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02/17/2023 Elephant Nature Park Day I in Chiang Mai, Thailand

@travyling Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand ๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ญ WOW what an incredible experience with magnificent creatures and amazing people! ๐Ÿ’œ๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ™๐Ÿผ #elephantnaturepark #elephant #chiangmai #thailand #travyling #traveling #travel #animals #conservation โ™ฌ Baby Elephant Walk - Henry Mancini

A shuttle bus picked up Morgan, Joseph, and I from our Air BnB in the morning to take us to the Elephant Nature Park (ENP). After being highly recommended to us by our friends we made on Koh Phangan, I booked us the 2 day/1 night stay. It took us about an hour for us to get to the ENP from Chiang Mai. Our guide, Bibi, was very friendly and informative during our ride in. She has been with the ENP for 15 years. The ENP opened in 2003, covers approximately 300 acres of land and at the time of our visit had 115 rescued elephants. By research and reputation, ENP is indeed very ethical, as it rescues elephants from working camps, riding camps, and other harmful lifestyles and provides them a massive space to rehabilitate and roam. Their compassion extends beyond just elephants. ENP has 650 dogs, 2,000 cats, 200 buffalo, and more rescued animals including horses and pigs.

We spent the morning and afternoon taking a trip through the entire main portion of ENP, meeting many of the different elephants and only spending time away from elephants to eat a delicious vegetarian feast for lunch. When exploring the park, we were able to feed and touch the more social and friendly elephants. โ€œNo food, no love,โ€ our guide Bibi says. If you have a banana or watermelon in your hand, you would be the elephantโ€™s best friend. We also got to see baby elephants, who chased Joseph around for a little while. It was incredible getting to observe these magnificent creatures and get close.

Before dinner, I participated in a yoga flow that one of the volunteers lead. After another delicious massive vegetarian meal, we listened to the founder of ENP give a speech. It was immediately obvious that the founder is doing genuine and caring work for all the animals at ENP. She emphasized her purpose being to show elephants love and a better life they deserve after rescuing them from unethical and undesirable lives. She also mentioned that there is a ceremony done when an elephant at the park dies, and where they are buried, a tree is planted and named after them so they can live on in the park. How amazing!

After the speech, I began to wind down in my room. I was very pleasantly surprised with the accommodations, which were clean, an spacious! As I was laying down and preparing to rest, I enjoyed listening to the sounds of Buddhist monks chanting nearby at Wat Mueang Kut and countless dogs howling.