Sarah and I only had 2 weeks off, but we made the absolute most of it, flying straight from work on a Friday arvo and getting back at 7.30am on a Monday morning, and in the meantime having a full two weeks living with the elephants at Elephant Nature Park in northern Thailand.
The view from our bungalow
With elephants added
You may have heard of the place from our earlier ravings, we've been there twice before in 2005 and we still consider it one of the best places we have ever been to. Basically it's a place conceived and run by an inspiring Thai woman who uses it to rescue elephants who have been injured or badly treated. She tries to buy them and then allow them to live out the rest of their lives in a place where they can just be elephants, interacting and forming family groups as they choose to, well looked after and never forced to do anything they don't want to do or 'perform' for people's pleasure.
Often the elephants have been rescued from horrible situations. One has been intentionally blinded in both eyes by its owner at a trekking camp, one had been orphaned, one hit by a semi-trailer while street-begging and sustained major injuries, one had its foot blown off by a landmine in Burma, one broke its back while being made to do illegal logging work and is permanently disabled, many have been starved or brutally abused and beaten by their owners or handlers. One was addicted to amphetamines by its owner so it would work all day taking tourists for rides and all night doing logging and finally collapsed from exhaustion.
Malai Tong - the landmine victim
It's an incredible place - set in a river valley between jungle-covered hills in the countryside around Chiang Mai. There's about 30 elephants at the moment (two more were rescued in the two weeks we were there), there's also about 40 dogs and a couple of dozen cats and three cows!
There are three baby elephants as well as a few juveniles - so cute!
Sarah and Rae doing the washing
Mae Boon Ma - the white elephant
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