( Overview
/ Carly in Asia
Hanging out with elephants at Patara Elephant Farm was THE BEST way to spend my birthday. There's heaps of companies in Chiang Mai (and the rest of Thailand) that offer elephant experiences, but many of them treat the elephants poorly or aren't focused on conservation. Before I left, just about everyone I talked to recommended Patara and most people said it was the highlight of their trip. Since it's a bit pricey (US$165 for one day compared to my loose "budget" of $50/day), I made it my birthday present to myself! Best 27th birthday ever and my favourite day on the trip so far! Gibbon Experience will have to be my favourite 'multi day' experience cause I can't pick favorites between the two ;)
When we first arrived on site, there was a small group of people standing around a baby & mama elephant. The people were all covered in dirt and when I asked what happened, they pointed to a small mat on the ground and just said "Sit down." As soon as I sat, the baby elephant came over and started mauling me. It was all very playful, but at the same time, it was a 170kg elephant rolling around on you. He knocked me to the ground almost immediately and sat on me before his trainer pulled him off. He was only 1 month old and was VERY rambunctious.
Down the hill a little ways, there was another baby & mama pair. This baby was MUCH more gentle and when you laid down on his mat, he'd cuddle up in your lap and the Patara photographer would get picture perfect photos of you cuddling this 6 week old baby. He actually fell asleep on the girl in the blue dress! When it was my turn for snuggles, he decided he wanted to play instead! He immediately stuck his wet slimey trunk in my face and I closed my eyes and laughed. I didn't realize it at the time, but he also "stepped" on my face with his foot. He must not have put any weight on his leg though, because I didn't even know it happened until I went to the bathroom and had a giant elephant footprint caked on my face! Naturally, I left it on all day. After everyone got a chance to play with the babies and take photos, they started the actual program with a short talk about the Farm and what we would be doing for the day.
From there, we were split into three groups of six people and were sent to different parts of the farm to meet the elephants who would be "ours" for the day. Apparently while we were playing with the baby elephants, the trainers were observing our personalities and how comfortable we were with the elephants, which determined who we were matched with.
The leader of our group, Widget, was matching everyone up with elephants in our area of the farm and I was crushed when a baby & mama pair went to a newlywed guy from Chicago. Surely I was a more maternal and affectionate caregiver than him?! Anyways, everyone else had been paired up and there were no more elephants in sight and Widget says "I have a surprise for you." My elephant, Bun Jin, was off down a hill and over a river somewhere and would not listen to his trainer who was calling for him. Everyone else is feeding and bonding with their elephants and my trainer Chai and I are just standing there yelling for Bun Jin to come. When he finally starts coming up the hill, my immediate reaction was "OH SHIT, NO, NO, NO, GO BACK!" He was MASSIVE. He was easily the biggest elephant on the whole farm and his tusks were as long as my legs. He was 21 and had 14 children. (Check out his 5th leg in the photos...) I was petrified and the trainers were loving it. Apparently my willingness to get stepped on by baby elephants at the start translated to being matched with the scariest elephant.
Bun Jin was amazing though. We bonded as you would with any other living being - over food. I was so scared to put the bananas & bamboo directly in his massive mouth and would rather he just pick it up with his trunk, but Chai was insistent that I place each individual piece in his mouth so we could work on our relationship. YIKES. After giving him brekkie, we gave the elephants mini massages by beating them with bamboo (apparently it feels good...) and then gave them water and hosed them down.
I don't have any pictures after breakfast because the sweet, well intentioned lady who took photos of me & the baby elephants took over 100 photos on two minutes and maxed out my phone's memory and I had left the camera at the hostel. Luckily, Patara had a photographer follow us throughout the day and gave us a DVD with over 700 images from the day. I just can't access it until I have a computer, so that will be a fun walk down Memory Lane some lazy day at work this fall.
