Thailand Part 3 of 3: Elephants

Our first full day in Thailand, we went to the Ao Nang Elephant Sanctuary to get up close and personal with the endangered Asian elephants there.  The elephants housed at the sanctuary were rescued working elephants, often in either the logging or entertainment industries.  The staff mentioned that they were working toward serving as a boarding service for working elephants as well, but that part of their business hadn't taken off yet.

The elephants we interacted with were domesticated and gentle.

We started out by feeding the elephants whole bananas (peel and all) and small pieces of sugar cane.  We were first trained to place it in the corners of their mouths.

Then we practiced placing the bananas and sugar cane into the elephants' outstretched trunks so they could place the food in their mouths themselves.  The guides emphasized that we needed to place the food in the trunk as it curled around like fingers and not in the nostril holes - after all, would you like it if someone was feeding you by sticking a carrot up your nose?

We got to mix food pellets for the elephants to eat.  We mushed together bananas, rice, and other ingredients into balls to feed them.  Our hands got very dirty.

Then we went back to feed the elephants the balls we made.

Then it was time to give the elephants a mud bath.  The handlers walked them over to the mud pits and we scooped up mud and then rubbed it into their thick hides.  Some of the elephants lied down in the mud puddle which made it a little easier to reach, but the best pictures we got were us stretching as high as we could to rub mud on their sides and backs.  The mud helps cool them down, as well as serves as insect repellent, moisturizer, and sunscreen.  They had a nice spa day with us.

After getting mudded up, it was time to get in the water and scrubbed off so we all joined the elephants in the pool armed with brushes to scrub and plastic pots to splash water on them.

Of course, the handlers had trained the elephants (I assume) to splash us as well.  I imagine they had some hand signals or commands or something when they were ready to take our picture to get the elephant to spray water out their trunks.

Like much of our vacation, this was the type of activity that probably wouldn't be allowed to happen in the U.S.  I imagine lawyers and insurance companies would be freaking out if this were going on in a zoo or something like that and it would also likely be prohibitively expensive.  In Thailand, it was a big tourist draw, but was definitely an enjoyable way to spend a day.

It was fun to learn about the elephants and the staff made us feel like we were really helping a good cause in rescuing these animals from a life of hard labor.

In all honesty, I am not sure the elephants had that great of a life in their rescue home though.  It seemed like a very small piece of land to keep so many elephants confined there.  I don't know if they had other property elsewhere, but apart from the possibly cramped conditions, I imagine it was an improvement for them.

And of course, we got to eat some fresh fruit and drink some coconut milk after we cleaned up.