What a tiring day! Started off early by getting picked up at 8:15am, and was the first on the shuttle. Others in the tour group were five Americans from Massachusetts and New York, and three people from England. Was pretty coincidental because one of the Americans used to live in West Seattle for six years when she worked for Starbucks. Small world!
On the 1.5 hr bus ride to the park, we watched a video in the van of the park's mission and the safety rules. Got a little motion sick watching so had to just listen, unfortunately.
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| Ox. |
The park is 300 acres, with around 35 elephants, too many oxen, 400 dogs, a lot of cats. The founder started the park as a means to rescue abused and mistreated elephants from the entertainment circuit. It was horrible hearing some of their backgrounds. One, named Lucky, was blinded by too excessive of camera flashes. There was another who stepped on a landmine when it was working, and you could see its poor deformed foot. Another that was so heartbreaking was one who had a permanently misaligned hip. Her hip was broken because her handlers forced her to breed. Her four feet were shackled and she was locked in a room for the male elephants to come in and mate with her. Her hip got broken and it healed in that position so it was too late to do anything by the time the park rescued her.
Knowing all their sad backgrounds made caring for them feel so rewarding. We started by feeding Lucky. Gave her fruit from a giant bucket to grab with her trunk. Apparently all elephants do is eat, as they only sleep four hours a day.
After feeding Lucky, we walked around the park a little and saw a group of elephants, and a baby! The park had three babies at the time. Spent a lot of time taking pictures of course.
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| Elephants and baby! |
After the lunch buffet, we watched a sad video on how elephants are trained to be tame. I couldn't believe what I was watching. Sometimes lasting up to a week, the elephant is caged up and restrained. The handlers use sticks w nails attached to the end to prod the elephant into submission. If the elephant acts out, they injure the elephant more. To prevent this mistreatment, a school was formed to teach the mahout (handler) how to properly train the elephant, using positive reinforcement.
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| Ms Lucky and I |
After the movie, we bathed Lucky. She was enticed to go to the river w food, and everyone used their bucket to splash water on her. Wish it were more natural, like that she would be wanting to take the bath herself, and would use her trunk to splash water. But instead had to be her eating while we splashed her. After the bath, we walked around more, and fed Lucky again. More eating!
It was such an exhausting day, most of it on our feet. I was stressing out about how much I'd have to do once I got back to the hotel - eat dinner, pack, do research on Hong Kong since my flight was the next day. All things I'd have to do before I slept early, like at 8pm.
To save time, I had the tour guide drop me off at one of her favorite local restaurants, Aroon Rai. So good! Finally tried Khao Sao noodles, and the curry was so delicious. Had to buy a pack to bring home. Topped it off w some mango ice cream, all for 190 baht.
Walked back home and was so exhausted. I wanted to immediately sleep. Got to bed around 8:30pm though for my 6 am flight. Can't believe I had to pay 300 baht to reserve the taxi because of it being so early. Probably the most expensive purchase in Chiang Mai. Next stop: Hong Kong.
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