My Time at Elephant Nature Park

Editor’s Note: We’ve invited our intern, Sofiya, to contribute to Save Elephant Foundation’s blog and document her experiences with some of our projects.

For most of my life elephants and monkeys have been my favorite animals. You can imagine my excitement when I found out I was selected to intern at Save Elephant Foundation here in Chiang Mai, which meant I would be traveling to Thailand where my two favorite animals happily reside.

After a couple days settling into the office I had the opportunity to volunteer at the park. There are several different ways to visit Elephant Nature Park, from day visits and overnight stays to week-long volunteer opportunities. Since I arrived later in the week I missed the general tour and information which week-long volunteers receive at the beginning of their stay. Before I could join the volunteers in their duties, I was scheduled to walk around with the day visitors and familiarize myself with the park grounds as well as catch up on what I had missed.

At 8 a.m. I got picked up at the office with a group of day visitors and we embarked on an hour long ride to the park. In the van we had the opportunity to hear details about the park and were shown a documentary centered around Asian elephants and the park itself. Our day visit guide, Sai, was incredibly knowledgable, friendly and open to every and any question we had about the park and the elephants.

I had never seen an elephant outside of a zoo before, so as soon as the park was in sight and I spotted a few ellies roaming the valley my heart started racing.

I was finally going to meet my childhood celebrities!

I couldn’t have imagined what spending time with them would feel like! As soon as we got out of the van I kept craning my neck back and forth watching them slowly, but confidently, stride side-by-side with their mahouts (elephant keepers) and even other visitors.

I was in a state of complete excitement and didn’t care how crazy my darting eyes may have seemed to others. After a safety talk from Sai we were ready to go feed and bathe the elephants.

At first I was very apprehensive due to their massive stature and general grandeur, but after an hour I got into a comfortable state of peace and simultaneous caution. After a few hours, we were offered a delicious vegetarian buffet and had free time to walk around the park grounds, check out the gift shop and sit down with a cup of tea observing the beauty of elephants’ simple existence. The rest of the day was spent hearing stories about the different groups which have formed within the park and the ways in which elephants choose their families and their mahouts, as well as getting to meet, feed, and take pictures of more gorgeous elephants.

At around 4:30 when the rest of the day visitors were getting ready to head back to Chiang Mai I felt very happy to be staying behind. Even if I was just visiting on vacation, I don’t think one day at the park would have been enough for me. At this point I was shown to my accommodations which were much nicer than I had expected! I spent the week in a cabin style house with a big veranda. My room had three beds, one of which wasn’t occupied, complete with a pillow, covers, a blanket and a mosquito net. Because it was Wednesday night, one of the park’s permanent volunteers (and SEF’s elephant gossip columnist), Jodi, was giving an informative talk on the history of the park and the elephants — which I unfortunately missed. I hear it is incredibly valuable and was appreciated by all of the volunteers. At the end of the talk, the park bell rang out throughout the grounds — dinner time!

The mornings and nights at the park were generally a lot more calm than the afternoons, since all of the day visitors have left and only the smaller group of volunteers and staff stayed behind. Watching the sun set behind the rows of gorgeous mountains surrounding the park valley was incredibly peaceful. My first day was winding down and everything was getting ready for a night’s slumber. I sprayed myself down with mosquito spray, climbed into my warm clothes and snuggled in to bed. It was nice to be able to charge my camera and have a moment to read my book, thanks to the electricity at the cabins. I wasn’t brave enough to shower in the water which may have been cold, and decided to wait for the heat of the afternoon which would come the next day and make the shower a refreshing treat.

The next day I joined my group of volunteers and we headed out of the park to a near-by cornfield to collect some food for our majestic friends. Elephants eat about 300 pounds per day, so even after three hours of the 14 of us cutting and collecting a giant truckload, we only had two day’s worth of snacks. It’s astounding! We sat down for a yummy lunch in the field before climbing into another truck and heading back to the park to wash up, have a quick rest and get back to work.

Volunteering at the park you can find yourself assigned various tasks like unloading fruit trucks, cleaning and peeling watermelon and bananas, collecting rocks or shoveling ellie-poo, which is actually a volunteer favorite and a lot of fun. Elephants have a fully vegan diet, so it doesn’t really give off an unpleasant odor, and afterwards you feel so accomplished! The days were all divided pretty evenly: breakfast at 7 a.m., volunteer tasks from 8 a.m. -11 a.m., lunch at 11:30 a.m., a break until 1:30 p.m. and then back to some tasks before dinner at 6 p.m.

Working alongside other volunteers in my group and with our volunteer coordinators was a lot of fun. When we weren’t joking around we were all hard at work. The free time at the end of the day was also a nice time to wind down and reflect upon the day’s sights. Some of the volunteers used this time to connect to wifi and check in with loved ones back home, others used the opportunity to receive a relaxing massage from the lovely ladies who work at the park in the afternoons. Often times we would all gather together at the overlook and sit around sharing stories over coffee and tea. It was nice coming back to our individual cabins at the end of the day feeling tired; feeling like you have contributed is unbeatable.

Thursday the group of volunteers all got together and headed to the local schools to spend time with some of the children. Unfortunately, I missed out on this as well because I was feeling a little sick from my travel medication, and decided to take the morning off to rest. Afterwards as well as much of the day Friday we spent more time doing volunteer tasks, and it was fun as usual!

Saturday after breakfast and some light tasks, the volunteer coordinator took us out tubing down the small river that runs through the valley! It was loads of fun, and the river was mellow and so shallow that often times someone in the front would yell “Bottoms up!” as a warning for those floating behind. When we returned to the camp everyone washed up and put on their party garb before all of the volunteers from the various projects running that week got together to to hear the founder Lek Chailert share some personal stories about the organization and her life’s mission. It was so humbling and pleasant to hear her speak about her passion. A warmth radiates from her every time she enters a room.

Afterwards we all headed to a traditional and delectable Thai dinner  hosted by the park staff and got to watch local children from near by villages perform Thai dance for us. It was truly a wonderful end to a truly wonderful week.

Sunday we said goodbye. It was a very bittersweet ending, because we had made such wonderful friends and shared such wonderful experiences. The week I spent at the park was eye-opening, fun, and so refreshing compared to what I would have been doing back at my normal life back in the states. Sometimes I can’t believe I’m actually getting credit for getting to spend time with elephants! I feel so lucky, and am so thankful to all of the staff who take impeccable care of their volunteers and visitors. An unforgettable time.