Day 7: Elephant Day!

 

We spent the afternoon at Elephant Jungle Sanctuary

This was a last-minute booking. We had 2 bigger touristy things we wanted to do while in Chiang Mai: spend time with elephants and go to the Sticky Waterfalls. The complication came in trying to schedule everything in! We hadn't thought through things far enough in advance so busy last night (Friday) we were at the computer trying to figure out what to do and sending messages to people trying to figure out what we could book. We decided to do a Saturday afternoon trip to see elephants!

We were picked up at our apartment at 11:30 and after picking up 5 other folks from another hotel (all from Utah) we drove an hour and a bit out to Elephant Jungle Sanctuary Chiang Mai. There were 3 busses of people who came out, so about 25 people total.

When we arrived, we all put on Karen Tribe shirts (well...those of us who didn't find it too hot...) and were given some information and safety instructions before we started with feeding the elephants bananas. After, they put out piles of grass and corn (as in the picture) for the elephants to eat while we able to get closer to them, pet them, and get photos with them. There were 5 elephants, 4 adult female elephants and 1 young male elephant (beside James and I in the photo).

After that, we made these "vitamin balls" for the elephants to eat that is supposed to help with digestion. It was a mix of young green plants, rice, tamarin, probiotics, and bananas. We then fed these to the elephants before taking them to the river to play in the water.

Playing in the water was pretty cool! We all splashed the elephants and they seemed to be fine with it (...I suppose they might enjoy it...I just know that as I don't like it when other people splash me so I have a hard time not projecting my own feelings on these kinds of situations lol). We then took them to a mud pit and spread mud all over them. The elephants use the mud to protect their skin from the sun, wind, and bugs, which is why that is the last thing, after the river.

We then cleaned up, had a quick dinner, and hopped back on the van to come back. We got back to the apartment around 6pm and headed out for a late stroll at the Saturday night walking market. It wasn't nearly as busy as China Town in Bangkok, which I think the kids enjoyed. Each kid was given 200 baht (about $8 CAD) to purchase something. Juliet bought a dress and some small stuffies (she also had to contribute some of her own money) and James bought a toy and some sun glasses. He didn't have enough money to buy the sunglasses so he tried bartering...no fear in that child! He didn't get much a discount, but I think the lady thought he was cute for trying so he did get a bit of money off.

We then grabbed a late night snack of crepes with bananas and strawberries and came back to the apartment...it was a late night and was good to get to bed after that!