This morning, we were picked up after breakfast and drove 1.5 hours outside of Chiang Mai, up into the mountains to the Elephant Nature Park. Founded in 1995 by a Thai woman, Lek, the Park is a sanctuary for rescued elephants, either from the logging industry (that was made illegal in 1987), or abused 'domestic' elephants. She started back then with 50 acres of land and 4 elephants, and now the Park spans 200 acres and houses 35 elephants. The land is surrounded by a forest whose trees each have a bright yellow scarf tied around the truck. We learned that these scarves were blessed by a Buddhist monk and tied around the trees to protect the forest from illegal logging. It is apparently unholy to cut down a blessed tree.

Lek has a full time staff of 70 people, and keeps the project going by inviting people like us to tour the facility or volunteer to help it run. While these elephants are around people and respond to their mahouts (trainers), they are not fenced in, but rather are free to roam around the Park without barriers. We chose this way of interacting with the majestic Thai elephants because Lek's Park is the only one that doesn't include riding the elephants or watching them put on shows. We wanted a pure conservation park experience and we definitely got it!

Within seconds of arriving at the park, we were greeted by our first full-sized elephant. There were quite a few roaming around near the food area, even though they weren't set to be fed for another hour or so. There are 2 baby elephants in the herd, but the rest are full-sized, 1000 ton giants. With the exception of one 12 year old male, all of the adults are female; the female Asian elephants do not have tusks like their African counterparts. Really, this hardly matters as they are still impressive and tower even over Mark.

After an introduction to the park and some safety instructions, we were allowed down off the boardwalk and were supplied with a huge basket of fruit in front of our first friend, Mae. We got to take turns holding out the fruit and having her grab it in her trunk for transfer to her mouth. The mahouts would feed them directly into their huge, gaping mouth, but we just worked with the trunk. It was great fun to watch as Mae would grab the fruit and reposition it on her trunk for delivery into the mouth. As she was eating, we could walk around to her side and give her a good pat. Her skin was very rough from the prickly hairs on it and from the thick coating of dust and mud, which help keep her cool and protected from the sun.

Once Mae had her fill (and elephants eat up to 10% of their body weight each day!), we walked back to the main compound where more elephants were waiting for their meal. We next got to feed Jokia, although helping her to eat was a bit different. She had been so heavily abused as a logging elephant that she was blind in both eyes and unable to see the food offered to her. Instead of just holding out the slice of fruit, you had to tuck it neatly into the fold in her truck so that she could then bring it to her mouth. It was a sad story but I'm so glad that she's found peace and shelter at the Park.

By then, it was time to feed ourselves so we stayed at the main compound and had a truly amazing buffet lunch. The spread of vegetarian food was incredible and everything they served was very tasty. All left over food was given to the rescue dogs who also have a home at the nature reserve.

Right after lunch, we changed into our water clothes and headed down to the river with some elephants. To help keep them clean and cool, we got in the water, stood beside our elephant, and threw repeated buckets of water at the elephant. Now, if Mark had tried to do this to me, I wouldn't have been impressed, but the elephants didn't seem to mind. So we kept soaking them with bucket after bucket of cool river water. And if we weren't hitting the spot they wanted, they'd fill their trucks with water and spray it themselves (and occasionally spray us in the process!).

After bath time, we headed back up to the board walk to act as spectators while the teenage male elephant "Hope" had his time in the river. All day, Hope was referred to as a naught boy. We weren't allowed down on the ground or in the river while he was around because he doesn't like to behave himself. At the Park, all of the elephants are trained with positive reinforcements, namely fruit, and not by striking the animal. Hope was adopted by Lek when he was very young and has never really allowed himself to be trained. When he was in the water with his mahout, he very obviously was not listening and eventually took off away from the trainer and tried to make an escape. He purposely defied his trainer for quite some time, but eventually came back (after at least a half-hour) to an offered bunch of bananas.

Once the coast was clear, we went back down to the ground to meet one of the babies of the herd, Pha Mai, who will turn 3 next month. Still considered a baby, this elephant still towers over me and is very strong, which I know from experience because she tried to steal my water bottle! Spending time up close with this baby and her mother was unreal. Also, in this time, Lek, the founder, was there and we were able to meet her. She was sitting under the front lets of Pha Mai, feeding her, and looked so happy and peaceful. What an incredible lady.

We then stopped to meet one of the other young elephants who liked to give kisses to visitors. Person after person lined up to get a wet kiss from her trunk. The look on Mark's face was hilarious.

The group then got to watch some of the elephants giving themselves a mud bath before headed back to the main for the last feeding of the day. Mark and I fed Mae Kaew, one of the smaller females in the herd. She was very funny - if you gave her a small piece of fruit, she would stick out her trunk and just wait. Once you gave her a second small piece, she would go ahead and eat it. If you gave her one large piece, she had no problem eating it straight away.

We were sad to leave at the end of the day and wished we could instead be among the many volunteers that stay for weeks. The elephants were so gentle and had such an amazing energy about them. I hope my love and appreciation was conveyed to them through our contact.

Energized but exhausted from our day, we caved and had some great pizza for dinner. It's insane to think we'll be landing back in Canada in one week...and we'll be able to have pizza whenever we want.