After mini elephant showers, it was time to ride the elephants to the river to give them a proper bath. I'm no expert on elephant anatomy or well being, so I didn't know how to feel about riding elephants. There's another popular elephant sanctuary out of Chiang Mai that slams elephant riding in any fashion and I've met quite a few righteous travelers who've done that program and berate anyone who rides an elephant. At Patara, they told us that riding an elephant's neck for such a small distance (<10% of the distance they have to walk each day to keep their toenails healthy) was fine; its when you ride on their backs or add baskets & saddles that things get unhealthy. Patara also encouraged you to walk instead if you felt uncomfortable riding them. So anyways, right or wrong, I chose to ride Bun Jin, more out of peer pressure than actual desire to be up that high.
Getting up onto Bun Jin's neck was such a challenge. Everyone else had their elephant make a mini stepstool with their leg and then the person just kind of threw themselves over like you might get on a horse. Naturally Bun Jin was too tall for that, so I had to go up his trunk instead. I literally stood on his trunk and he lifted me up a bit until I could climb onto his head, but then I was facing the wrong way, I sat there flailing for a few minutes screaming "I can't do this, I can't do that" while the trainers tried to calm me down and the other tourists laughed at me. I finally made it to the correct sitting position (on their necks, with your knees stuck in the back of their ears). Each elephant had a rope "belt" around them (not tight) with a handle to hold onto for a little bit more security.
We then rode the elephants up and over a mountain to get to the bathing area on the other side. It had rained that morning, so there was mud everywhere and the guides could barely stand up. It was funny/scary to watch other people's elephants slide downhill in the mud, but they had remarkable balance and none of the elephants fell. They didn't all listen to instructions and wanted to wander off and eat, but we made it to the river eventually.
Once we got to the river, I had totally gotten over my fear of Bun Jin and absolutely loved him. We got to give them a bath in the river, which meant climbing up on them to brush their skin while they kneeled in the river. I used sand from the bottom of the river to scrub his tusks - a little exfoliation!
After the baths we had lunch, which was an amazing spread of meat and fruits prepared by the locals. It was phenomenal and we saved most of the fruit to give to our elephant friends. Someone else's cheeky elephant tried to steal the fruit I saved for Bun Jin! We left them shortly after that and I was so sad to leave Bun Jin. He was the most peaceful elephant ever!!
I cannot say enough good things about Patara! They were so good to the elephants and don't use any of the hooks or chains that other places do. I wanted to check out the other self righteous elephant sanctuary (it's #1 on Trip Advisor and Patara is #2) but they're fully booked for the next few days. I'll be back in Chiang Mai in early July as a launchpad for Myanmar, so I might check it out then. Hard to imagine anything as good as Patara though...
When we first arrived on site, there was a small group of people standing around a baby & mama elephant. The people were all covered in dirt and when I asked what happened, they pointed to a small mat on the ground and just said "Sit down." As soon as I sat, the baby elephant came over and started mauling me. It was all very playful, but at the same time, it was a 170kg elephant rolling around on you. He knocked me to the ground almost immediately and sat on me before his trainer pulled him off. He was only 1 month old and was VERY rambunctious.
Down the hill a little ways, there was another baby & mama pair. This baby was MUCH more gentle and when you laid down on his mat, he'd cuddle up in your lap and the Patara photographer would get picture perfect photos of you cuddling this 6 week old baby. He actually fell asleep on the girl in the blue dress! When it was my turn for snuggles, he decided he wanted to play instead! He immediately stuck his wet slimey trunk in my face and I closed my eyes and laughed. I didn't realize it at the time, but he also "stepped" on my face with his foot. He must not have put any weight on his leg though, because I didn't even know it happened until I went to the bathroom and had a giant elephant footprint caked on my face! Naturally, I left it on all day. After everyone got a chance to play with the babies and take photos, they started the actual program with a short talk about the Farm and what we would be doing for the day.
From there, we were split into three groups of six people and were sent to different parts of the farm to meet the elephants who would be "ours" for the day. Apparently while we were playing with the baby elephants, the trainers were observing our personalities and how comfortable we were with the elephants, which determined who we were matched with.
