Thailand’s Elephants—Patty’s New Cause

Posing next to our favorite baby elephant

Yesterday, we entered a sanctuary that I would have preferred never to leave. Tom and I would have left Chiang Mai days ago except for our desire to visit the Elephant Nature Foundation’s Park. They only allow 30 visitors a day—we had to wait 3 days to get in. It was for both of us the moment when Thailand became paradise.

For 9 days, I’ve been fairly sad, worried and overwhelmed—a novel worth of stories. I have too often wished that we never came to Thailand. I was skeptical even about the Elephant Sanctuary. I expected nothing more than another ‘experience.’ I was thankfully wrong. I have never felt such a swelling of humanity, true loving compassion in my life. I LOVE THIS PLACE. And be forewarned, I am on a mission to help them. For not only have they rescued 35 hurt and damaged elephants, victims of tourism and desperation, but they care for 150 cats and dogs that roam the Park with equal doses of joy and love. And not to be a cliché of only animals matter kind of nonprofits, this organization also provides sustainable farming and caregiver jobs for the locals. They educate and help them to make humaritarian changes themselves--they have a lot of work ahead of them. This is the real deal. Can there be any place more perfect for me: rescued animals, respected humans and a perfect backdrop. Heaven.

And to make certain you understand the exceptional beauty of this place, the elephants that can are being reintroduced into the wild on land owned by the Elephant Park: a large space blessed by Monks to keep the impoverished locals from cutting down the trees and planting pesticide filled crops. The Thais are very religious and would never cut down a tree blessed and then marked with a ribbon clearly made by the symbolic orange cloth of a Monk. The Sanctuary is not keeping the elephants for show. And the elephants stay near the humans because they have been nurtured through positive reinforcement…not whipped…nor other things that would make you stop reading and want to find a place to sob.

The only scar of the experience (as everyday has one) was toward the end of our day of ‘playing’ with elephants (one baby in particular for me) and eating authentic Thai gourmet vegetarian meals, snacks and drinks. We were corralled into a meeting room with lovely cups of tea and rice cake sweet treats to see a documentary on the plight of Thai elephants. I made it through half of the graphic film and then just barely managed to find my way out of the room to their gorgeous raised observation veranda before I erupted into hysterical sobs: this was the tipping point for me. I would have watched the film, normally—to learn, but I could not handle in that moment one more example of what I have felt since arriving here: desperation that seems impossible to fix.

On the veranda, alone, trying to quiet my sadness, an older elephant, who had been munching on some banana leaves at the end of this long raised deck comes down to where I sit and stands under me. I can see her gray and wrinkled body below through the openings of the deck’s spaced wooden planks. She stays with me until I calm down. I will never be the same again. God help the poor next fool who brags about riding elephants or feeding them in the streets of Bangkok. I hope I can hold the gentle compassion and understanding of the Elephant Nature Foundation and use positive reinforcement to help them understand that this is wrong. So far, I mostly hate this trip, it is painful, BUT I am so very glad that I came.

Today we decided to visit a silk textile museum and try to find more authentic, fair trade products. Tomorrow, we get to visit another beautiful spot outside the city for a Thai cooking class at an organic farm. Then Friday, we fly to Phuket for hiking, kayaking and relaxing on a beach with decorated drinks that make you feel like an idiot.

Two more pictures...it takes forever to upload to this blog:

Patty in heaven

A lunch room with a extraordinary view