Day 20 - Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai

After much consideration, Internet research and Tripadvisor reading we had decided to try the Elephant Nature Park for our interactions with the gentle giants.  I had read several reviews that it was a great day but that there was a lot of waiting around during the day so we actually brought books with us just in case.

Early Monday morning they picked us up (around 8:00am) and we collected several other groups before making the 90 minute drive into the jungle.  On the way we were shown a documentary introducing the Nature Park and some of the elephants to us and our guide "Awhm" answered some of the others questions.  As we drew closer it seemed like every other turn off was for an elephant camp and soon we could see elephants from the road, penned up or already working with tourists.  Ahm also told us that because of the recent flooding and tsunami the park had taken in about 300 dogs which were abandoned or lost and that we were not to pet the dogs with red tags as they were not friendly and could bite.

When we arrived there were other minibuses pulling in and we were told that this weeks' volunteers were also starting so they would be receiving their orientation and working during the day.  We were invited to put our bags down and started our tour of the park.

Within minutes we saw our first elephant, and we all squealed with delight!  She was beautiful and an older female, apparently you can tell their age by how sunken in the skin is behind the eyes.

Asking her Mahout for a snack

She wandered off and then an elephant with a rider pulled up to the deck.  Ahm told us that he is a young male named Hope, who at first seemed pretty well trained.  He would hand the pumpkins/squash/bananas back to his Mahout and even retrieved his hat when it fell off.  Later in the day we would see his true colors though...

After he had taken his leave Ahm took us on a tour of the property, which was open with elephants and mahouts roaming all over.

This girl apparently was hit by a car while street begging and has a broken hind leg, which won't heal.

Ahm told us that we were extremely lucky to have arrived so soon after the unexpected birth of a baby elephant!  She explained that they are not breeding elephants because most of the females had been forced to breed already during their working days so it had happened on its own.  So we strolled over to see baby Naveen and his mother.  Because there are a few semi-wild male elephants around the park they have to keep the baby and his mother separate from the others.

This is Naveen's Mahout and already he was so feisty, chasing the Mahout around with his trunk!

After oohing and aahing for 20 minutes we wandered back through the compound, running into a girl gang of elephants, one of whom had stepped on a landmine and had lost part of her foot, poor thing.  The elephants were friendly, sniffing you with their trunk and checking you out thoroughly before moving onto the next person.

her Right hind leg is much shorter than the left

my new friend...there were about 100 cats roaming the park too!

After the first part of the tour it was time for elephant feeding.  Each elephant has its own preferences so we were shown which buckets go with which elephant and told to stay behind the line just in case the male elephants come around.  Then we were told to go at it and the elephants would take the squash, watermelon and bananas whole and eat them, "Crunch Crunch" and they'd be gone.  It was amazing to see.

Gimme!

Even the dogs tried to get in on the action

Afternoon snooze

 After feeding time we visited the Medical Centre, where Ahm showed us a discarded elephant tooth.  They have 4 of these huge babies in their mouths and use them to grind down the rinds/squashes/elephant bunches and even lose them once in awhile apparently!

A gnarly, old elephant tooth

That view...

Another girl gang...

A soft approach

Gal-pals for life!

Poseur!

Eating our vegetarian lunch...elephants watching greedily

After lunch we were scheduled to bathe elephants and everyone scurried to put on more sunscreen, bug spray and their change of clothes (I didn't know this but we weren't allowed to wear bikinis in the river for some reason).  We followed the tour groups and our guide down to the river and were told there would be about eight elephants to bathe.

Bathing!

Giving himself a shower...what a scene!

This gal decided to have a lie-down in the river

Spray!!

Gravelly sweetness

After we had been bathing the elephants for awhile we were told to hurry back to the building, as quick as possible.  Hope, the naughty young male elephant, was making a run to the river, despite his mahouts shouts.  Apparently he can't be trusted around people yet so we were all herded back up to the safety of the building, where we watched some of the elephants mud-up and relax.

Trying to convince Hope to get in the river

After the river he came up to where we were all watching and sprayed everyone!

The Herd

Playing with a blue hose

After a quick dip in the river...

Big Daddy 

We got to pose with the young elephant briefly before Momma got upset

Such a cutie!

Dogs waiting hopefully for a snack

After the bathing we fed the elephants again and were treated to a final visit to the baby before we headed back to town.

The Elephant Nature Park was definitely a highlight of our trip; seeing the injured, blinded, and newly born elephants wander in the open was something I don't think I will ever see again (until we go back!)