July 17th, 2018
Monday July 16th 🐘🐘🐘🐘
Finally the big day has arrived. The day the girls have been looking forward to for months. The trip to the elephant sanctuary. I must say that the vibe here in Thailand had shifted greatly over the last 10 years since we have been coming here as it relates to the ethical treatment of all animals but especially elephants. We have visited Mae Tang Elephant Park a couple times, maybe even three times. The first time we went there in 2009, it was considered one of the best for animal conditions. They got to live in the jungle (vs concrete like in Phuket or other islands), were not visibly abused with hooks by the mahouts (as was openly done at many other camps), but they were taught tricks (kicking balls and painting etc) and were ridden by people. Those two things are now considered unethical. I think it is because of the inhumane methods that the Trainers use behind the scenes to teach them tricks. I think Mae Tang gets maybe a mid range rating now and the best places tourists like to go (is they are aware of these issues) are sanctuaries where the elephants are never chained, do not do tricks, are not ridden etc. When you go there you get to play with, feed, bathe, walk with etc the elephants. They sell out very quickly so the girls had to book this excursion months ago. It cost $161 for the two of them, but I am assured it is worth every dime! I had some tiny reservation that the minivan wouldn’t show up to get them since it was booked online with a company we had not heard of. But no problem. They were picked up promptly at 8:30 am and were off!
They had the time of their life!
I think this was the #1 adventure of the trip so far. The guides were funny and explained everything to them all along the way. There was a baby rescue monkey there (3 months old) and while touching monkeys is generally a huge no no here (as they bite) this one is tame so they had fun playing with it and letting it crawl on them.
There was also a tiny chihuahua that they had some fun with. But the Highlite was of course, the elephants. They weigh 10-12 tonnes and eat 1/4 of their body weight each day. So imagine trying to keep up with that?? There were four elephants there. One is pregnant with twins (she’s been pregnant for over 2 years now) so babies could come any day they say. The youngest of the four elephants is 3 years old. And the oldest ~52. All rescued from bad abusive situations Elephants live for up to 80 years so a huge commitment!
They fed the girls a yummy lunch and they were home by 4pm. Just in time for a massage before we met up with Tee and Ian for supper.
Ian was craving Farang food. That’s us. We are called Farang. So we went to Dukes. We had nachos to share, the girls ordered blue cheese burgers, Troy and I split a meat lovers pizza and Tee and Ian had ribs and salad. It was AMAZING and the pizza was huge. Never seen a pizza so big. Definitely a ‘to share’ thing! The girls grabbed a Tuk Tuk back to hotel as they were quite exhausted and a while later, the rest of us walked back to our hotel. We did walk past the ex Ginny Cafe for old times.
