Ep 3: Destination Highlight - The Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai, Thailand

In today's episode, we take a deep dive into an ethical elephant rescue in Chiang Mai, Thailand that I have visited and recommend: Elephant Nature Park!

All destination highlight episodes are places I have personally visited and recommend due to their ethical standards.

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(use Stacia Mintner as a reference to get $100 off your admission)


Sources
Buckley, Carol. Elephant Foot Care and Mahout training provided by Elephant Aid International: Summary of Services Provided. Outcomes and Recommendations. Elephant Aid International. 2011. Letter. https://www.elephantaidinternational.org/pdf/ENP_Report2011.pdf 

Garcia, Luisa. Meet Thailand’s elephant whisperer. CBS News. 2016. 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meet-sangduen-lek-chailert-thailands-elephant-whisperer/ 

Sacha & Jmayel. 15 Quick Facts on Chiang Mai. 8 Miles from Home. 2012. Blog. https://8milesfromhome.com/15-facts-on-chiang-mai/ 

The Elephant Nature Park. About Us. https://www.elephantnaturepark.org/about/about-us/ 

The Elephant Nature Park. FAQ. https://www.elephantnaturepark.org/enp/faq-s 

Ynoei. 15 Interesting Facts About Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand). Chiang Mai Traveller. 2017. https://www.chiangmaitraveller.com/15-interesting-facts-about-chiang-mai/ 

Transcript

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humane nature is an animal tourism podcast with discussions about animal abuse, injury and medicine. listener discretion is advised.

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Welcome back travelers to another episode of humane nature. I'm Stacia, your host. And today I thought we would take a break from some of that bummer of episodes like we did last week with the elephant riding in Chiang Mai. And today I was gonna bring you a (music). Destination highlight, I don't have an intro song for that. But that is going to be a common thing that we have on this podcast are positive destination highlights that you can put on your bucket list, your travel list, whatever. But before we get into that, here are some wildlife news from the last couple of weeks. Researchers in the US are pushing for a national program to help people coexist with predators such as gray wolves, brown bears, and mountain lions. So especially in some of the rural parts of America, these are pretty big issues, especially you know, with farmers and people who live out in rural areas, gray wolves, bears, mountain lions, things like this often come near their land, they come near their, their, you know, livestock and everything. And the first reaction typically is to shoot them. And lots of large predators in the US are dying, because they are straying too close to people. And that is having an impact on their conservation and trickling down to things such as their prey animals overrun in different areas because there aren't as many predators as there should be. So this national program would provide non lethal deterrents to help both the farmers and predators so this would help them coexist and help kind of push these predators away in non lethal ways to from these farms. The supurb fair Wren was crowned Australia's favorite bird in their annual favorite bird contest. I love this I didn't know that this was a thing. Apparently every year in Australia, they have a poll and the country votes on their favorite national or not national but favorite native bird. And this year, the superb fair rent won. And sadder news, drought, rising temperatures and poor farming practices are causing Turkey's lakes to dry up leading to massive deaths in the country's bird population. So in the last 50 years, 60% of their natural lakes have dried up, and migratory birds are the most affected. In July of 2021 alone, 3 to 5000 young flamingos died of starvation due to a lack of food. Because they're with less water, there are less fish and less you know smaller animals for them to eat. And due to the lack of food, birds are starting to attack each and eat each other as well. So it's kind of a double whammy with them. And my favorite bit of news, the beefy brown bear or for ot (laugh) 480 Otis wins Alaska's fat bear

