I love animals. In recent years, I've taken quite a liking to elephants. I think it started off as Meg loving them, and her obsession with them rubbed off on me. Coming to Thailand, I was so excited to have the opportunity to see elephants at the sanctuaries. Chiang Mai is famous for having a multitude of elephant farms/sanctuaries/rescue centers. Whatever you want to call them. So obviously when I visited in January, spending a day with them was a top priority. Haley and I rang in the new year at Ran-Tong Elephant Rescue Center outside of Chiang Mai. Despite the fact that we had been out to absurd hours the night before, we were up and enthusiatic bright and early to begin our day. There are so many places to choose from in Chiang Mai for elephants. However, many places are unethical. In Thailand, animals aren't taken care of the way they are in America. Take the famous Tiger Temple for example (they drug and mistreat their tigers purely so humans can take selfies and play with them). Finding an ethical elephant farm was a top priority. I think that Elephant Nature Park and Patara Elephant Farm are best for ethics, but they were all booked. That's when I found Ran-Tong. Most reviews were good, and the particular one we chose was no ride because they're too young. I definitely recommend this place. It was a genuine experience, and I didn't feel that they mistreated their elephants. The elephants looked happy and healthy. The mahouts were with them all the time and their love and concern for the elephants was obvious. I did, however, have a few reservations. Firstly, there was one elephant that was kept in a small pen all the time. She is the mother of the baby, and when I asked why she was kept in the pen, the trainer told me that she is very protective of her baby and has become a bit aggressive. I was able to see this behavior and understood that it was purely a safety precaution. Another elephant was tied to a pole with a rope. He wasn't left there all day, though.
We chose to spend the day with young elephants, including 4 month old Ran-Tong. We began the journey to the mountains bright and early to meet our elefriends and were joined by an awesome couple, Kris and Steve. We were so lucky that our group was only 4 people. It made it possible to have more one-on-one time with the elephants, and it was so amazing. When we arrived, we were given a change of clothes and began our adventure. Haley and I insisted that we looked like we were in a mariachi band due to the outfits complete with hats, but we were so fine with it. The day was filled with activities-- we started off by playing with baby Ran-Tong. That little baby was my favorite part of the whole experience. She had such a distinct personality. Like a puppy or a child, there was this adorable clumsiness and silliness about her. She would trip over her own trunk, fall while trying to climb out of her pen, and try to sit on our laps--completely unaware of her size. We fed the elephants bananas, cut sugar cane and fed it to them, took them for a walk, made vitamins for them, bathed them in mud, and gave them herbal oil massages.
It was a really awesome day! I learned that I am a little bit afraid of them. And by a little bit afraid, I mean kind of terrified. Even at only a few years old, they're big enough to kill, which really came into my mind when the one we were bathing started freaking out. He was swinging his trunk, making loud elephant noises, and running around. I was certain he was going to kill his mahout. I high tailed it out of there. Regardless of my hesitations, the elephants didn't hurt anyone, and it was an amazing experience. Probably one of the best days of my 22 years of life.
Here's a video that my friends Kris and Steve complied of our day :)