Thailand has been on my list of places to visit for awhile and my dream came true this past March. For me, an experience with Asian elephants had to be ethical or else I wouldn’t do it. I did my research and found Phang Nga Elephant Park, voted top 5 ethical elephant experiences in Thailand.
About
Phang Nga Elephant park is a small, family run business in a rural area, so you can feel good about supporting a small, local business. The Asian elephants at Phang Nga are all rescued from the logging industry. They rescue the elephants by essentially paying rent to the loggers. By spending the day with the elephants you are raising money for the elephants to stay at Phang Nga. Elephants also eat a TON (literally) of food, which costs A LOT of money.
Arrival
Phang Nga Elephant Park picks you up from your hotel and brings you to the park. When we arrived, we were briefed on safety and the history of Asian elephants. Then the time came to meet our elephant and her mahout. The mahout is the elephants caregiver, they have a very close bond. They work everyday and live at the park. If they miss a day of work, they risk the elephant getting sick. Mahouts only sleep four hours a night, same as the elephants. Our elephants name was Sownui and I immediately felt a connection with her. Her personality came out instantaneously, she was a sassy lady and basically did whatever she wanted. I appreciated that about her and could relate.
Walk
First we took a ride on Sownui barebacked and yes, we did ride the elephants. But, these elephants were not giving ride after ride, at the most two daily. This was years ago and this elephant park no longer lets you ride them. Plus, I would no longer choose to ride them. Animal welfare and ethics have come a long way in the past few years. The elephants and mahouts take long walks twice daily. If you visit the park, you will now walk alongside them for this portion of the tour.
Feeding
Halfway through their morning walk, we fed the elephants a bin of bananas each. They eat the bananas whole with the peel, which I thought was wild. Sownui was definitely hungry because she was always ready for the next banana, I had to start feeding her two or three at a time!
Bath
Once we got back to base it was bath time! This is the elephants favorite part of the day. We got right in with them with a straw basket and brush in hand. We splashed them with water and used the brush to clean them off. Sownui loved the brush on her side so much she would lean right into it. The coolest part was seeing her fully submerged with just the tip of her trunk sticking out of the water to breath. The funniest part was when she pooped in the water. Elephants don’t have the best digestive systems, so their poop comes out in balls of what closely resembles the food they ate. Her mahout scooped the poop right out of the water with one of the baskets.
Lunch
We ended the day at Phang Nga Elephant Park with a traditional Thai lunch that was delicious. After lunch you can stop by the gift shop to buy locally made crafts, some made by the children at Phang Nga. Everyone was super friendly and the mahouts took a ton of pictures. All in all this experience was everything I had dreamed of and more!
When in Thailand, and any other country for that matter, please do not support businesses that mistreat elephants or other animals. A good indicator of this is if the elephants are chained or are seen giving ride after ride to tourists. Do your research and use good judgement!
Don’t forget to book your trip with your favorite travel planner, yours truly. If you liked this post, check out What You Need To Know About Bangkok Before You Go!