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week. So this week happens every year in the Katmai National Park in Alaska, where people vote on their favorite bears as they start fattening up for hibernation throughout the winter. So beefy brown bear has won three times and is a favorite amongst voters. Because he is one of the oldest bears in the park. He's missing teeth. He's you know got some some other issues from being an old man. But he won due to his massive weight gain and coming back as the underdog not because he was the heaviest so if you go and look at pictures you just have to Google you know Alaska's fat bear week or beefy brown bear. You will see before and after pictures and it's pretty crazy. It's he started I was this teeny tiny little skinny guy. He's obviously a little elderly and he you know, got a slow start. For whatever reason he was not down on the water's edge you know feeding like these other bears were as soon as they were so he came from behind and he gained a massive amount of weight and has won for the fourth time in a row. That's beefy brown bear. Our favorite chunky bear at Katmai. so today's destination highlight we will be talking about the Elephant Nature Park, which is an ethical elephant tourism destination and elephant park in Chiang Mai, Thailand. So if you have not listened to my episode, my last episode where we talked about why we shouldn't be riding elephants, I gave you the three biggest reasons why we shouldn't be riding elephants, and why we should be visiting parks that are rescuing tourism elephants and not doing you know these different traditional tourism activities. Check that out. But if you have listened Welcome back. Today we're going to be talking about the Elephant Nature Park which I have visited. It is located 60 kilometers or about 37 miles outside of Chiang Mai, which is about an hour's car ride. It was opened in 1998 by Sangdeaun "Lek" Chailert which who who still runs the park and Adam Finn. Her nickname is Lek. And that's what she's most well known by. And Lek his Thai for small because she is such an itty bitty woman. I've met her she's absolutely incredible. I love her so much. And when this park first opened, it opened with 34 rescued elephants. So let's back up a little bit. In the late 1990s, Thailand began working to promote ecotourism in Chiang Mai. You know, as the internet started becoming more popular, and people started traveling the world more ecotourism in Chiang Mai really took off. So Thailand was really trying to promote that. And eco tourism is Chiang Mai's largest source of income, it brought in 350 million US dollars in 1997 alone, so you can only imagine how much money they're bringing in every year today. However, this was controversial to indigenous peoples, they, you know, didn't want Western tourists to come and they, you know, were scared of losing their land, their way of life, things like that. So originally, the Elephant Nature Park did have elephant riding and shows. At the time, it wasn't really seen, as you know, controversial or unethical. However, Lek did end these, the ridin and this shows at that at ENP in 2005. And that is what I'm going to call Elephant Nature Park throughout the rest of this is ENP, it's just a little easier to say.

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So I'm going to give the highlights of their mission statement, which I think really gives, you know, a closer look at what this park is about. So the first point is a vow to sanctuary for endangered species. So in addition to elephants, they also house dogs, cats, water buffalo and other rescued species. So when I was there in, I believe it was 2017, January of 2017. I saw lots of water buffalo, but I also was able to interact with and treat because I was there for a veterinary internship. So I was interacting directly with these animals for you know, medicinal purposes. I also treated goats and sheep and miniature horses. And they've just got a whole lot of animals their huge area of land. So it's pretty cool. Obviously elephants are the biggest draw, but you will see lots of other animals while you're there. Their second vow is rain forest restoration in the surrounding areas. So I couldn't find the number of acres that they've planted currently, but they vowed originally in 19, when they opened in 1998, to plant 25 acres a year for the first five years. And they did do that. I could not find the numbers of how many total so I'm not sure if they've continued the 25 acres a year after the first five years or if they did more if they did less. But you know, that's still 125 acres that they planted within the first five years, which is awesome, and this park is kind of in the middle of nowhere, it's completely surrounded by mountains and rain forests and it's absolutely beautiful. So they're doing good work with that.

