Up close with the gentle giants

One of the things I really wanted to do in Thailand was to go to an elephant sanctuary. I had seen pictures of other people doing this and I was determined to do it. Luckily for me I was heading to Chaing Mai anyway and this area is known for its elephant sanctuaries.  After some looking around online I chose Lana Kingdom and I feel I made the right choice.

There is a rough plan for the day, but the key here is if the elephants don’t want to do it then its not happening!  So the plan may change.

The break down is.  Interact with the elephants, touch and talk to, play with etc.  Next feed them bananas, can put directly into the mouth and the elephants really like this.  Then you make a vitamin bowl to feed them, this is a mixture of various fruits into a mush which you feed them.    Next is the most fun, mud bath and cleaning.  Get in a mud pool and get dirty!  Splash mud and clean them down.  The elephants REALLY enjoyed this part a lot.

Next its a great lunch and goodbye to the elephants.   It was quite surreal and humbling being so up close and personal to these gentle giants.  They are so peaceful and kind, and they have had a hard life.  They were work elephants which did many years of hard labour in logging camps.  They love playing and eating, and as long as you’re careful its not really possible to get injured.

there are options like this available in Phuket and Koh Samui but I really do suggest you choose the Chaing Mai one.  You can book directly here Book here

You can also buy some priducts made from elephant dung.  The costs involved here are extraordinarily high and they get no government funding, so please help.