If you 're looking for a unique elephant encounter you 'll find it in Chiang Mai, Thailand at the Elephant Nature Park. This place is an expansive sanctuary and home to many of Thailand 's distressed elephants. They not only save and care for elephants in need, they also rescue dogs and cats. Luckily for us, they 've made it their mission to educate the public about general animal welfare and the torment that many elephants are forced to endure for the tourism industry. Why is that little factoid 'lucky for us ' exactly? They share their park with us to allow us to have an up close elephant encounter in a much more ethical way. They share their stories and spread awareness in the hopes that one day, the elephants won 't face the same troubles
…show more content…
I felt I was able to better connect with them by being able to face them. Boy did these elephants have some personality too. The second that I ran out of bananas they were poking my stomach with their trunks as if to say 'hey, I 'm still hungry what 's with the hold up '. It was pretty cute but they tapped me out quickly! Fortunately, I was given more bananas by the tour guides. Another thing to note is that as you walk with the elephants, there isn 't anyone with the infamous 'hook ' to keep them in line and fearful. If you 're wondering what the hook is, basically mahouts will use a hard stick or hook to hit or grab onto the elephant while riding. This is the hook that was used to 'break the elephant 's spirit ' (abusing the elephants until they obey with riding commands). It 's an intimidation tactic to let the elephant know who is in charge. These didn 't exist at the Elephant Nature …show more content…
At this point the elephants were to roam around and eat their lunch while we ate ours. I couldn 't wait for lunch to finish because the walk would soon continue down to the river for bath time. That 's right we were going to help bathe these friendly giants. It was really enjoyable, you just throw big buckets of water on them and watch the mud melt off. Of course, they didn 't stay clean for long, elephants love their mud. Next we were taken for a short river rafting trip, I could skip this happily for more time in the park honestly. I wish there had been an option for that! So we will just skip that portion of the trip and go right to the part where we learned more about the
I felt I was able to better connect with them by being able to face them. Boy did these elephants have some personality too. The second that I ran out of bananas they were poking my stomach with their trunks as if to say 'hey, I 'm still hungry what 's with the hold up '. It was pretty cute but they tapped me out quickly! Fortunately, I was given more bananas by the tour guides. Another thing to note is that as you walk with the elephants, there isn 't anyone with the infamous 'hook ' to keep them in line and fearful. If you 're wondering what the hook is, basically mahouts will use a hard stick or hook to hit or grab onto the elephant while riding. This is the hook that was used to 'break the elephant 's spirit ' (abusing the elephants until they obey with riding commands). It 's an intimidation tactic to let the elephant know who is in charge. These didn 't exist at the Elephant Nature …show more content…
At this point the elephants were to roam around and eat their lunch while we ate ours. I couldn 't wait for lunch to finish because the walk would soon continue down to the river for bath time. That 's right we were going to help bathe these friendly giants. It was really enjoyable, you just throw big buckets of water on them and watch the mud melt off. Of course, they didn 't stay clean for long, elephants love their mud. Next we were taken for a short river rafting trip, I could skip this happily for more time in the park honestly. I wish there had been an option for that! So we will just skip that portion of the trip and go right to the part where we learned more about the