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They also vowed to continue cultural preservation and with the villages around. So they wanted to maintain the cultural integrity of the surrounding areas by employing locals and purchasing agricultural products locally only. So when you visit, and if you visit the website, only Thai natives or people with a valid Thai passport can work at ENP. So all of the Mahoutes that are employed all of the veterinarians and, you know, office workers, tour guides, things like that. They're all Thai natives. They're all from Thailand. So I think that's pretty cool. They are also employing a lot of the, you know, locals from the smaller villages directly around them. And purchasing, you can imagine how much food that they have to have all the vegetables and grasses and hay to feed all of these elephants and Buffalo and everything. They're purchasing those from local farmers only not from larger corporations. They also really want to emphasize visitor education, where they emphasize the plight of local endangered species, and they want to educate all guests. So when you do visit, if you are visiting from Chiang Mai, you will go to their office in the city and take a kind of Van over to the park. It's a really really nice van it's got like it from what I remember, it had like party lights and stuff in it when you first got it in which I found really funny. It was a very comfortable ride. But you do watch a video on your way over that talks about why we don't ride elephants, and what's happened to them over the course of you know, the last 50 to 100 years and educating guests on why they do what they do. And finally, they vow to act independently. And that is acting independently of pressure groups and political movements that they consider contrary to the well being of the park and creatures in its care. So in the past, they have ignored laws and, you know, bills passed by the government that they felt was detrimental to the well being of the elephants or the Mahouts, the natives that worked there. So ENP has gotten in trouble with the Thai government before but for simply, you know, protecting the animals in their care. So since the park has opened the one outside of Chiang Mai, they have also opened multiple other elephant parks elephant rescues throughout Thailand and Southeast Asia. So the first one that they opened was the erawan Elephant retirement park in western Thailand, in 2013. And this was specifically for elderly and extremely sick elephants it's kind of like a hospice area where they, you know, elephants that couldn't really walk around or keep up with other elephants in the park, or needed extreme, you know, specialized care, they went to this retirement Park. And as you can imagine, a lot of those elephants passed away fairly quickly after arriving there just simply because of their age or the state that they were in. So that one is not necessarily open to the public, and that is to give these elderly elephants and very sick elephants a very calm and final place to live before they pass on. ENP also has branches in Cambodia, Surin, and Phuket in Thailand, they have rescued over 200 distressed elephants as of 2016. I could not find a number for 2021 but you can imagine how much higher that is. It didn't seem that they've updated their website in a little while. But these 200 elephants do not include babies that were born in the park. So these elephants are allowed to free roam and some arrived pregnant Some were able to breed freely While they were there. So there have been some babies born in the park for different reasons. There have also been over 400 dogs cats birds and water buffalo rescued and they also have you know many horses, goats, sheep, different farm animals, things like that that they've rescued as well from from neglectful and abusive situations. So something I do want to touch on briefly. Elephant Aid international in 2011 did note a larger than average percentage of elephants with foot disease at ENP, mahouts that only spoke Burmese, which is kind of what they speak in northern Thailand, and mahouts' continued use of force with elephants, despite not using bull hooks, and an overall low morale of their employees. So they wrote a letter to ENP addressing the things that they found, and how they can fix that. And you can find this online, I will also link it in the description. This was the only real controversy that I found while researching the park after visiting. And this happened, you know, 10 years ago, but the foot disease can be explained by the type of elephants that they rescue. So they do rescue elephants that have experienced severe abuse that are extremely ill, that have experienced pretty severe injuries. And you know, because of this, elephants can't walk as they normally would. And, you know, their toenails get overgrown, they could have foot disease from these injuries. So there is I'm not too worried about these findings just simply because of the type of elephants that this park rescues. And they did note that the ones that have the most like overgrown toenails and the worst looking feet are the ones that were very elderly or already sick. So that can kind of be explained away not really excusing it, they should be taking better care of those feet. And from what I saw when I visited in 2017, I didn't see any issues. So I believe that they have addressed this since 2011. And I have not found any controversy or these letters from elephant aid international since 2011. The low morale with the mahouts and the fact that they only speak Burmese is simply because they are locals that live in the villages nearby. So the villages mostly speak Burmese elephant aid international wanted more employees and tour guides to be able to speak Thai as well as English in order to educate and interact with guests better and and be able to, you know, speak with and interact with animal behaviorists that came in to work with the elephants or the veterinarians who are working with the elephants, so I do get their point. But you know, it would be you know, trying to force a whole group of people to learn how to speak not want only one but two new languages. So I do understand why most of the mahouts only spoke Burmese rather than Thai or English. And their low morale. They are bonded to these elephants. And they need to be there every single day for the elephants' care. So it's you know, just kind of part of the job. And zookeepers in the US that are bonded to elephants face the same thing veterinarians do as well, where if they take a break, if they take a vacation or a weekend, these elephants are going to suffer, their caregiver is gone, the person that they're attached to most is gone. So that causes a lot of emotional burnout. And I can say, Not that I've ever been a mahout myself. But I've worked in the veterinary field where you know, feeling like I'm taking a day off or taking a vacation is going to directly cause harm to animals that I'm treating, especially for long term patients in the ICU that I've been caring for every day, I do understand that to a degree. So that is something to to keep in mind. So there was also some some controversy to allowing guests to directly interact with the elephants. So when I visited in 2017, guests were allowed to bathe with the elephants where the elephants would go in the kind of shallow river and we would help them bathe by tossing buckets of water on them, and we would hand feed them and

