maggies_lens (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
maggies_lens) wrote2010-08-17 08:56 pm
maggies_lens) wrote2010-08-17 08:56 pm
Elephant Nature Park P2
We spent the night in a funky little hut, just Marion and I as Craig was back in Chiang Mai; he had awoken the morning we left with a terrible migraine so hadn't come. We both missed him. The hut was just a small thing, no air con, two beds with mosquito netting and a sep room with a toilet and COLD WATER ONLY shower. Which was just fine - you don't actually need the hot water there :D It was right on the banks of the river, so I fell asleep to the sounds of insects, bats and the river tripping along on the shallows. No traffic sounds at all. Sheer freakin' heaven. God I loved it there...
Anyway, next morning we had a glorious breakfast. They feed you like royalty there. At breakfast, lunch and dinner we gathered at the complex and could serve ourselves from a huge selection of yummies. Apart from one dish with chook and one with fish, everything was veggie and BEAUTIFUL! I have discovered Dragon Fruit and I LOVE it. Ate sooooooo much!
We got to have a walk around with our guide Por, out in the actual grounds. Had to wear gumboots. It was awesome walking around amoung the elephants. Most are very happy to come up and have a cuddle with you :) I got to cuddle Mae Do. Unfort I slipped and fell onto my knees twice from getting my foot caught in the ropey grass. The first scared me because it's actually the first time I have fallen onto the bad knee since I killed it. Yeah it hurt, but not so bad. 2nd one was alright. But it did bruise up and jarred itself so I was happy to just hang out once we got back to the main complex.
Best thing was when I ran into Lek! Lek is the founder of the Park. She is a very small woman, a grand-daughter of a shaman of a local Northern Hill Tribe. Her family was given an elephant when she was 5 as payment for saving a mans life, and Lek's heart was stolen forever. She took her passion for elephant welfare forward and started Elephant Heaven. She rescued her first 4 elephants. Things grew, one day an American come on a tour, a week or so after he left they received a MASSIVE cheque. Turns out he's a multi millionaire and was so impressed with the work that he wanted to buy them land. With that money they purchased ENP. Things have just kept growing since then. They still have Heaven, they walk the ellies there to let them roam free and learn to be wild again. The dream is to one day stop the capture of wild elephants so they can release them. Logging was banned in Thailand a few years ago but not in the surrounding countries. And illegal logging continues. Plus the begging trade and tracking. Begging is BAD. It's extremely stressful for the elephants. NEVER feed a begger elephants. You are just contributing to the problem. Tracking is not bad as long as the elephants are kept in humane conditions. There are also NO laws protecting elephants. Lek is working to change all that. She employs local people from the hill tribes as guides, staff, cooks, kwan's, she buys the locally grown and produced veggies and fruit, plus meat, eggs, milk etc. She hires local labor for building etc. It all comes back to paying it forward. As a result, the local community loves and supports her work. She was ultra busy but she made the effort to track me down when she heard I wanted to meet her, so that we could have a chat and a photo. She called the baby herd over and took me in among them (not normally allowed) so that I could get a shot to remember.
She is quite frankly my hero. It's people like this who are true heroes, not stupid sports stars or actors or whatever. I didn't want to leave. I so didn't want to leave. I will be back.
They also had a little brown colt pony who they rescued from slaughter. I couldn't get any photos of the little devil as he was in grass/reeds higher than his head when we near him.
BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABIIIIIIEEEEEEEES!!!!
Jokia in front, her best friend Mae Perm (who is AMAZING!). Plus another I can't ID.
The boys being NAUGHTY!
Sleeeepy girl.
We called this the Stairway to Heaven - the Thai massage ladies were at the top. Oh man was the massage painfully brilliant!!!!
as it should ever be
I splashed out and got a hand carving of Mae Do by her kwan. I paid a WHOPPING 350 Baht for it. That's roughly $12 AUS :) I will have to declare it and get it fumigated, I believe. I looooove it!
The medical center with 3 Old Ladies inside for foot infection treatment.
