Elephant Nature Park P1

[maggies_lens]

I have found heaven, and it is not in some other dimension or whatever. It is located on a large property outside the city of Chiang Mai right here in Thailand and it is called the Elephant Nature Park. I will never forget my time there. Have you ever stepped into the gates of a place and known right away that every single thing there is RIGHT? Just... right? I never have. Not until yesterday morning. As soon as I stepped off that mini bus I knew I had found a place where I belonged like no where else I have ever felt I belonged. I met the most amazing people, and even tho we sometimes had trouble speaking with each other (they were mainly hill tribes), we got along like a house on fire. There were loads of vol's from all over the world, most speaking English so I made heaps of new friends. Each and every one of the elephants found here (barr the babies that were born there last year) has a sad tale. Some are not so bad as others (elephants and keepers fallen on extremely hard times and forced into doing things they don't want to until BOTH were saved by the park), some are so horrific that I want to track down the people who did these acts and beat them into bloody pulps. Yes, I know, not very Buddhist of me but sometimes you have a right to be FURIOUS. Girls, I bonded to an elephant. I know. I KNOW! WTF, you say? I kid you not. We were able to walk amoung the little herds and made friends with them. You can go right up and love on them all you want, as long as you follow the directions of the kwan/mahouts and use your common sense. All have scars and other signs of physical abuse. One of the worst is Mae Do. Her story is distressing as hell. I won't put it here in case it upsets you, but you can read it here:
http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/herd/medo.htm
Be aware it's distressing.
Her injuries are horrific but OMG she is sooooo beautiful. She has the most beautiful face you have ever seen on an elephant (well I think she does anyway!), and her spirit just shines. She's also very, very gentle, and loved me :) I went up to give her love and she full on leaned into me. She started up this deep belly rumble and closed her eyes. Her kwan was a little shocked! I gave her more love, the more I gave her and the more I love-talked her, the more she responded. Apparently, according to our guide, she is not normally that demonstrative apart from to her kwan! So, she LIKED me! I loved her to pieces, quite frankly. I intend to start sponsoring her as soon as I am home.She is the biggest love, in every sense of the word.
I'll pop the photos up in 2 lots as there was a bit. There is also video but that will have to wait til I am home and can install a software to splice it all together as there's too much in segments. If you want to know what I got up to, let me know and I'll post. Never quite sure what y'all will be interested in :D






Girl meets elephant :D


Girl gets SMOOCHED by elephant!!!!!!


every last elephant you see here has seen more than their fair share of unspeakable pain. The one in the foreground stepped on a landmine... she was still forced to work despite her horrific injuries.


BATH TIME! This was so much fun, I can't even begin to describe just how much fun this was! As you can see, a fair bit of water got on us as well :D


SPLOOOOOOSH!!!!







All clean now, after all that hard work :)


AAAAAARAGH!!! NOOOOOOOOO!!! ROFLMAO!!!!


Fly switch :)


There are about 50 dogs there, numerous cats, cattle, and a pony. All rescues. Some just showed up, some got dumped, some were actively rescued.


This is Jokia. Her story is one of the saddest. She is blind in both eyes. as I think the story is quite distressing, please comment if you wish to hear it and I will answer, that way anyone who doesn't want to read it can choose not to.


An elephant needs a kwan who loves her. Kindness and positive reinforcement is the only way. As Pha Mai's kwan demonstrates with this beautiful and extremely gentle baby girl. Her name means New Sky.


Feeding time for 'The Old Ladies', most of the elephants are female, and aged over 40.


This is Hope. He is NAUGHTY!!!!! A few sec's after I took this shot, he broke this scratching tree. VERY cheeky young fellow with a fascinating story :)


How could ANYone ever be cruel to anything this special?


MAE DO! MY GIRL!!!! Forget her wonky legs and screwed up back, just look at how BEAUTIFUL she is!


My girl and I. We're within a year of each other's age :) She's my special big friend :)


By the river


Begging for food, because as you can see, she is skin and bone :D I'm not sure which one this is :)


Free to roam all day long


The baby herd :)


glimpse of just how beautiful this place is

Comments

[jaanka.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness, I have tears in my eyes just reading about your day and Medo's story.

It is so sad to hear about the abuse; and know that their original owners would have had to have been in horrible situations to allow some of them to occur; cause most do have a pride in their elephants and take care of them as they need them so badly. Of course there always those that abuse any animal they have and those people need to be beaten and severely!

[maggies-lens.livejournal.com]

Oh man I know how awful are those stories? But sh eis safe and well now, VERY well loved and happy. AND I AM HER OFFICIAL SPONSOR NOW!!!!!!!
SOME of the ellies fell on hard times when their kwans did, but some suffered purely for greed or a power struggle. The traditional training method used to tame the elephants is horrific. 90% of Thailand's elephants go through it. It's the inhumane, cruel and sickening thing I have ever seen. About 20% of the babies die from it. But yes the new kinder way is slowly taking over as people are educated, and yep most kwan's love their elephants - the ppl here are VERY poor but even so they will go miles out of their way to try and seek help for their elephants, often going without food for themselves barr what they can scrounge to get them the help they need. Many of the kwan at the Park are the elephants original kawn's, or one's who purchased the elephant themselves to rescue it.
For the ones that act in hideous ways towards them, death is not good enough. They need to be beaten every day for the rest of their lives!!!!