The elephant camp

As you may realize (or not, as it has not been very clear from my posts) I have been here in Chiang Mai for about a week now. This is a city about an hour by plane north of Bangkok . One of the things this area is known for is the elephant sanctuaries that are found out in the nearby countryside.
Today I visited one of these "camps" and had up close and personal interactions with some of these gentle giants.
The main entrance with pictures of the royal family who, I am told, chose this camp to visit.


Not a real elephant head


The landscaping was beautiful





We were first lead to a platform with a little " bay" where they parked the elephant for us to get on.



There was no orientation or anything. I was actually terrified.


We went up a steep muddy trail to get to this spot. I was hanging on for dear life.















You can see their footprints in the deep mud. They stepped in the same place with each step.


He waded out into the stream


And blew some water from his trunk.


About half way through the ride they stopped and gave "Jumbo" a bundle of his favorite kind of grass which he carried around like the one in the picture below.



After about a thirty minute walk through some awesome jungle we got back.


The guy in the hat told me to stand there between the elephants. I had so idea they were going to hug me.





You could buy bananas and sugarcane to feed them. The elephants were super friendly but it was pretty scary to be so close to them. They were not restrained by anything other than the mahouts (elephant drivers)


Of course this baby (2yrs) was so cute. He got a lot of attention. He was wearing a bell around his neck which he would shake his head and jingle on purpose to get attention. You can just barely see the little girl in the pink dress trying to work up her nerve to give him a banana.


Then they let all the elephants wade in to get a bath


They actually scrubbed them down with brushes and the elephants seemed to enjoy it very much.



Next we got to watch them paint which was really amazing. Here's the baby painting flowers.





One of the older ones did a landscape. Not sure if the guy was whispering commands to him, but even if he did it was incredible.


How could an elephant be taught to do this?


This experience with the elephants was one of the most exciting things I have ever done. I wished for Carl and all my grandkids to be here to see it with me.









This place is pretty nice. I think it is probably the best thing for these elephants to be cared for like this. There is not enough jungle left to support them. They have over 70 elephants at this camp alone and there are quite a few other camps. It is troubling, however, to learn that there have been problems with baby elephants being smuggled into Thailand from Burma to work in these tourist camps. Now they are supposed to be microchipping them to prove they are not smuggled. I hope this place is one of the ethical ones! I'll be sorry I went if it turns out not to be.








Here's a hint about the next unbelievable encounter we had!

Location:Chaing Mai