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you know, get to directly interact with them. And, you know, there was some controversy to that they've done more studies that say, you know, we shouldn't be doing this. And at the time, we didn't, you know, know, as well as we do now. So now guests are no longer allowed to bathe with the elephants as of 2018. So I was, you know, the last year of people who was able to do that, but I do understand, now that I've read more of the studies, that is not something that they should have been offering or something that I should have done. So even I make mistakes. And there's constantly new information coming out about stuff like that. So elephants are allowed to, you know, bathe themselves, if they do need help their mahouts and veterinarians will help them but guests are no longer allowed to bathe the elephants or swim with the elephants, and we they do still hand feed them, but elephants are not forced to come up. So you know, guests will be able to feed, you know, some vegetables and things like that from the observation deck while they're getting, you know, talks from the veterinarians and from the tour guides about them where they can hand feed But unlike a lot of other places, the elephants do not have to go there if they don't want to. And and they're not going to miss out on a meal if they don't go. So there's that which I don't really have an issue with as long as you know everybody's respecting the elephants following the rules washing their hands thoroughly before and after, I don't have an issue with that, and when it's the elephant's choice to do so. So you can visit the park as a single day. So just a day trip from Chiang Mai up to multiple weeks volunteering. So they have, they now have multiple programs, where you not only go to ENP, but you also can go to different local villages in the Highlands and saddle off programs in different villages, helping elephants and educating people and helping you know, elephants in these villages that aren't necessarily being treated terribly to the point where ENP wants to step in and try to rescue them. But trying to educate and help elephants and treat elephants that are you know, kind of on that edge, you know, they could definitely be treated better, but they're not so bad that they need to be rescued. They also have parks in other cities in Thailand and in Cambodia. So that is something to look into. If you are a veterinarian, a veterinary student in vet school or a pre veterinary student, you have access to special programs as well or a veterinary technician. So if you are in school, or a graduated veterinarian or a vet student ENP has special programs themselves. If you are a pre vet student, a veterinary technician or a call it another college students studying something else like marine biology, zoology, you know biology, different things like that. You can also visit ENP and get you know, special access to these other programs and to work more directly with the elephants with loop abroad, which is how I visited for the first time in 2017. And I will talk about loop abroad a little in a little bit, but we will take a break and then I will discuss my personal experience at the park and tell you a little bit more about loop abroad and I will see you in a couple minutes. When you travel, you should be protected, especially if you enjoy adventurous activities or wildlife tourism. That's where travel insurance comes in. I personally use world nomads because their coverage makes the most sense for me. They cover injuries or illnesses, lost luggage, canceled flights, and even damaged electronics. Protect yourself and your trip with World nomads travel insurance. Check if their coverage is right for you using the link in the description. If you're a frequent traveler, you need a travel credit card that works for you. I love my Chase Sapphire preferred card because I earn miles by making my everyday purchases and two to five times the miles on travel purchases. I can book flights for a discount directly through the chase app using the miles I have earned allowing me to fly for free. Earn 50,000 miles when you sign up through the link in the description. And even more bonus miles after spending $4,000 in the first three months of your card. That's over $2,000 worth of travel miles. Where will you fly for free with your miles?

