These past few weeks I have been working at an elephant sanctuary, called Elephant’s World in Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Elephant sanctuaries are basically “retirement homes” for elephants that are old, sick, and formerly abused. The great part is that I get to work hands on with many different elephants everyday (which truly is amazing, and I don’t know where else I would be able to do this.) The not so great part is that I haven’t had internet or running water. (Hello river baths!) Also, snakes (cobras) are a real danger here, so every night when I head back to my room, in the pitch black with my flashlight, I bring a stray cat with me to “check out” my room and mattress before going in (Fun, right?!) At Elephant’s World, I serve as a tourguide, chef, vet, photographer, translator, and volunteer. Basically, I lead tours of 2-6ish people everyday throughout the sanctuary. Working as a tourguide is the best unanticipated part of interning here, as everyday I get to meet new (ethical!) people, hear their stories, and they are usually young and ambitious- have researched sanctuaries instead of just taking an elephant ride, and CUTE! There have also been a few television shows and documentaries filming here these past few weeks, and as the only farang who speaks Thai…I completed my first live Thai interview!!! One of my coolest, milestone moments here so far :)
My daily routine is pretty much the same everyday:
- Breakfast
- Visitor’s Arrive; Greet and Introductions
- Head down to the river to watch elephants take a bath
- Cook sticky rice- banana- pumpkin mix for old toothless elephants to eat/ set on cool surface to dry until the afternoon
- Feed our 3 oldest, toothless elephants yellow bananas that visitors brought; tell their stories (logging industry, tourism, etc.)
- Lunch :)
- Ride in truck: Cut banana trees, sugar cane or plant pineapples for the elephants
- Head back to the cooled sticky rice mixture; make “snowball sized” balls, rolled in fiber (and sneek in medication in some balls)
- Feed the toothless elephants sticky rice balls!
- Head over to see some elephant healthcare: watch vet clean infected wounds, and treat old skin and scrapes.
- Elephant Bathtime! (This is when visitors get to swim with the elephants/ ride bareback in the water for a few minutes). I usually am the designated photographer!
- Head back up to reception to feed the elephants their afternoon snack.
- Say goodbye to visitors (usually trade emails/ facebooks :))
- Clean up!
It’s a pretty exhausting, but fun day. Everyday I get to touch, feed, and be close to many different elephants, while experiencing the excitement and enthusiasm from first time visitors. At the end of the day, my “tourguidees” and I usually take some pictures together, and trade emails and such. I have loved meeting so many people from such different countries! I feel like I now have friends to visit in Australia, England, Germany, and Holland, to name a few. I love being able to speak Thai with the mahouts, (elephant cowboys) and see how they “talk” with their elephant when the visitors are away. Elephant’s World is located in the most beautiful middle of nowhere- as you will see in the pictures, and when I wake up in my bungalow in the morning and look out my window, I can actually see elephants grazing from my window. Amazing.
Some Elephant Trivia:
- Elephants eat 200 kilos of food/ day
- They drink 120 litres of water/ day
- They change their teeth 6 times in their lifetimes
- In the wild, many elephants eventually die after their last set of teeth fall out, because they can’t find soft enough food to eat.
- An elephant’s strongest part of their body is their shoulder/ neck area. Just like people, their backs are not very strong.
- Elephants should carry no more than 100 kilos on their backs. When you sit in a seat on an elephant, that seat alone weighs about 50 kilos (then think about adding 3 more people!)
- An elephant’s life span is about the same as a persons: late 70s/ early 80s is getting up there!
- An elephant needs to stay with by their mother’s side until they are 4 years old. In many cases, elephants are taken away from their mother after only 1 or 2 years so that they may start working.
- Asian elephants, unlike African elephants, love to throw dirt on their backs to keep them cool, and protect their skin from the sun
- There are about 5000 elephants in Thailand (including 2000 wild elephants), but the numbers are dwindling.
