So, as of like six o'clock yesterday evening I wasn't quite sure what this last day in Thailand was going to entail. Jack and I had roughly planned out the first two days but the third was up in the air... for me anyway.  What Jack had failed to tell me up until last night was that he had secretly booked for us to go to the Elephant Nature Park and hang out with fricken elephants.  So we had a bit of an early night last night just because the Park was coming to our hotel at 8am so we had to be up and ready for them. 

Flash forward to this morning and we are in a van making the sixty kilometre drive out of Chiang Mai to the nature park.  On our way we watched a video explaining how horrible and cruel the elephant trade is in Asia and how this park cares for the elephants and treats them in a humane way.  When I'm back in Vancouver I'll make a post about it because there is just way too much information to include here.  Anyway we're in the van with ten other people making small talk, figuring out where everyone else was from.  In total there was an American, two Mexicans, two Kiwi's, an Albertan, an Irishman and a girl from Chile.

The sanctuary isn't exclusively for the elephants either. Over the last few years it's turned more into a safe place for neglected animals such as cats, dogs, water buffalo and pigs.  

Arriving at the sanctuary we were immediately approached by a hungry elephant so we took turns feeding him chunks of watermelon, squash and cucumber.  It's crazy how dexterous an elephant trunk is basically like a human hand.  

They're very intelligent creatures and can learn skills and empathize with one another.  Because these elephants were brought in from outside circuses and other places where they fell into mistreatment they are often orphans. Luckily, older elephants have a strong sense of compassion and will adopt an orphan elephant as if it was their own.  So, as the keepers explained, a young elephant may have a mom or dad but it can also have an aunt or a nanny or several elephants simultaneously looking after it.

After the initial feeding they walked us around the acreage introducing us to the many different animals under their care.  The place is big and as well as the enormous main field they have acres of forest surrounding the main buildings.  Because riding on an elephant is actually very inhumane (the weight of the person / harness etc puts mega strain on their neck) we just walked around them, intermittently feeding them fruit or corn.  

We had a break for lunch then headed out to the river where we found a young elephant playing with his parents in the water.  He was kind of goofy because he was too small and kept getting dragged down stream by the current while his mom kept having to go after him.  He also complained loudly when they got out, just as a human toddler would. 

Just before we left we were able to get into the river with another couple of elephants to give them a wash.  I'll say it must be a good life standing in the river, eating watermelon out of a basket while getting washed by tourists.   

I don't know if I'm getting my entire point across but basically if you take away anything from this I fucking washed and fed an elephant today!  

Anyway tomorrow I'll probably be updating you guys from the Bangkok airport because #30hourtravelday

G-