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Welcome back. Welcome back. Um, we were just talking about the Elephant Nature Park right outside of Chiang Mai, Thailand. And I was giving you kind of a background of the park but I wanted to talk about my personal experience at the park. So I will never do a destination highlight unless it is somewhere that I've personally visited and saw with my own eyes did my research on it and felt that it was a place ethical enough for me to share with you guys. So I visited for a week in January 2017 with Loop Abroad, and I cared for Elephants so I was doing a special program with loop abroad so not necessarily the volunteer program that ENP offers. But I cared for Elephants by preparing food, cleaning the grounds, helping to bathe them, which is no longer allowed. I also helped to medicate those who needed medicine and I did a behavioral study on one of the elephants to help observe them. I also worked with the dogs, cats, horses and water buffalo while I was there. So loop abroad is a really cool study abroad program. They started in Thailand but they have exploded they are all over the world. Now. I I highly encourage you to look them up if you are, especially if you are a college student, and you're studying veterinary medicine or you know, Zoology, zoo management, animal nutrition, animal behavior, any of those great stuff, those great things. So I was studying bio psychology to give you kind of an example, with an emphasis in animal behavior. And at the time, I was planning to go to veterinary school, so I was on a pre veterinary track, at my school, regular volunteers, if you just go to ENP, to be a volunteer, you do most of these things as well you help farm, transfer food, you help prepare food, you'll help clean the ground. So we did work with the regular volunteers as well. So there's not a huge difference. Basically, if you're with loop or if you're doing the veterinary program there, you will also be doing some, you know, veterinary work, you're going to be treating different things you're going to be medicating elephants and other animals that need it. And one of the things that we also did, which was really, you know, kind of opened my eyes to what these elephants had gone through, is treating their their wounds that they sustained before they came to ENP. So some of them, I mean, they really range some of them had like abscesses on their bodies or in their cheeks and things from the elephant riding or circuses, some of them had been blinded, and needed some extra help. And they were blinded by camera flashes and circus lights. And others, you know, had missing feet, they had their feet and legs were just completely destroyed, from stepping on landmines left over from the war with Myanmar or what used to be called Burma, and doing the illegal logging. So I did treat some elephants that had feet and legs that were completely just destroyed by by landmines. And that was pretty, that was pretty gnarly. And if you remember from my last episode, you know that because an elephant is so big, their metabolism is extremely slow, which makes these injuries which make these injuries extremely slow to heal. So even though some of these elephants had been an ENP for a few years, like months, two years at that point, their wounds were still healing because of their slow metabolism. So that is, you know, the way it is at that park, because of the types of elephants that they rescue.

