Tuesday was my last day in Thailand and we went to visit the elephant farm. As I mentioned in my previous post, this was elephant ownership for a day. We bathed them, fed them and rode them to a waterfall where we had a wonderful lunch of local thai favorites. There was a baby elephant too that was so very cute and playful. At 4 months, he was about 600 lbs!
My elephant
was named Mai Sinoi (not sure about the spelling). She was pregnant with her 4th. I found out that it's 18 - 24 months from conception till birth! She was very calm and was just my speed! Elephants in Thailand were originally used as transportation, and then in the logging industry until they banned chopping down all of the teak forests. Now they have become fewer in number and Thailand has started a conservation program to take care of them (some live to 80 years!) and increase their numbers so they don't become extinct.
The folks at Patara Elephant Farm are doing a great job with conservation and were absolutely wonderful, informative and enjoyable to be with. It was an all day adventure with them picking us up at 7:30 am and driving us to the farm. We got back at 4:30 pm just in time for me to shower and get to the airport. If you ever find yourself in Chiang Mai, this is a must do! Don't do any other elephant farm trip because they don't give you the kind of hands on opportunity that we had here. There were only 9 of us and most others have many many more people and require the elephants to do tricks and such like a circus. This was far from that! I have lots of photos, here are just a few.
My elephant 
was named Mai Sinoi (not sure about the spelling). She was pregnant with her 4th. I found out that it's 18 - 24 months from conception till birth! She was very calm and was just my speed! Elephants in Thailand were originally used as transportation, and then in the logging industry until they banned chopping down all of the teak forests. Now they have become fewer in number and Thailand has started a conservation program to take care of them (some live to 80 years!) and increase their numbers so they don't become extinct.
The folks at Patara Elephant Farm are doing a great job with conservation and were absolutely wonderful, informative and enjoyable to be with. It was an all day adventure with them picking us up at 7:30 am and driving us to the farm. We got back at 4:30 pm just in time for me to shower and get to the airport. If you ever find yourself in Chiang Mai, this is a must do! Don't do any other elephant farm trip because they don't give you the kind of hands on opportunity that we had here. There were only 9 of us and most others have many many more people and require the elephants to do tricks and such like a circus. This was far from that! I have lots of photos, here are just a few. 
No comments:
Post a Comment