Lek, Pha Mai (new sky) and me (IN A STAFF T-SHIRT!) :)
By the flower garden
Thank you, Hope :)
Hope smiles for the camera. Hope was a week old when his mother died. The mum's owner was terribly distraught at the loss of his elephant and called Lek to help, fearing the calf would die too. Lek got to Hope and found a terrorfied and very weak baby. For a week solid she barely slept, caring for the poor little guy. Finally her body couldn't take it any more and one night she collapsed in his stall. She awoke to find Hope tenderly sniffing her with his trunk. He came along in leaps and bounds after that, and is now a happy, VERY cheeky young man who normally wears a bell on his collar so everyone can hear TROUBLE is coming. His owner was happy to sell him to Lek, knowing he'd have a good life and be well loved and cared for forever. Hope is also the flag-ship elephant for changes in traditional training methods. He has never known, and will never know, cruelty or harsh methods.
The bond between elephant and kwan is very strong. This is Lilly, who was kept by 2 families and forced to work day and night for them in illegal logging. They fed her Speed to make her keep working. She didn't sleep for 2 years. When Lek rescued her she was collapsed and mentally shut down. She had to wean her off Speed as going cold turkey would have killed her. Lilly also panicked when her chains were taken off as it was something familiar. They had to put the chains back on and cut one off a week. She is now VERY well loved and extremely gentle and sweet.
Mae Do and mini Mae Do :D
They love their swims :)
Mae Do and her kawn. I love his tattoo :)
Me haz a happeh!
Lilly. Here is a close up of her and her kwan :)
I will be back as soon as I can. Honestly, if you are strapped for cash but want a holiday, I can not recommend this place enough. No, you won't be lounging on a beach somewhere; you will be working HARD. You won't have air con, you'll have the heat and humidity of the jungle and you will sweat so much that after two days your skin will look like you've had a VERY exxy treatment and radiate health and a killer bitchin' tan. You won't get polite, distant staff who keep their eyes down and wear impeccable uniforms, you will get hill tribe men and women in gumboots and jeans with a lighting fast smile that reaches their eyes, they will teach you Thai, joke around with you, feed you like you have NEVER been fed before in your life (not fine dining but OMG SO SO SO GOOD!!!!!! And plentiful), chat with you for hours, and make you feel welcome like no tourist resort EVER would. You'll wear gumboots, slosh around in warm mud, touch and hug and kiss and scratch the largest land animals who will rumble like big kittens if you connect with them. You'll learn to tell an elephants age through their scat! You'll find these awesome fern like plants that curl up when you gently run your finger over them. And if you are anything like me, you'll wish you could throw it all in to live there forever, no matter how hard and dirty it gets because, well, it's simply the most wonderful place ever created by human hands.
Anyway, next morning we had a glorious breakfast. They feed you like royalty there. At breakfast, lunch and dinner we gathered at the complex and could serve ourselves from a huge selection of yummies. Apart from one dish with chook and one with fish, everything was veggie and BEAUTIFUL! I have discovered Dragon Fruit and I LOVE it. Ate sooooooo much!
We got to have a walk around with our guide Por, out in the actual grounds. Had to wear gumboots. It was awesome walking around amoung the elephants. Most are very happy to come up and have a cuddle with you :) I got to cuddle Mae Do. Unfort I slipped and fell onto my knees twice from getting my foot caught in the ropey grass. The first scared me because it's actually the first time I have fallen onto the bad knee since I killed it. Yeah it hurt, but not so bad. 2nd one was alright. But it did bruise up and jarred itself so I was happy to just hang out once we got back to the main complex.
Best thing was when I ran into Lek! Lek is the founder of the Park. She is a very small woman, a grand-daughter of a shaman of a local Northern Hill Tribe. Her family was given an elephant when she was 5 as payment for saving a mans life, and Lek's heart was stolen forever. She took her passion for elephant welfare forward and started Elephant Heaven. She rescued her first 4 elephants. Things grew, one day an American come on a tour, a week or so after he left they received a MASSIVE cheque. Turns out he's a multi millionaire and was so impressed with the work that he wanted to buy them land. With that money they purchased ENP. Things have just kept growing since then. They still have Heaven, they walk the ellies there to let them roam free and learn to be wild again. The dream is to one day stop the capture of wild elephants so they can release them. Logging was banned in Thailand a few years ago but not in the surrounding countries. And illegal logging continues. Plus the begging trade and tracking. Begging is BAD. It's extremely stressful for the elephants. NEVER feed a begger elephants. You are just contributing to the problem. Tracking is not bad as long as the elephants are kept in humane conditions. There are also NO laws protecting elephants. Lek is working to change all that. She employs local people from the hill tribes as guides, staff, cooks, kwan's, she buys the locally grown and produced veggies and fruit, plus meat, eggs, milk etc. She hires local labor for building etc. It all comes back to paying it forward. As a result, the local community loves and supports her work. She was ultra busy but she made the effort to track me down when she heard I wanted to meet her, so that we could have a chat and a photo. She called the baby herd over and took me in among them (not normally allowed) so that I could get a shot to remember.
