The girls wrote this blog when we returned to Chiang Mai after our two days at Elephant Nature Park, as we’ve been busy we’ve only just got round to sharing but we hope you will enjoy their perspective of our time with the elephants.
Hi, it’s Molly and Sophie bee here, we are in Chiang Mai and we have just visited the Elephant Sanctuary.
Molly’s Experience
It was a long journey to the elephant sanctuary but it was definitely worth it. On the way, I found out they also had dogs, cats and water buffalo. After just over an hour we arrived at the elephant sanctuary. There was one other family in our group, they were German and they had two boys. Our group leader was called Tea, he told us what we were doing in the day, then we went to feed the elephants.
They were a bit late but when they arrived we fed them bananas, watermelon, sweetcorn and pumpkin. Then we had lunch, after lunch, we went on a walk to really get to know the elephants. Soon it was time to go to our room to get ready for dinner at 6 o’clock. Our room had 3 beds with mosquito nets, a sofa, a bathroom, a table and a chest of drawers.
- Feeding the elephants on day one
- Lunch
- Our home for the night
In the morning we went on a morning walk to see the elephants and then we had some free time so we went to see the cats. I found out they had over 200 cats and over 400 dogs. After lunch we set off to hand feed a blind elephant called Kham Puan and another elephant her best friend called Tilly – you can find about more about her here.
- Stroking the cats on the skywalk
- Feeding Tilly
- Cats again!
- Stroking Kham Phuan
There was a massive storm but we made it back in time to make rice balls for the elephants. The children made 1 pot of rice balls and the adults made another pot. We fed 2 elephants the rice balls.
- The rice ball mix
- Mixing all the ingredients
- Hand feeding with rice balls
My favourite elephant overall was Kham Puan, she was really gentle and the only one I touched. Even though she was blind she listened hard (mainly to find food of course) and smelt us to get to know us. I am definitely going back there, also when I am old enough I would love to work there for a while.
See you soon.
Sophie’s Experience
My favourite elephants are Tilly, who loves watermelon and peeled bananas which I fed to her myself, and Princess. I couldn’t get too close to her but I know she has her very own swimming pool. I love all the elephants. The fruits I fed the elephants, include, pineapple, bananas, sweetcorn, watermelon and pumpkin.
The next day we walked with the elephants, we watched the baby elephants play in the mud and then go into the water. Our guide, Tea, told us their names.
We slept in a hut with mosquito nets over our beds, the view from the balcony was really nice, the cats and dogs also sleeping outside. At cat kingdom, there was loads of cats and kittens staying.
- The cats are sleeping!
- Looking out for elephants
- Trying to steal a banana!
- Even Green Rabbit was able to walk with the elephants
- Feeding Kham Puan
- Counting the rice balls
The water buffalo walked around slowly with the elephants. The elephant I fed the most, and stroked was Kham Puan. – she was bumpy and soft.
The 99 cats sat on the grass but when the elephants came for food they went back into their baskets. The elephants are pretty and smell good.
A few more of our photos
- All the baskets of fruit for the elephants
- Feeding Kham Puan
- Our first day
- Walking with the elephants
- Stroking Kham Puan
- Up close with an elephant
- The laughing elephant
- Looking out for elephants
- Tea telling us about the elephants
- Watching the elephants in the river
- Walking around the park