Finally came the day I had been waiting for what felt like my entire life. It was the day I was going to play with elephants, the most magical creatures alive. Now seeing as I knew there’s a lot of controversy behind the different elephant camp sites, I had been doing my research for a very long time, several years in fact. I had found an elephant sanctuary that was no hook, no chain sanctuary. These elephants were not mistreated, and they were not abused in any way. You can tell that these beautiful animals were enjoying their time there and loved their “master’s”. There were about 4 trainers there, the leader of it all and then there were the driver’s that originally got us there. Our driver actually doubled as a photographer and he took some great pictures. The elephant sanctuary tour started out early as they picked us up from our hotel, we picked up the rest of our group and made a stop at gas station shopping center. We made our way up the mountain on the back of a covered pick-up truck, which is commonly used for a taxi in Chiang Mai. We made some great friends on this ride, shout out to the Elephant Squad, which distracted me from the winding roads up the mountain, if you usually get car sick take something to ease your stomach for the ride.
We were taught some commands for the elephants so we could feed them and were given some guidelines on how to play with them safely. One thing I took back from our guidelines were that the elephants are large creatures, they are gentle giants however we are in their territory therefor we must learn how to act in their territory. We must not stand behind them them because if they decide to kick back their foot or lift it to continue walking, they will be sending us flying. The staff didn’t try to make any excuses for the elephants which I appreciated because it shows us, as the visitors, that the elephants were the priority and we were in fact just visitors passing through.
After learning the basic signs and commands we went off to feed and play with them.Which was an ultimate dream come true.After, playing with them we went to the pond and river where we bathed the elephants and played with them in the water.We concluded the day by having a typical Thai meal and changing back into our regular clothes to begin the drive back into the main city.This was the ultimate day of our entire trip and I feel like we left that sanctuary on an emotional high and didn’t think anything else could top it