She is quite frankly my hero. It's people like this who are true heroes, not stupid sports stars or actors or whatever. I didn't want to leave. I so didn't want to leave. I will be back.
They also had a little brown colt pony who they rescued from slaughter. I couldn't get any photos of the little devil as he was in grass/reeds higher than his head when we near him.
BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABIIIIIIEEEEEEEES!!!!
Jokia in front, her best friend Mae Perm (who is AMAZING!). Plus another I can't ID.
The boys being NAUGHTY!
Sleeeepy girl.
We called this the Stairway to Heaven - the Thai massage ladies were at the top. Oh man was the massage painfully brilliant!!!!
as it should ever be
I splashed out and got a hand carving of Mae Do by her kwan. I paid a WHOPPING 350 Baht for it. That's roughly $12 AUS :) I will have to declare it and get it fumigated, I believe. I looooove it!
The medical center with 3 Old Ladies inside for foot infection treatment.
Lek, Pha Mai (new sky) and me (IN A STAFF T-SHIRT!) :)
By the flower garden
Thank you, Hope :)
Hope smiles for the camera. Hope was a week old when his mother died. The mum's owner was terribly distraught at the loss of his elephant and called Lek to help, fearing the calf would die too. Lek got to Hope and found a terrorfied and very weak baby. For a week solid she barely slept, caring for the poor little guy. Finally her body couldn't take it any more and one night she collapsed in his stall. She awoke to find Hope tenderly sniffing her with his trunk. He came along in leaps and bounds after that, and is now a happy, VERY cheeky young man who normally wears a bell on his collar so everyone can hear TROUBLE is coming. His owner was happy to sell him to Lek, knowing he'd have a good life and be well loved and cared for forever. Hope is also the flag-ship elephant for changes in traditional training methods. He has never known, and will never know, cruelty or harsh methods.
The bond between elephant and kwan is very strong. This is Lilly, who was kept by 2 families and forced to work day and night for them in illegal logging. They fed her Speed to make her keep working. She didn't sleep for 2 years. When Lek rescued her she was collapsed and mentally shut down. She had to wean her off Speed as going cold turkey would have killed her. Lilly also panicked when her chains were taken off as it was something familiar. They had to put the chains back on and cut one off a week. She is now VERY well loved and extremely gentle and sweet.
Mae Do and mini Mae Do :D
They love their swims :)
Mae Do and her kawn. I love his tattoo :)
Me haz a happeh!
Lilly. Here is a close up of her and her kwan :)
I will be back as soon as I can. Honestly, if you are strapped for cash but want a holiday, I can not recommend this place enough. No, you won't be lounging on a beach somewhere; you will be working HARD. You won't have air con, you'll have the heat and humidity of the jungle and you will sweat so much that after two days your skin will look like you've had a VERY exxy treatment and radiate health and a killer bitchin' tan. You won't get polite, distant staff who keep their eyes down and wear impeccable uniforms, you will get hill tribe men and women in gumboots and jeans with a lighting fast smile that reaches their eyes, they will teach you Thai, joke around with you, feed you like you have NEVER been fed before in your life (not fine dining but OMG SO SO SO GOOD!!!!!! And plentiful), chat with you for hours, and make you feel welcome like no tourist resort EVER would. You'll wear gumboots, slosh around in warm mud, touch and hug and kiss and scratch the largest land animals who will rumble like big kittens if you connect with them. You'll learn to tell an elephants age through their scat! You'll find these awesome fern like plants that curl up when you gently run your finger over them. And if you are anything like me, you'll wish you could throw it all in to live there forever, no matter how hard and dirty it gets because, well, it's simply the most wonderful place ever created by human hands.
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Lek sounds truly inspirational.
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Lek is a living legend of the first degree.
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it look soo amazing! :D
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I may have to save up and do this very trip, though hate going anywhere without Doug and i don't think it's very wheelchair accessible.
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I love elephants, I would go there just for the elephants!
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What an amazing place. I'm in love with this Elephant Heaven!
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I'm totally in love with it. I'm back in BKK now and MISSING Chiang Mai and the ENP like crazy.