I spent quite a time on the internet before coming out to Thailand researching the elephant camps, trying to find out if they were proper conservation parks or tourist rip offs.. Unfortunately the Elephant Conservation Park had no spaces for us, but we were recommended a company called Ran Tong and we spent the day with them.
I wanted a camp where you just be with and interact with the elephants, not ride them or make them doing mock work, like lifting wood as that is what they had been rescued from. I think we made the right choice. We had the day with four baby elephants 2, 3 and 4 year olds, and four month old Rang.. What can I say..delightful.
Rang decided he wanted to sit on us and have a rest.
We went for a walk with the other three elephants, mixed up their feed and fed them, and then took them down to their mud pool, cleaned them off and rubbed them down with herbs to soften their skin. An elephant spa. Quite a few folks got in with them and scrubbed them down. Great fun to watch.
Jan our guide told us about the bad animal parks and that the Government support the few wild elephants left in the forests further north. But they do not regulate the elephant parks, which has lead to unscrupulous operators, more interested in tourist, and their money, than the welfare of the animals. Jan has worked with elephants back in Sweden and now in Thailand and is pressing for more regulation of these camps.
They have only been going for nine months and hope it goes well for them. They are expecting one more elephant soon and hopefully will grow more. But all of the elephants come in traumatised, and he told us it takes months for them to realised they are no longer being abused. The mother of the baby was shackled from being a baby. She still has to be in a pen, but they are hoping that over time, she will feel able to roam more freely with her baby.
Now don't we just look a sexy pair in this garb?
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