27:35  
So I also did a behavioral study on Mae Boone Ma, which was one of the elderly elephants there, unfortunately, she did pass away in June 2017. And I did this study on her in January of 2017. So I got to, you know, hang out with her and observe her towards the end of her life. So she was in her upper 70s and her small herd like her, you know, her girl BFFs, her little herd that she hung out with and was very, very emotionally close to that were also elderly and had other physical ailments. So one of them was completed completely blind, she was one of the local favorites, her name was lucky. And she was blinded by circus lights. And my favorite thing about lucky while I was working there is she would frequently kind of wander away from her food sources. So for these elderly elephants, they would, you know, bring the food to them, so they didn't have to walk as far because they were hurting. And as they you know, as they should be treated like queens, you know, that late in life after everything that they'd went through. So lucky would frequently kind of just like wander away and not know where she was, and her mahout would have to run after her and like, lead her back or her two other friends. Mae boon ma who I did my study on, and the other elephant that was in their group would kind of trumpet or growl at her and she would be like, oh, they're my friends and turn around and come back. But my favorite thing that she would do is she would take branches of like, you know, bamboo, or hay or grasses or whatever she was eating at the time. And she would pick them up with her trunk and put them on her back or on her head so that she wouldn't lose them and she would just walk around with her food on top of her. So, you know, she always knew where her food was. And I thought that was absolutely adorable and genius of her like, yeah, you go lucky. But Mae boon ma was a sweetheart, she would frequently come up to me and say hi, she was extremely curious. She would kind of greet me by touching me with her trunk. And I did have to chase after her a few times because we were trying to do urinalyses on them. And the way that we would do a urinalysis or you know, testing the urine of animals in a vet clinic is usually by, you know, taking a dog out to potty. And then when they squat to pee, we kind of catch it in a little container to test it. But you can imagine how difficult and potentially dangerous that could be with an elephant. So when these elephants would start to pee, we would run after them with a water bottle... like a plastic water bottle taped to a like 12 foot long piece of bamboo and try to catch it like underneath them without having to get too close to and potentially scare them. So yeah, I was running around and chasing after these elephants with a 12 foot long water bottle stick to try to catch their pee. But I eventually did it and tested their urine and they were all healthy. And she was she was very sweet. And then the third elephant in their group, I don't remember off the top of my head what her name was. But she couldn't walk very well and was very elderly. She was in the logging industry and her legs had been crushed when she was younger by falling logs. So she just kind of hung out with her old best friends and didn't walk around a whole lot and that was fine. She was living her best life. So with Loop I also cared for dogs and cats. The dogs are adoptable from all around the world. So if you want a little Thai dog, head over to the Elephant Nature Park, you can check out their dogs or if you visit you could potentially adopt one or maybe volunteer to fly with these dogs back to their forever homes. So let's talk about the other stuff about staying there. You know, the housing the food, you know all that good stuff. So, I am a backpacker, so I frequently stay in hostels, some of them are much nicer than others, as I'm sure you know, if you have backpacked as well, especially in Southeast Asia. The rooms that I stayed in were similar to hostel dorms where there are three to four beds in each room and it was basically just a big square room with beds nothing fancy, they do have like private rooms or double rooms, but I didn't see them when I was there. And these buildings are open air because there is no air conditioning. So and there's no power in the rooms either so it's literally just kind of a kind of concrete or wooden room and the walls go almost all the way up to the ceiling and then there's you know, slated and slanted roofs overhead so that you're you know, you're not going to get wet if it rains or anything like that. But it is open air at the very top to let in a breeze because you know being in Thailand it can get very hot, but I was there in January and it wasn't too bad. However, because it was very open at the top and animals are around are allowed to roam freely, I would often wake up with a cat in my bed or two you know they would in January it gets pretty cold at night in in Thailand. So I would wake up and there would be a cat or two like curled up in my bed with me trying to stay warm. And I absolutely adored that that was one of my one of my favorite parts about ENP is waking up to these very friendly cats just in my bed. But if that's not your thing, you know me I don't really know what to tell you. If you're not a huge animal lover, you know, this probably isn't the place for you. But if you you know have like cat allergies or something I would definitely keep that in mind and take some you know Benadryl or other allergy medications with you Just in case there is Wi Fi, but only on the big observation deck that's in the center of the park. So the Wi Fi was pretty decent throughout the day, especially when we had like free time. However, it would get really spotty when people from like the day trip would come in because then it would