14.01.2023 - Elephants in Hua Hin and Diving in Koh Tao

Since I started exploring the topic of world travel, it has been one of my goals to experience elephants up close. Now, together with Jacob, I have finally fulfilled this wish. For this, we traveled from Bangkok to Hua Hin. Although I had the opportunity to participate in a tour to an so-called Elephant Sanctuary in Chiang Mai, I consciously decided against it at that time. It should be known that a lot of nonsense is done with elephants here in Southeast Asia just to get tourists to book tours. In practice, it looks like tourists riding elephants, swimming with them, or making them perform tricks. Many often do not know that these camps they visit torture the elephants beforehand to "break the will of the elephant," as they say. The fact is that an elephant's back is not made for carrying anything at all. Since there is hardly any possibility to find out in advance whether the tour is ethically correct or not, it is relatively difficult to make a decision whether to participate or not. Fortunately, long before the start of my trip, I read about WFFT on a German backpacker blog. This organization rescues elephants and other animals from miserable conditions and rehabilitates them at their own facility. And tourists can visit this facility. So we took a train for about three hours from Bangkok to Hua Hin, from where the tour was supposed to start the next day. With the obligatory delay of about 40 minutes - even after almost four months, I am still not used to it and still get nervous because I might have overslept or missed something - we were picked up at our hostel and driven to the Wildlife Friends Foundation (WFFT) area. Already upon arrival, we saw the first elephants in an incredibly large enclosure, and immediately I had the feeling that I had made the right choice. The tours in the Wildlife Rescue Center and Elephant Refuge aim to educate visitors about the rescued animals, see hundreds of animals, and get as close to elephants as possible under ethically correct conditions. That is why our tour started with a short introduction and a walk through the Rescue Center. Here you can find over 100 different rescued animal species, from monkeys to tigers to bears. By the way, the most impressive story for me was the story of a cougar that was illegally brought from Canada to Bangkok to live as a pet in a household. The stories of other animals living here were equally sad. It is always fascinating to see what humans are capable of. But fortunately, there are organizations like WFFT that take care of the fate of such animals.

After the tour of the reserve, we took a tour of the outside areas of the facility after a quick lunch. It was only here that we got a sense of how large the entire area actually is and how much space the animals have here. By the way, the primary goal of the foundation is to eventually reintroduce the animals into the wild. However, this is only successful for a maximum of five percent of the animals, as the rest would not survive in the wild. The example of an orangutan illustrates this quite well, which is why it is only five percent. After being freed from a household, the caregivers had to retrain the orangutan to be an orangutan again. When the ape was freed, it couldn't even swing anymore. The owners had trained it to behave like a human, so it only moved on the ground upright, just like a human does. It took several years for the orangutan to start climbing trees again and behaving like an ape.

In the late afternoon, the actual highlight from my perspective awaited us: we were allowed to feed elephants. What was just a small snack for the elephant was a week's worth of food for me. A large bucket of melon pieces was ready to be fed to the elephants. So we each grabbed a few pieces and approached the elephants one by one to put the pieces in their trunks. Until now, I had imagined elephant trunks to be very soft, but in fact, it is the exact opposite, they are very rough - now I know why elephants are also called pachyderms. It was an indescribable feeling to be so close to such a large and majestic animal, it was almost sublime. After the elephant had finished the whole bucket, our day at the Wildlife Friends Foundation unfortunately came to an end. Visiting the resort is certainly not cheap, but considering that WFFT is mainly funded by admission fees and that you can create wonderful memories here, the money is very well invested.

Finally, a few words about Hua Hin. In my entire time in Thailand, I have never seen so many older European men with noticeably young Thai women. It was almost a bit embarrassing when walking through the city, which has nothing to offer except bars, restaurants, and massage studios. Overall, our trip to the elephants fortunately surpassed the other experiences in Hua Hin, but we were still glad to get back on the bus after two days and continue to the next destination.

