Elephants <3 The gentle giants on 07.11

What a day!!!

With all the impressions and experiences, I don't even know where to start. Today was an amazingly good day. When I rolled out of bed at 07:00 h (-_-), I had no idea how interesting the day would be.

After the usual breakfast, we are picked up by a driver who takes us to a meeting point in the heart of the city. From there, the journey takes almost two hours!!! westward to Doi Inthanon National Park. The elephant sanctuary is located deep in the jungle and on a spacious clearing.

The camp promises visitors appropriate care for the elephants and no physical labor (riding, carrying) for the former working elephants.

The mahout, who takes care of the elephants, introduces himself and the visitors (a total of 8) to each other.

After the introduction round is completed, we are handed a bag of fruit. The giants immediately rush towards us. Surprisingly gentle, they greedily accept the fruits.

When the bag is empty, we can spend a cozy hour with the animals or get food for them from the nearby forests. Afterwards, the pachyderms take an hour-long nap, which particularly attracts longing glances from the other visitors, especially the little "Dumbo".

While the elephants rest, I stuff myself with delicious rice-vegetable dishes and ingredients from the region. Meanwhile, the other visitors, who come from all over the world (Auckland, New York, Hong Kong, etc.), talk about themselves and their experiences. The elephants are now rested, the people fed.

We change clothes and then meet the elephants in a mud hole, where they willingly let us smear them. To wash off, we walk about 10 minutes to the nearest river. We wash ourselves and the animals and watch the smaller elephants play in the water. After changing, I have a conversation with Julia from New York about her interesting (XD) lifestyle. We say goodbye to the animals and mahouts and drive back the same way around 15:00 h.

To end the day pleasantly, I decide to go to the night market in the evening, where I coincidentally meet Julia again and try some curious food.

I'm back home around 22:30 h. It was a long but VERY nice day :).