The leader of our group, Widget, was matching everyone up with elephants in our area of the farm and I was crushed when a baby & mama pair went to a newlywed guy from Chicago. Surely I was a more maternal and affectionate caregiver than him?! Anyways, everyone else had been paired up and there were no more elephants in sight and Widget says "I have a surprise for you." My elephant, Bun Jin, was off down a hill and over a river somewhere and would not listen to his trainer who was calling for him. Everyone else is feeding and bonding with their elephants and my trainer Chai and I are just standing there yelling for Bun Jin to come. When he finally starts coming up the hill, my immediate reaction was "OH SHIT, NO, NO, NO, GO BACK!" He was MASSIVE. He was easily the biggest elephant on the whole farm and his tusks were as long as my legs. He was 21 and had 14 children. (Check out his 5th leg in the photos...) I was petrified and the trainers were loving it. Apparently my willingness to get stepped on by baby elephants at the start translated to being matched with the scariest elephant.
Bun Jin was amazing though. We bonded as you would with any other living being - over food. I was so scared to put the bananas & bamboo directly in his massive mouth and would rather he just pick it up with his trunk, but Chai was insistent that I place each individual piece in his mouth so we could work on our relationship. YIKES. After giving him brekkie, we gave the elephants mini massages by beating them with bamboo (apparently it feels good...) and then gave them water and hosed them down.
I don't have any pictures after breakfast because the sweet, well intentioned lady who took photos of me & the baby elephants took over 100 photos on two minutes and maxed out my phone's memory and I had left the camera at the hostel. Luckily, Patara had a photographer follow us throughout the day and gave us a DVD with over 700 images from the day. I just can't access it until I have a computer, so that will be a fun walk down Memory Lane some lazy day at work this fall.
After mini elephant showers, it was time to ride the elephants to the river to give them a proper bath. I'm no expert on elephant anatomy or well being, so I didn't know how to feel about riding elephants. There's another popular elephant sanctuary out of Chiang Mai that slams elephant riding in any fashion and I've met quite a few righteous travelers who've done that program and berate anyone who rides an elephant. At Patara, they told us that riding an elephant's neck for such a small distance (<10% of the distance they have to walk each day to keep their toenails healthy) was fine; its when you ride on their backs or add baskets & saddles that things get unhealthy. Patara also encouraged you to walk instead if you felt uncomfortable riding them. So anyways, right or wrong, I chose to ride Bun Jin, more out of peer pressure than actual desire to be up that high.
Getting up onto Bun Jin's neck was such a challenge. Everyone else had their elephant make a mini stepstool with their leg and then the person just kind of threw themselves over like you might get on a horse. Naturally Bun Jin was too tall for that, so I had to go up his trunk instead. I literally stood on his trunk and he lifted me up a bit until I could climb onto his head, but then I was facing the wrong way, I sat there flailing for a few minutes screaming "I can't do this, I can't do that" while the trainers tried to calm me down and the other tourists laughed at me. I finally made it to the correct sitting position (on their necks, with your knees stuck in the back of their ears). Each elephant had a rope "belt" around them (not tight) with a handle to hold onto for a little bit more security.
We then rode the elephants up and over a mountain to get to the bathing area on the other side. It had rained that morning, so there was mud everywhere and the guides could barely stand up. It was funny/scary to watch other people's elephants slide downhill in the mud, but they had remarkable balance and none of the elephants fell. They didn't all listen to instructions and wanted to wander off and eat, but we made it to the river eventually.
Once we got to the river, I had totally gotten over my fear of Bun Jin and absolutely loved him. We got to give them a bath in the river, which meant climbing up on them to brush their skin while they kneeled in the river. I used sand from the bottom of the river to scrub his tusks - a little exfoliation!
After the baths we had lunch, which was an amazing spread of meat and fruits prepared by the locals. It was phenomenal and we saved most of the fruit to give to our elephant friends. Someone else's cheeky elephant tried to steal the fruit I saved for Bun Jin! We left them shortly after that and I was so sad to leave Bun Jin. He was the most peaceful elephant ever!!
I cannot say enough good things about Patara! They were so good to the elephants and don't use any of the hooks or chains that other places do. I wanted to check out the other self righteous elephant sanctuary (it's #1 on Trip Advisor and Patara is #2) but they're fully booked for the next few days. I'll be back in Chiang Mai in early July as a launchpad for Myanmar, so I might check it out then. Hard to imagine anything as good as Patara though...
Sign in with Apple 
Log in with Facebook