Thailand is mainly known for its dreamy islands, white sandy beaches, and crystal clear water. And that's exactly what we were in the mood for after Bangkok and Hua Hin. Relaxing on the beach, sipping on a coconut every now and then, and soaking up some island vibes. Since I wanted to explore the underwater world again after three years of absence, we chose the island of Koh Tao. Koh Tao is located in the Gulf of Thailand and is a true backpacker's paradise. Although there are also restaurants, bars, and dive schools here, everything seems much more relaxed than in other places in Thailand. By the way, since we're talking about "relaxed," the journey was once again far from relaxed. We were supposed to take the night bus from Hua Hin to the coast at 11:30 p.m. to catch the ferry to Koh Tao at dawn. Of course, the bus was almost an hour late, so we stood at the bus stop in Hua Hin until 12:30 a.m. tired and annoyed. We then embarked on an uncomfortable and restless bus ride, where neither Jacob nor I could really get any sleep. We reached the coastal town at 5:30 a.m. from where the ferry was supposed to depart. Since the ferry didn't leave until 7:00 a.m., we hoped to wait/sleep on the bus until then. However, upon arrival, we were told that everyone had to leave the bus and wait at the pier. So we sat on a wooden bench, tired as can be, for an hour and a half before we were finally allowed on the ferry for a two-hour journey to Koh Tao. By this point, we were in desperate need of rest. It's no wonder that after a quick check-in at the hostel, we went straight to the beach. After a long nap under the palms, we happily and refreshed returned to the hostel in the late afternoon because we wanted to book a snorkeling tour for the next day. Fortunately, our accommodation was not only a hostel but also a dive center. Accordingly, we were able to book our tour directly through the hostel.

The next morning, we set out on the boat in the morning. The plan was to visit a total of five spots around the island where we could explore the underwater world with a mask and snorkel. As you know, my camera is at the bottom of Halong Bay in Vietnam, so unfortunately, I can only show a few underwater pictures of fellow snorkelers. However, there wasn't much to see anyway. Very little of the once stunning underwater fauna remains. All the coral reefs have died, and you can only see a desolate, brown world. This is not surprising when you consider how many tourists are here and how little understanding there is among tourists and many locals for the protection of coral reefs. People were constantly standing on the corals or touching them. However, there were no warnings from the tour guides, who also behaved incorrectly in places. On the positive side, despite the many dead plants, there were still a lot of animals swimming around the reefs. So we got to see baby sharks and sea turtles, among other things. Despite the damaged coral, it was still a beautiful trip. We spent the whole day at sea, swam a lot, and had a good time. So overall, it was a good start to our island time. We used the next day for the beach again and spent more or less the entire time on the beach before a pizza evening took place at the hostel in the evening. As mentioned before, I also wanted to use my time on Koh Tao to go diving again. However, since my last dive was already three years ago, I decided after much back and forth to complete a short refresher course before the two actual dives in the sea. I have to say that I haven't been this nervous in a long time. On the one hand, I have a lot of respect for diving in general, and on the other hand, I was curious to see how much of what I learned during my diving certification was still with me. Looking back, I can say that it was definitely worth taking the refresher course. Although I hadn't forgotten everything, a few skills needed to be practiced again. After a good hour in the pool and a short theory exam, I was ready for the open sea. By the way, it was my first real dive in the sea, as I did my certification in an indoor dive center and a lake, and you can't count the introductory dive in the Caribbean as a real dive.

In the afternoon, we took the boat out into a large bay, and after a quick dive briefing where everything important about currents, procedures, and expected marine life was discussed, we were ready to go. The first breaths underwater were something very special again. Although it wasn't the first time for me, it was still a unique and fascinating feeling. We dove through the underwater world for 45 minutes, this time even with living corals, small and large fish. Then we went back to the boat, where we rested for a short time, ate and drank something, only to set off for the second dive. This time we drove a few minutes to another spot, where the visibility in the water was unfortunately slightly worse than in the first spot. However, that didn't diminish my fun, because while during the first dive I had to concentrate a lot on myself and therefore noticed very little of what was happening around me, I was able to enjoy the second dive much more. Tired, exhausted, but very happy, we returned to the hostel in the evening, where we had to pack our things again. The next day was all about continuing our journey.