You Me and Tuscany: A Safe Haven for Rescued Elephants: Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai

Before Zack and I knew we'd end up living in Thailand, we often talked about our travel dreams: places we'd love to go and the things we imagined ourselves doing. Thailand was one place on our list. And one of those things we dreamed of doing in Thailand was (of course) riding an elephant. Who doesn't dream of doing that while planning a trip to South East Asia? It is probably one of the most popular tourist attractions in Thailand. Seeing these animals in real life is absolutely incredible, and booking an Elephant Trek is quite accessible here in this country, given the amount of Tour Companies that offer these types of excursions. However, after doing some further research on this topic, we changed our minds.

We decided we could never and would never pay money to ride an elephant.

Why? We found out that the elephant tourism industry could possibly lead to the reason why elephants might not actually be here on this planet for very much longer. These beautiful creatures have been mistreated, tortured, and taken out of their natural habitat all because it was discovered that tourists would pay a lot of money to either ride them or watch them perform (eg: circus elephants). Today, probably more than half of Thai elephants work in Tourism. That's not to say that all elephants in tourism are treated badly. Thai people in general are very humane and caring people, and know that these animals are extremely valuable. But even so, if taking a baby elephant out of the wild and into a chaotic city environment can put food on the table... then what? Sadly, this is just a huge problem that I cannot fully wrap my mind around.

A lot of these elephants landed up in the tourism industry after the Thai government banned logging in 1989, as natural forests were quickly diminishing. While environmentally this was definitely a step in the right direction, it left a lot of "domesticated" elephants simply abandoned, or put to work in the tourism industry. Again, while not all tourism companies mistreat their animals, some valued the money they would make over the quality of life given to these elephants. I won't go into detail, but this industry has left many elephants both physically and mentally ill.

But wait- there's hope! Just an hour north of Chiang Mai is an Elephant Nature Park, a rescue and rehabilitation center for these elephants in need. Here, not just elephants, but also dogs, cats, and buffaloes, have a natural environment to roam. They are fed, bathed, and can even roll around in the mud if they please (elephants do this to keep cool and to protect their skin from the sun)! Many of these animals come from situations that have left them with physical or mental scars, and you can visibly see this when visiting the park. The park accepts daily and long term volunteers to help keep this park running.

Zack and I volunteered for the day last Saturday and were able to feed, bathe, and pet the animals. We had a guide for the day, who brought us around the park. She told us the background history of the elephants that live there, including where they came from and how old they were. Some elephants needed more space than others, as they are all still recovering. One elephant in particular, is blind in both eyes from experiencing circus lights night after night. This elephant cannot be approached because you may startle her and upset her. It was an amazing experience to hear all their stories and to see them here now, roaming free.

Elephants are incredible creatures and I feel blessed to have had this opportunity!