Elephant Nature Preserve in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
My boyfriend’s daughter Katherine on left and our guide Bee on right.
We got to feed the elephants, pet them, bath them and mingle with the herds. Some of the elephants here have loss eyes and legs in the hands of humans but they all feel safe with us close to them and near their babies. It shocks me how the elephants are exploited here in Thailand. There are elephant camps every few miles. It gives me an enormous amount of peace knowing the elephants at Elephant Nature Park are safe and able to live in their natural environment. So beautiful!
What they said:
The big details are confidential but I feel like this is ok to say: Many of the elephants talked about their old memories and things that had happened to them and that the memories come back to them sometimes – scaring them. One put her mouth on a railing sucked on it and dropped her trunk as if giving up. She said she used to have to stay for hours like that before she was rescued. There was a lot of feelings about how safe, secure and loved they all feel now. How they feel they are able to trust humans now and they are able to enjoy their lives and each other. They all feel very blessed to know Lek and the other workers. That they can now heal and enjoy friendships. When I asked one elephant if she likes the Mahouts with her all the time she said that sometimes there are Mahouts that are mean and that she once had a mean one. She said the other Mahouts will put pressure on the mean ones to leave. They get upset. She says now she has a nice Mahout. That she really loves. I learned latter that she was once pregnant and the preserve didn’t know. When her Mahout changed to the one she has now she gave birth a few days later. I feel like then she felt safe safe to have her baby.