amongst the volunteers) first thing in the morning (after breakfast, of course!) was morning chores - I usually got to shovel elephant poo, which actually isn't half as bad as it sounds. After that we would do various other bits and pieces that needed doing until 10:30 when the food trucks came to deliver tons and tons of fruit and veg for the elephants' lunch. We would make a long line and pass along the huge bags of pumpkins, watermelons, bananas, and cucumbers to the food preparation area. Then there was washing, chopping and disributing of all of the food into each elephant's basket. Finally (and by this stage the elephants are all waiting not-so-patiently to be fed), we would stand on the feeding platform and hand feed whichever elephants we wanted to. It was amazing how picky some of them were - apparently one piece of watermelon tasted much nicer than another piece! Many would try to steal food from other elephants baskets because apparently those watermelons tasted even better!! Even more amazing, however, is how much control they have with their tentacle-like trunks (not surprising, I guess, when you consider that the trunk has about 450 muscles in it!). Only after the elephants had eaten everything in their baskets were we humans allowed to eat - and, ah, the food at the park was so so delicious!! For every meal we piled our plates with a huge variety of delicious dishes. After lunch (and multiple cups of tea) the elephants were bathed in the river and you could see how much they loved being splashed and scrubbed by heaps of hands! After the bathing it was time for projects, which could be anything from taking down old fences through aggressive thorny plants, picking mangoes with crazy mahouts (people who take individual care of each elephant and are responsible for each elephant), collecting bamboo rafts and sitting on top of them on top of a truck (clinging for dear life) and then floating down the river with them, filling in potholes in the road, or 'cleaning' the elephants' mudpit! After projects we usually had time to have a much-needed shower before beer-o'clock (as the kitchen staff called it) and another scrumptious meal for dinner! By about 9pm every night we were completely exhausted, but each day was so amazing and challenging! Probably my favourite thing was just watching the elephants in our free time. They are such intelligent and social creatures - each was part of a family group, usually consisting of a baby and several aunties - and they are also amazingly quiet! Despite their huge size, an elephant can sneak up on you without you having any idea! I also met a lot of great people at the park, a few of whom I will be travelling with to Laos this week! So, all in all it was an excellent week. And if anyone is going to Thailand anytime soon, or knows anyone who is, I highly recommend that they go to the Elephant Nature Park for a very unique and unforgettable experience that doesn't harm elephants (unlike most elephants treks). If you really want to go on an elephant trek, insist that you walk alongside the elephant rather than on top of it (cuz elephants' backs are not designed to carry chairs and people).
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