- Elephants are big business in the tourism industry, and, even though it has been illegal in Thailand for 50 years to use elephants in the logging industry, their use still persists. They are also still poached for their ivory tusks.
- We can help by learning about elephants, not purchasing ivory, and, when traveling supporting elephant sanctuaries as opposed to going on a private elephant ride.
- Final fun fact: When an elephant eats a whole pineapple, it can remove the bristly top with it’s trunk, so it only eats the fruit. (Incredible to see!)
After living in Thailand now for almost 6 months, I find it really ironic that elephants are considered to be one of the holiest, most revered animals, yet they are so often abused and mistreated.
Enjoy the pics I know many of you have been waiting for :)
Reception at Elephant's World, overlooking the River Kwai
(where I eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday)
My bungalow bedroom
Playing in the river...check out those mountains behind me!
Little slice of heaven :)
Some puppies that live at the reception area!
Some kittens, or as I like to call them: "cobra catchers"
They eat breakfast with me every morning :)
The way it should be.
Elephant itch!
Cutting bananas with guests in the morning to put in our
sticky rice mixture
Cooking the sticky rice
Traditional Thai style :)
Dtom, the head of the mahouts, and I on the truck.
The sun is really strong so everyone wears these "traditional Thai hats" when
we have to go cut banana trees or sugar cane.
Me doing nothing
Songkran, our oldest elephant, has the most beautiful eyelashes!
Scrub a dub bathtime!
(This was my first time giving an elephant a bath)
Love :)
When there are no visitors, the mahouts let me ride from
the river up to the reception eating area with them.
This is what I've become haha
Dr. Samart, the founder of Elephant's World, has a soft spot for all
animals. These male American calves were headed to the slaughter house.
Now they have been rescued and live amongst the elephants, cats, dogs, and
water buffaloes. They get into a lot of trouble though, like eating trash (above).
The number of bananas it takes to feed 10 elephants for 1 day.
One of my cobra catchers, chilling in my mosquito net.
My life as a tourguide :)
There's a huge elephant next to me!
Healthcare: This is Plara- his tusks were removed while he
was still alive to be sold for money, then the holes where his tusks
were became infected, the infection spread to his eyes, and now he is blind.
He is only in his 40s but looks like he'sin his 70s because he is blind in both eyes.
Na- the woman on the right, brings her own bananas everyday to feed/ distract
him as his infection is cleaned out. It is a painful process, and he has been doing
this for the past 9 months, everyday.
Treating a wound on Wasana's rear with an antiseptic.
Wasana is 68, and her skin is not as thick as it used to be.
She got this wound when she itched her rear end on a tree,
and it became infected.
Elephant bathtime (playtime!) with the mahouts!
Shampooing and brushing her bristly hairs!
Me and my friend, former tourguidee, Konrad.
(Next blog post will probably be about our travels together)
What a beauty!
Dtom feeds an elephant in the river with a water bottle...
Open wide!
So cute
Harvesting sugar cane for the elephants
The bottom of an elephant's foot
Some of my cobra catchers. There are 4 kittens...
Do you see all 4?!
Three's company, I guess!
The sanctuary at dusk
When an elephant drops a sticky rice ball, 80 ducks
quickly rush to pick it up!
Na and I cleaning some trays with our eager, hungry duck friends
Mahouts can get pretty rowdy!
View from atop the elephant.
Check out their tiny black bristly hairs everywhere!
Some of my guidees, and new friends
Pizzah asks his elephant to go on it's side to wash it, and
it listens without a hitch. Pretty incredible.
Actual view from my bungalow window when I wake up in the morning.
I spy 2 elephants! SO COOL!!!!!
Seconds before being thrown off of Kamoon...
...and I'm down!
But happy :)
Thailand :)
In Thailand, it is considered good luck to cross
under the belly of an elephant.
I'm not one to shy away from good luck :-)
Yesterday I led an amazing tour with some Brits and Aussies,
and we had a Thai superstar filming a special for TV!!! (Center)
It was only appropriate to end this post with an elephant butt :)
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