So my week of volunteering, I don't even know where to begin as it was just so amazing and for sure a favourite part of my travels.
So... Elephant Nature Park, is a sanctuary for abused and injured domestic elephants who have been rescued. Sorry but this is going to be a long one, it's hard to talk about the week without really going into why it matters. The sanctuary was set up by a lady called Lek Chailert, who at 16 found her calling, and is honestly one of the most selfless inspirational women I've ever met. She has won many awards for her work, including 'Hero of the Planet' and 'Hero of Asia'. Seeing her with the elephants was something out of a film. One day she was walking over to an approaching herd and one of the elephants recognised her and literally ran up to her, Lek opened her arms and the elephant wrapped her trunk round her. Truly magical. Known as the Elephant Whisper, her vision is to stop the terrible cruelty these beautiful elephants have to endure and use love and positive reinforcement instead of pain and fear.
My eyes have really been opened. I had some basic knowledge into the elephant tourist trade (which is why I chose to go to the park), but the depths of the true problems are shocking. We watched some very emotional videos of the process of the 'training crush'. This is something through thai tradition, very single captured elephant goes through, and is know as 'breaking their spirt'. As babies they are taken from their mothers, put into tiny boxes with no room to move at all, and for days on end are hit with hooks and nails and beaten into submission. This can go on for days and can last up to 14 hours. Watching 1min of footage was enough, and even writing this now is very emotional.
Don't be fooled again that an elephant happily picks up a paint brush and started painting. They don't even have binocular vision. The only reason they are painting is because they have gone through this crushing process and have beaten into remembering the brush movements.
Lek understands that changes need to come from within thai culture and law enforcements, which is why she has started to invite a local school to spend a few days of the park, learning about the elephants. We were lucky enough to have a school group with us for a few days helping with some of our daily jobs. Then one day we got to go and visit their school, which was a great experience. Very different schools, as they mostly learn practical skills like cooking, massages and bracelet making. We had a chance to go into one of their English classes and help them learn some, which was amazing. However, really highlighted again the issues facing Lek, when one of the young boys had to draw an elephant and drew in with the bench on its back and a man sat on its necks with a hook in its head. Very upsetting.
What was so amazing about the park is the little interaction we had with the elephants. Like most wild animals, they don't like being in crowds of humans. It was like being on safari, watching them take mud baths and communicating with each other. There were times we got to get up close to them, and don't get me wrong it was amazing. To touch an elephant has been a dream since I was a little girl. They feel amazing and actually kind of soft. The baby elephants, which we couldn't go near (they had been born in the sanctuary and therefore never had their spirt broken) were so cute it was almost sickening. I could watch them all day!
The grounds we were
in were gorgeous. Middle of nowhere, an hour and a half outside of Chiang Mai, surrounded by mountains and forests, with a little river running through. It wasn't massive, but right now that's all the land the government will give Lek.
Our first days was a guided tour of the park and just meeting our group, who were all amazing. We got on so well and had some real laughs through the week, including a talent/freak show and I got to learn some salsa.
We had a welcome ceremony where we got blessed and were given white bracelets to wear for good luck. Then that was our first of 6 nights of being in bed before 9pm. Despite the 6:30am daily alarm, it's been great to catch up on some sleep. The bed was really comfy, but my god it's cold at night. Felt like being in England some mornings. And the 400 recused dogs from the flood in 2011, well they just loved barking at 6am every morning.
Day two was when the real work started. Breakfast started at 7am, and was pretty special eating in such an open space with elephant roaming round. The food was also, with great disappointment really good. I was hoping to lose a bit of weight this week, instead I've eaten as much as the elephants.
After being split into 3 groups, we got to work, all doing different jobs which were rotated rounds. Every morning, the park and the night shelters where the elephants slept needed cleaning, and then preparing their food. They eat A LOT!
Wasn't too bad clearing up poo, was quite a good workout actually. Didn't really smell and you get to be near the elephants. We had a good laugh in our groups and with our volunteer coordinators. They were hilarious, thai people have such a good sense of humour.
Food prep was maybe the hardest. Having to unloads daily trucks of watermelon, bananas and pumpkins. We would make lines throwing them back to each other, to stack them away. Would take over an hour to empty a truck. All the fruit would then have to be washed and cut up. The older elephants don't have any teeth so we would then have to mush down the bananas and make little banana wheat balls. That was my least favourite job.
After lunch we would get to either take walks round the park, have talks with Lek or go to local fields to collect truck loads of straw. Now that was a workout, some great team work going on. But again we spent a lot of time jumping into piles of straw and having a laugh. Sometimes they would also throw in a watermelon truck to unload in the afternoon as well. Just to spoil us.
Although, one afternoon after all the work had been done, the coordinators drove us up the river and let us go tubing. We took a lovely long drift back to the park. Great views and very relaxing. Just as we got to the park, some elephants were making their way into the river for a bath. Was great to be sharing that space with them and watch them.
We would finish about 3:30 and then have free time. Some evenings I would sit up on the sky walk, which over looked the whole park and read. Was lovely to sit in the beautiful surroundings with a cuppa and hear nothing but nature. Never felt so relaxed. Traveling is so on the go all the time, thinking where your going next, only stopping places for one or two nights. Loved being in one place for the week, with nothing to think about and able to be completely present in the moment.
One evening our coordinators gave us a thai lesson. Actually learnt loads, about their culture and some more words (practically fluent now) and about greetings. I wasn't sure what to expect from this week, but it has been more than I could of ever hoped for. I feel I got the true taste of Thailand and was way more than a week with elephants. Was great to support such a well deserved cause and I would recommend it to anyone.
Sad to be leaving today, but we are all meeting up later for drinks in Chiang Mai, so defiantly looking forward to that.
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