Filed under: travel
While up in the mountains I also stayed at the Elephant Nature Park, because I have a friend who’s been heavily involved in the project.
It was awesome. I’ve since recommended it to another friend who stayed for a whole two weeks. The staff were really friendly and clearly cared about the elephants, who were mostly rescued from abuse such as at the hands of street vendors in Bangkok. The surrounds were tranquil – it’s a rainforest as well as elephant conservation park and the food was good.
It was such a positive and uplifting experience – with the exception of watching the video about why it was set up, which is a bit distressing hearing about the abused elephants before they were rescued.
If you’re going to Thailand and want to have an encounter with elephants don’t pay for a ride or a tour, unless you know the elephants won’t be bludgeoned with hooks and are treated well. You’re much better off doing your bit for conservation and putting your tourist dollars into supporting elephants in their natural environment. You can still have closeup encounters, as this photo demonstrates!
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