This is the day that Chris was most looking forward to more than any other during our trip to Thailand. Chris loves elephants! He would have liked to visit an Elephant Sanctuary that allows riding the elephants, but I felt bad about that. Since I planned the trip, I picked the Elephant Nature Park.
Elephant Nature Park
The Elephant Nature Park is a place dedicated to rescuing elephants. Many of the elephants there had been injured while working in the logging or tourism industries. Now instead of performing tricks or transporting heavy timber, they live in a protected environment where their needs come first.
Since they focused primarily on providing a home for elephants who’d had a rough life, they did not rescue baby elephants. The only time babies are accepted is when their mother is rescued – then the calves are allowed to stay. Seeing baby elephants there was relatively rare.
Travel Companions
This was another tour that our guide Dome was not allowed to join us for, so once again he spent the day waiting with the driver while we went off on our adventure.
He didn’t seem bothered by it—I’m sure it’s a normal part of being a tour guide—but we still felt bad leaving him behind. By this point in the trip, he felt less like a guide and more like a friend.
For the day, we were paired with two other travelers, and the four of us stayed together with our guide from morning until late afternoon. One was from Egypt and the other from Germany. They had actually grown up together as roommates at a boarding school in England. The idea of sending your kids to school in another country felt very foreign to me, but clearly it’s more common in other parts of the world. Now they were both working adults who had reunited for a trip to Thailand.
It was fascinating getting to know them and hearing their perspectives. At one point, I mentioned that I was jealous they both spoke multiple languages. The guy from Egypt had such an unexpected response to that, I was shocked. “Why? You know the only language that matters.” Such an interesting and somewhat humbling perspective! Despite that, I would still love to know more languages.
Lunch
Around midday, all the different tour groups gathered together for lunch. The meal was buffet-style, simple, and filling. I did learn one difficult and important lesson:
If you find a star anise in your food… take it out.
It’s meant to add flavor while cooking, not to be eaten whole. Biting down on one is an experience I do not recommend.
Gentle Giants
The whole day was centered around these amazing gentle giants. Chris was in heaven.
It is funny to compare the pictures of Chris looking so gleeful to the pictures of me looking curious but cautious. These elephants were super sweet, but they are huge! I got the vibe that they would not purposefully hurt me, but that wouldn’t stop them from crushing me by accident!
The guide walking around with us told us the names and histories of each of the elephants and let us know which were his favorite, and why. I wish I remembered the names of the elephants!
You could clearly see some of the injuries some of the elephants had been dealing with. For example, there were a couple elephants with twisted or damaged legs from logging accidents. It looked awful and it was difficult to see. The guide assured us the elephants no longer felt pain, but I’m not sure I believe it. That would be rough to walk on.
The Baby Elephants
The highlight of the day came when the guide pointed out the only baby elephants in the whole park. The mother had been rescued and her babies brought with her. The guide pointed to them from a distance and several groups stopped to watch them wander around with their mom.
Then the baby elephants started walking towards us. This was the funniest thing – as they continued to get nearer and nearer, the grins on the faces of all us tourists started to turn into mild panic! The babies got real close to us and they were kind of slowly circling us around a tree. It really seemed as though those babies were teasing us!
It was really cute and funny and a little scary at the same time. As much as adult elephants don’t know their strength, baby elephants definitely don’t. And more importantly, we didn’t want to anger the mom!
Chris got the moment on video and you can hear him gleefully laughing as he videos us, while everyone else was nervously pacing around and laughing, not knowing whether we should be having fun or preparing to run!
I’ll be sharing that video on Facebook and Instagram – it perfectly captures the mix of joy and chaos from that memorable moment.
If you ask Chris for the message he’d like to convey to the readers regarding his time with the elephants, he’ll tell you that the elephants were majestic, and people are sissies around them.
Spending the day with these animals was truly unforgettable.
Up Next
We had a lot of grand adventures in Chiang Mai, but we also spent a bit of time exploring the Old City on our own – no tour guide and no schedule, just soaking it in. In the next post, I’ll detail the temples, markets, and the simple joy of discovering the city.
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