Baan Chang Elephant Park

I never knew finding an elephant park for reservation was soo tedious, or maybe it's just us? Sure there are a lot of elephant parks out there in Bangkok and in Chiang Mai but there's only a handful who treat them right. A month before our trip, we started researching about elephants and elephant parks in Thailand. It seems a trip to Thailand without even seeing an elephant is incomplete.

It's sad to know that there are just about 5000 of them left in Thailand and half of them are domesticated. It's even sadder to think how they domesticate an elephant in an early age. The ritual is called "training crush" where a wild baby elephant is striped away from its mother, tortured, starved and deprived of sleep to break it's spirit and forced to submission.

As our guide told us, elephants are big creatures with small hearts. It's heartbreaking how they're being tortured to entertain tourists like you and me. For this reason, we didn't want to support elephant parks offering elephant shows and rides with wooden chairs. There are only a few of them and visitor slots are limited per day. One month before our trip and most of them are already fully booked. So I suggest you book earlier if you plan to visit.

We finally ended up with Baan Chang Elephant Park. On the way to the park, our guide Chi, explained to us why they use chains and hooks. He said it was for safety measures. They use chains because they don't want their elephants to end up at their neighbors doorsteps eating their crops. And they use hooks to control them because elephants are big creatures and that there is no way of stopping them with bare hands. Somehow I can see his point. We experienced this first hand. Elephants get scared easily. They're scared of chickens and rats. A vehicle with a siren passed by and an elephant got scared and tried to run away. His mahout (elephant trainer) was riding him that time and good thing he was able to control the elephant. If all the elephants weren't chained it would have been a total disaster.

If I remember correctly they have 44 elephants all rescued. We started by feeding the elephants their snacks, banana and sugar canes. Elephants are vegetarians and they usually eat elephant grass which the park grows. But it is not enough for the elephants they have so they have to buy from other sources as well. Elephants are big and they eat a lot so I can only imagine how much they spend for elephant food. They were all hungry and seeking for attention to feed them their snacks.

There was this instance where our group got surrounded by 4 elephants all demanding to give them the food. When they saw we have no more to give they let us go. They usually get the food using their trunks. So one elephant caught our attention. He was at a distance from other elephants. We asked our guide why and he said that elephant was blind so you can only feed him by the mouth. He was already blind when they got him. I think some case of cataract. His pupils were white.

Feeding them was really fun until we ran out of snacks to feed them. Next we met the kissing monster. I mean elephant. It's really gross and it tickles but nevertheless a fun experience as well.

Next it was our turn to eat. We were served with unlimited Pad Thai and it was good. After that we were taught some basic elephant commands. Sit (Nang Lng), Stand, Left, Right, Go (Pi) and Stop (Haw). Of course in Thai but I don't know how to spell them correctly. But honestly, I don't think the commands worked for me. Luckily their mahouts are just around to command them.

Next is riding them bareback. Wooden chairs damage their backs so the park doesn't use them. But they allow riding bare back. Riding them is scary. They're tall so even though they are sitting, you wouldn't really notice. And I feel like I'm always going to fall off. We toured the park by riding the elephants. But the second round was really unnecessary. I can't feel my hands afterwards. Riding was a good experience but uncomfortable. I think the elephants can say the same as well.

The last activity was bathing them. We were having second thoughts, seeing how the elephants peed and pooped in the water afterwards. But sanitation aside, we enjoyed bathing them more than riding them. We scrubbed them and splashed some water here and there.

A picture with big mama (mother elephant) concluded our Chiang Mai Elephant adventure. (^_^)

We paid for THB2400 per person for a one day package. Including transportation to and from the elephant park, lunch etc. To know more, visit their site given below:
http://www2.baanchangelephantpark.com/