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I want to share a travel story with you, one that is very close to my heart. Even since I was little, I dreamed of one day traveling and seeing elephants in nature. I love animals so much, but I was always fascinated by elephants in particular because even if they are the world’s largest land animal, elephants are so gentle and warm-hearted. And oh, baby elephants are the cutest, right?
After we bought the tickets to Thailand and started the research to plan the trip, I knew that my number one thing on my list was visiting the Elephant Sanctuary, in Chiang Mai. In Thailand, the elephant is a national symbol, so we found statues and drawings of them in every temple and cultural place. It was amazing to see how much respect and worship people have for these magnificent creatures. There are a lot of local stories and traditions based on elephants (a story for another time).
Finally, the day came, and we arrived at the Sanctuary! After arriving, we changed our clothes and put on the elephant keeper outfits that were provided for us. Not so great for photos, but who cares, we were going to spend the day with the elephants! Who needs glamorous photos, right? 
After we changed, we were introduced to the trainer responsible for the whole place and he told us a lot of things about elephants in Thailand. What I noticed about this man, was the way he spoke about these animals; there was a lot of kindness and love in his eyes.
He told us that most elephants take refuge in national parks across Thailand because they are slowly losing their natural habitat to things like logging and poaching. It’s incredibly sad, though it was good to hear locals taking responsibility for them, and this is how these sanctuaries were born. It’s true, there are places where elephants are exploited and taken advantage of for tourism, but rest assured that there are also ethical sanctuaries that have a healthy and beautiful relationship with these animals. My advice to you is to do your research and choose carefully and mindfully if you plan on visiting an elephant sanctuary during your travels.
After the short lesson, we started to prepare food and medicine. And let me tell you, elephants eat a lot!!! Did you know that they spend 12 to 18 hours eating every single day (just think at the amount of poop )? So, we cut a lot of delicious and juicy fruits, put them in our buckets, and left to finally meet our soon-to-be friends.
I was so nervous and excited at the same time! We arrived near a river and there they were! We gave them all the food, laughed a lot and after that, we got in the river with them and laughed some more. We got wet and muddy, but it was amazing! We played in the cold water and took some very bad photos 😊.
My heart was so full of happiness that I did not want it to end. The trainer taught us how to speak and call them and how to make them sit, so we could clean them as thoroughly as possible.
You want to know what happened after that? I’ll tell you: after ALL the cleaning, our enormous friends got out of the water and just went to the closest mud area and started to play. All the “hard work” that we did was for nothing 😊, but it was worth it for me.
Experiences like this one make me love travel so much more! As for the elephants, they are amazing and pure creatures, with loving and kind eyes. I cannot wait to meet them again.
What I learned from this experience: always read up on the culture, the animals and the people of the places you travel to. If you want to visit the elephants, please, please do your research. Do not support and do not visit places that exploit animals, don’t accept to ride elephants just to take some beautiful picture. I encourage you to respect and treat all animals with care and respect, because in my opinion, they are more amazing than most people.
