After many hours trying to pack our bags we finally managed to fit everything in and both rucksacks were way under our weight allowance which was a bit of a shock. So we headed to heathrow last Saturday evening where both mums broke down in tears whilst we rushed through security. About 14 hours and 2 flights later we landed in Chiang Mai.
The following morning we were picked up and taken to the Elephant Nature Park where we spent the next week. This place is just amazing and the woman who set it up, Lek, is truly incredible! ENP is a sanctuary for elephants who have been badly treated/injured. There are currently a total of 34 elephants here but there are so many more that need rescuing across Thailand. Many of them have been involved in logging or tourism where they are trained and beaten from a young age. A number of the elephants here were blinded by their previous owners and some have broken backs, hips and legs which will never properly heal. The Sanctury allows the elephants to live in an environment which closely resembles their natural habitat but each elephant has its own mahout (elephant keeper) with them at all times. Lek tries to teach the elephants to gradually start trusting humans again and watching her with the baby girl elephant was just amazing. She sat under her singing lullabies and kissing her legs and trunk to calm her down. The particular baby, Faa Mai is a right trouble maker and has provided us with great entertainment! Lek has also rescued around 280 dogs which are at the park (finding this out almost gave Em a heart attack!) bust most of them are in kennels with only around 50 walking round the park. More than half of these dogs were rescued from the floods in Bangkok last year. There are also water buffaloes and cows here - apparently Lek just can't say no.
While we were at ENP we did a variety of jobs including washing and cutting elephant food (pumpkins, bananas and melons), scooping elephant poop, planting trees, building fences, moving sand for a newborn buffalo and cutting corn and sugar cane with machetes! The most fun jobs of all were feeding and bathing the elephants on a daily basis! :) One afternoon we walked round the park and met all the elephants which was pretty cool.
As for the weather its been both hot and wet - mainly hot but when it does rain it truly pours, notably when we're out in the middle of a field. Rain also means no electricity which makes showering even more difficult than usual. Our accommodation was pretty basic but we had an awesome view. There's a picture of it below, which brings us on to treetops and whistle. So for those of you that don't know, my dad and his friends have this toy sheep they all take away and take photos of in different places (don't ask!!). So as I joke Em bought James a little monkey, treetops. Unfortunately her mum was there at the time and thought it would be even more amusing to buy her one as well - the little deer, Whistle. The photo below shows Treetops and Whistle sitting on our window ledge....
We've met some great people here from across the world - Australia, Denmark, New Zealand and even some Norwegian soap stars! The volunteer coordinators have been great and the main leader, Chet, is possibly the campest person we've ever met, constantly singing 'born this way' and wearing some flair outfits including a glittery waistcoat and bright pink trousers!
Unfortunately our time at ENP has now come to an end and we don't want to leave! For anyone visiting Thailand and wanting to see elephants we would strongly recommend here and if you consider going trekking instead then just consider the pain and suffering that they have and still are being put through.
We're now off back to Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai for a few days before heading into Laos.
We've uploaded a few photos of our time here and when we get a chance we hope to upload ones from our cameras onto flickr, although we'll warn you now that we've already taken a fair few!!!
Take care!
X x x
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