Here Comes the Sun

And I say it’s alright. I had dreams about getting to the see the elephants even before we left on our trip. I had such a fascination with these majestic creatures that don’t look like anything else on this earth. What I didn’t know, couldn’t know, is how much of an indelible mark they’d leave on me. This is as much of a story of sorrow as it is of joy.

We had received several recommendations from friends that visiting the elephants was the. best. ever. But first we had to do some research. There are a lot of elephant parks out there and many claim to be ‘rescue’ parks, but in reality are far from it. We really wanted to be responsible about our choice of elephant parks. While the parks that offered elephant rides were tempting, neither Shiv nor I felt it right to ride. It just didn’t sit well with us.

After much research, we chose Elephant Nature Park because of their excellent reputation online and the fact that they do not subject the animals to giving rides or being chained up. We learned the story of the founder, Lek, and how she started the sanctuary to heal abused elephants.

This sanctuary focuses on the rehabilitation of Asian elephants of which there are only ~30,000 left in the world (vs. ~500,000 African elephants). These awe-inspiring animals have been abused in a number of devastating ways: forced to street perform, blinded from circus lights, crippled from the continued stress of logging work or giving humans rides, land mine accidents, or just pure evil on behalf of their former mahout (elephant caregiver). Our hearts were heavy with the stories of the cruelty inflicted on these elephants – and they became even heavier as we began to interact with them and see for ourselves just how loving they are. The juxtaposition between those two truths was so hard to grip.

Our day started early as we were picked up in a van with the others from our tour group. We drove about 45 minutes outside of Chiang Mai to the Elephant Park. The first thing we got to do was feed Lucky, who was blinded in the circus from too many bright lights. Because she was blind you had to tap her snout to let her know you had a piece of fruit for her. She happily and heartily ate a full laundry basket’s worth of fruits and vegetables. We were told this is merely a snack for her as elephants eat ~10% of their own weight everyday.

We then were taken inside the park to peacefully observe the elephants. Our first encounter was with a teenage elephant who was thoroughly enjoying a mud bath. Our group leader informed us that the elephant was 90% mentally disturbed from previous abuses…which kind of put me on edge a bit. I did not want to be on the receiving end of an elephant’s mental disturbance! We kept our distance, however, and she continued to splash around in the mud.

We moved around the park for the rest of the morning getting to meet each elephant and hearing her story of heartbreak and, ultimately, healing. We were in love with the fact that elephants, by nature, move around within a close-knit family. All of these elephants came to the sanctuary without family and yet they’ve all formed their own little family units. We were delighted to indulge in the stories of how distinct family units were formed as new elephants entered the park – it’s part of the rehabilitation and it happens naturally.

Meet some of our favorite ellies:

• Kabu: a younger elephant with a disfigured ankle from being chained up. What was amazing about her is that she harbored no ill will towards humans and was allowed to be introduced into the park after only two weeks – which is much sooner than most. As soon as you touched her, you could feel her relax and enjoy the company. What a sweetheart!
• Mae Thai: the oldest elephant in the park and grandmother to all elephants, we nicknamed her Nanama (which means “Grandma” in Telugu, the language of Shiv’s family).
• Jokia: maybe the saddest story of them all, Jokia worked in the logging industry all her life. She became pregnant and was carrying a load of logs as she began to give birth to her baby. Her former mahout would not allow her to stop logging, and the baby rolled down the hill and died. She became very depressed and refused to work. Her mahout abused her for not working by slashing both of her eyes. Jokia can no longer see, but she feels your presence immensely.
• Mae Perm: a grandmother type figure herself, Mae Perm was the first elephant resident of Elephant Nature Park. Mae Perm took in Jokia as her own when Jokia first came to the camp. Since then, they’ve been inseparable.

We were served a delicious and healthy vegetarian lunch and had ample time to get to know the others in our group as well as enjoy a beer. After lunch, we got to spend more time relaxing with the elephants, casually observing and interacting with them. We followed a family unit into the river where these jubilant bursts of elephant happiness exploded from every trunk in the water. We really regretted not Go-Pro’ing that because it was one of those moments that makes you believe that everything is good and right with the world.

At the end of day, we got to bathe the elephants in the river! This was really just taking buckets of water and throwing them on the elephants. We were lucky to get Mae Perm and Jokia with us in the river. A great ending to a great day, especially since we could see just how happy these guys were to be free from abuse and able to roam freely and happily.

This day was truly special for us. To be able to understand these animals better, to know that they were rightfully being cared for in their ‘retirement’ days, and to feel that we maybe contributed a little bit of love back to these loving creatures made this day truly the. best. ever.

We love the elephants!