Before I go any further, imagine spending 2 days with elephants in Thailand. Now, let me tell you how we did exactly that in the small town of Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Leading up to our time in Thailand, our bucket list included visiting an elephant sanctuary with the only qualification being that it was truly a socially responsible sanctuary. We searched tirelessly for the “best one” and found a variety of places to choose from mostly in Chiang Mai. But when we wanted to make an actual reservation for a visit, they were booked out as far as April 2018! Who books a trip to the elephant sanctuary nearly 2 years in advance?!?! Still though, I was able to find a new project developed under the guidance of Elephant Nature Park, a respected organization in Chiang Mai at the Soi Yak Kanchanaburi, Elephant Haven. I was able to easily book online. Then, once the reservation was made the fun could begin.
Whitney and I left our hostel in Bangkok about 6:45am to begin the trip. We first boarded a ferry on the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok; then, after first getting off at the wrong stop (the boat staff gestured us off assuming as tourists we were going to visit Wat Arun) we eventually made it to the correct stop near the hospital. After a 15 minute walk we arrived at Thonburi Train Station for the long ride out to Kanchanaburi.
While sitting on the hard wooden seats of the rickety old train we looked through a few pages of Lonely Planet’s “Southeast Asia on a Shoestring” to learn a little about this city before we arrived. We learned that this city is home to the Death Railway, a railroad developed during the Japanese invasion during World War II. The railroad was built by POWs and forced laborers living in terrible conditions, which led to many of their deaths. Since the end of the war, the region has developed memorials as well as museums to share the tragic stories, which is something that we were interested in learning about.
Arriving at the Kanchanaburi train station before lunchtime, we checked into our hotel and headed out to find lunch before doing a little sightseeing. On a tip, we sought out Blue Rice restaurant which overlooks the River Kwai where we enjoyed the delicious red curry and blue rice, before setting off to visit the Thailand-Burma Railway Center. This museum sits alongside the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery providing a sad picture of the lives lost during the Japanese occupation and the building of this railway. As we entered the museum I thought back to the many years in school. I feel like we barely touched on any history of this part of the world; instead, we focused primarily on American and European history. It was very interesting to read and learn the significance of this region and in particular the railway. Once we finished touring the small museum, we decided to take a long walk across town to see the bridge over the River Kwai for our own eyes.
It was right around dinner time when we left the foot of the bridge to catch a local bus toward our hotel. Nearing our street we jumped out and did what we knew best: we strolled into the local street food market for some amazing pad Thai and of course mango sticky rice. Then we could begin to prepare ourselves for the next two days at the elephant sanctuary.
Awoken with excitement (our alarm), we gathered everything together and carried our bags to the lobby to wait patiently for our guide. Soon enough we were on the road with a group of travelers heading to Elephant Haven about an hour away. As soon as we pulled into the sanctuary we saw the big beautiful elephants munching away. I saw the long trunks grabbing the stalks of grass from the hands of visitors in a strong yet graceful twist. We quickly moved our things into the bungalow we would spend the night in and then joined in with feeding these huge animals. It was easy to see we had visited the right place as they looked so at ease with everyone.
Minutes later our guide called us together for a quick overview of our day then we got started on preparing some breakfast treats for the elephants. First, Whitney and I slid into a space at the table to slice up watermelons. I think we ended up with about a wheelbarrow full of sliced watermelons for each elephant. Then we stepped over to the other table to squeeze together the ingredients to make some baseball sized rice balls. They actually looked kind of appetizing if they were baked a little, just saying. Anyway, they weren’t for the people at all, they were for our new friends the elephants. Everyone came together to slowly feed them everything we had made. Again, with such ease, the elephants grabbed the rice balls and pieces of watermelon with their trunks. Some of them seemed to swallow the pieces whole while others chewed at least a little. What a fun start to the day.
Next we headed off into the forest along a trail that was once the trekking trail for these creatures. Now with the saddles off and the elephants free to roam about, we simply walked alongside them through the woods. We observed as they would toss dirt on their backs to ward off any bugs then reach for branches and vines high in the trees. All the while one of the mahouts reminded us “it’s OK, no danger.” The way the elephants wandered through the trees without any fear and occasionally leaned up to the sturdy trunks to scratch some hard to reach areas really made our day.
We eventually wandered down to the river edge where a few of them made their way into the water to cool off while the others continued to pull snacks from the trees. We circled back to camp for a buffet lunch before loading into the van for a special treat for our group. The guide wanted to take us to see a section of the Death Railway only a few minutes from the sanctuary.
We pulled up to a parking lot then followed the rail line to the edge of the river. There, we could see the original aged timbers supporting the railroad. I couldn’t help but imagine the frail POWs using every bit of strength they had to move each railroad tie into place before ultimately collapsing. It was a sad reminder of the history of this area. Nearby, we took a peek inside a cave that houses a large Buddha, which draws many monks and Buddhist followers and of course many tourists each and every day.
When we arrived back to the camp there were buckets of watermelons already sliced up waiting for us to get right back to feeding the elephants. Again, we slowly held out each piece of watermelon for them to grab with their trunk with such ease. Once the buckets were empty we set off on the trail again through the forest, but this time it led to a mud pit. A couple of the adventurous ones decided it was time get their daily mud bath and couldn’t help splashing the mud everywhere and on everyone. It was an entertaining display to say the least.
Finally, we followed along with the elephants all the way into the river. This time we didn’t have to just watch, we were able to splash in the water with these enormous animals. They expected the splashing and most just plopped down into the water for a nice afternoon bath. We would splash a bit of water on their backs to wash off the mud as they would stretch their trunks up for air seemingly happy to be bathing in the river.
Then it was a gradual walk back up the river bank to camp signaling the end of the day for the single day trippers. As it turned out, Whitney and I were the only one’s staying the night, which was a nice surprise.
The rest of evening we felt immersed in a new culture. First, we took a ride in the back of a pick-up truck to the market for a few items for dinner and dessert. We shared our dinner talking with our guide about elephants in Thailand and this particular sanctuary, while swatting a few bugs and shewing away a couple cats and dogs that lived there. Not long after we finished our dessert one of the Mahouts came to see us to practice his English. Doing a little unexpected English teaching was quite fun and really let us connect with these people. Simple words and phrases like “this is cute,” or “this is awesome” seemed to make his day. Then hearing him use the phrases the next morning made ours!
We finished the night by applying a heavy coat of bug spray and sliding into our sleep sheets for the night, both of which seemed to protect us well.
The next day ran the same as the one before. We were the ones feeding the elephants as new guests arrived. We worked with the staff to assist everyone with slicing the watermelons and squishing together the rice balls. We could, at least for a day, feel as if we were part of the sanctuary’s staff. At the end of the day, it was actually a little sad to leave. We wanted to spend more time with the elephants and still had questions about everything. Maybe it’s always like that or maybe we just needed a little more time. Either way, it was back to the city of Kanchanaburi for the night before traveling off to our next destination.
We really enjoyed the weekend in Kanchanaburi. Besides visiting this elephant sanctuary, there is not much else to see in the city itself other than the memorials and museums. However, it does seem to be a great place to relax at one of the hotels or guest houses lining the river. I’d say that within only a couple days you could see it all, but keep in mind there are a number of other activities outside the city such as hiking trails waiting to be explored. As for this particular sanctuary, it has only recently changed its business model to become a socially responsible sanctuary and does have a little ways to go to mirror the projects in other parts of Thailand, but the elephants are happy so that’s all that really matters now.
Goodbye to our new elephant friends, hope to see you again!
-Jeremy
