An Unforgetable Week with the Elephants

Kudos to Michele, Alexis and Mike for recommending this experience!

It has turned out to be one of the most memorable weeks of our journey. We had no idea what was in store for us when we signed up for the program. To briefly summarize we joined 30 other volunteers from 9 to 71 (Doug) and the large group was divided into 4 smaller groups. Each group had a turn at all of the following: cleaning up elephant poo, preparing elephant food, cutting grass and corn with machetes for the elephants,organizing the mud pit, bathing, feeding, working with the Vet Program, collecting wood for fires and generally getting to know the magnificent elephants. Every elephant has been rescued from logging camps, circuses, elephant camps for tourists or begging on the streets of Bangkok. Two of the elephants were blinded by their mahouts. One of the first things you notice at the park is that no one rides on these elephants. The mahouts here use love and caring rather than violent methods to control the elephants. Unfortunately while we were there RC, one of the older elephants died. This gave us the rare opportunity to see an elephant funeral officiated by a Buddhist Monk. It was a solemn occasion and very respectfully done.

Volunteers are vitally important to the success of the Park. It is hard to imagine the park operating without them. We paid $400 each but this provided us with good accommodation and excellent Thai cuisine. You would spend far more and gain much less doing the normal tourist things in Thailand. We could go on and on about this but suffice it to say that we left the Elephant Nature Park with a deepened awareness of the challenges facing the elephants, the important work being done by Lek, Derek and their staff and the real need for dedicated volunteers to support them in their work. The new friendships we made were icing on the cake and we hope to see many of them in Vancouver over the next few years.