Elephants

On my trip to Thailand I realized I will be able to experience animals in a way I have never before. The best of these experiences was at an Elephant rescue grounds. We scheduled a day to spend at the Patara Elephant Farm. The farm has over 60 elephants that they have either rescued from loggers, circuses, pets or have raised themselves. Each elephant has a  person who watches over them and trains them. Everyday before the crack of dawn, they search the jungle to find the elephant which they then feed, bathe, and do a physical health check. To raise money for the operation (which the cost of feeding them alone is tremendous) the farm allows tourist to come. However they limit it to about 8 tourist a day. It is called their “elephant owner for a day tour.” As part of this package we each watch over one elephant for a day. They allow us to feed the elephant and play around with them, even their babies!. They then have us scrub the elephants down, literally beating off the dirt. We were taught how to do a quick health check on the elephants including checking their toe nails, looking for signs they slept laying down, if they are happy, and even checking through and smelling their dung. Afterwards we bathe the elephants in the creek. Then the fun starts as we are then allowed to ride the elephants bareback.

One can either walk up the trunk of the elephant or pull yourself up the side by climbing on the elephants legs which they will lift up to help you. You ride ride up on the elephants neck with your knees pulled up high. You shout out commands in Thai to tell the elephant what to do or where to go and kick the elephants ears to go forward or one ear to turn. These elephants were basically following a trail so no biggie for us, but we did see others ride the elephants around other places using these techniques. Lastly we stopped and had a huge lunch outside on banana leaves. Everything we did not eat we then fed to the elephants. Lastly before we left we bathed them one last time. This time though the water was much deeper and we crawled up on top of the elephants while they laid down. Every once in a while the elephant would roll over and we would have to quickly scoot to the side so as not to fall off and be crushed. It really was quite the experience and one I would recommend for anyone.

Smelling the dung

it was difficult to stay on if the elephants decided to roll while being washed

Tigers

When I heard you could pet a tiger at a tiger breeding park, that was one excursion I had to go on. We were led in by a tennish year old girl who most likely did not go to school to where they kept the tigers. The place had around twenty or more tigers in all. They were well fed, still had their claws, and had play areas as well as a larger area in the back to run around in. They did have smaller cages in the front for when guest come in they could take pictures of them.

We first went in and was able to bottle feed a cub and pet it. Later we went to a different section to take our picture with a rather large tiger. Four man walked in with us only armed with a stick, and a pole with a stuffed panda hanging on it. The man with the pole dangled it in front of the tiger which it quickly tried to pounce on it. When the tiger was in position we were led behind it and was able to pet the tiger while the man distracted it enough to take  photos. If the tiger made any sudden movements or even turned his head we were quickly told to move behind the man. It was a little nerve wrecking but I got my picture. Though next time I go I plan on wearing my Clemson gear. Gotta represent you know.

Lemurs

I was able to see a couple other animals including a monitor lizard swimming in the water and several pythons that people were trying to get tourist to pose with. However there is only one I could not resist and that was a lemur. So I leave you with a picture of me and the lemur.