just be like so many people trying to use the Wi Fi that it would get a little slow but I was really impressed with the Wi Fi that they had there. I didn't expect any at all. And the food was absolutely delicious. They made like a buffet style vegetarian Thai food every day and with some Western food kind of mixed in. They call it Western food because it's not really Thai food but it's not really the western food that you are used to in America or Australia or Britain or wherever you're listening from. Just because it's you know Thai locals and Thai natives making it so you know, they don't really know what Kraft Mac and cheese is, so don't expect anything like that. But the food was really delicious. If you are a big meat eater or if you're someone who needs lots of protein or if you're anemic and need like extra iron, be sure to bring some snacks with you I had to bring some, you know, like tuna and some fish and things like that just to keep my protein levels up. So that is something to keep in mind as well. Um, there is a little shop like a convenience store nearby in the nearby town, but you don't always have time to go there. So bring some non perishable snacks with you if you are a picky eater or if you have some, if you are someone with some special dietary needs, the views of the landscape and the elephants just kind of, you know, doing their thing and wandering the grounds and doing whatever they want is just absolutely stunning. Like, I could not take enough pictures while I was there. I mean, you can see a lot of those pictures over on my Instagram, and on my blog. But yeah, it's absolutely stunning. So even if you can only afford the time or the money to do a day trip, I highly, highly recommend it even just to see the elephants up close and to see the views there because they're beautiful. I bonded with some of the other, you know, volunteers from all over the world. I met people from all over and some of the Thai workers, even though they didn't speak great English, we started playing Disney music while we were working in the day I was working in the kitchen, making some food for the elderly animals, we had to make like these big, you know, soft food balls for the elephants that maybe didn't have teeth or had some mouth injuries and things like that. So we started playing Disney music on our phones, and we all knew this, we all knew the words and we were all singing and it was awesome. So I do want to tell my favorite story from working there. While I was working in the kitchen and making these elephant or the elephant balls these these food balls for the elderly animals. So these were kind of a mix of like rice and softer vegetables and fruits and things kind of all mashed up into a ball that had all the nutrients that they needed but were really easy to chew and digest for the elderly or sick elephants that were there. I The kitchen is kind of is outside but is surrounded by like wooden posts that are close enough together that the elephants can't walk through it and then you know their mahouts keep them from like trying to climb over it or anything like that. But while I was working, I felt a tap on my shoulder and I you know turned over I was like maybe I thinking it was one of the veterinarians or another volunteer and there's just a, an elephant trunk right in my face, like two inches from my face. And I look up and an elephant is reaching through these stakes with its trunk asking me for a bite to eat. It was tapped me on the shoulder and is begging me for food like like a dog would it was the most adorable, most like, amazing experience I've ever had. So I got permission from the workers to hand it a couple of the smaller food balls and it you could just see the joy in its eyes and it took its little treats and kind of trotted away. So that was very, very, very cute. My husband loves to tell the story about how he was still in the States. And I was in Thailand, so it's a full 12 hour time difference. So if it was 7am for me, there was seven pm for him here and vice versa. So he likes to talk about how he woke up one morning to a text from me it said you want to know how to take an elephant's temperature very carefully.

38:48  
Um, so I was doing some veterinary work and stuff, which was a lot of fun. Okay, so around ENP, there are also some small villages and a couple of small schools. And we were able to visit one of the schools It was like a little grade school for an event that they were hosting. Just I think just trying to raise money for the school from the tourists that were that were coming. And that was a lot of fun. A lot of them wanted to come up and practice their English, they were all learning English. And it was a kind of an eye opening experience. Because when we think about school, you know, at least in the US, I don't want to you know, talk about any other countries but I assume all like you know, Western countries are pretty similar. You learn about you know, like, you take English, maybe a foreign language, math, science, things like that. But a lot of their classes were centered around the jobs they were expected to have, once they were adults to help their families. So a lot of the women or I don't even want to say women, the little girls they were like eight to like 13 years old and were learning Thai massage They were learning like how to give mannies and pedis. They were learning how to cook in addition to learning English and some of the other major languages that they spoke in Thailand. So it was a little weird, but we were encouraged to help them practice and even if they weren't particularly good to you know, praise them and hang out with them and speak English with them. I felt too weird to do the Thai massage from this little eight year old. But I did keep coming back for this I don't even know the name of it, but they were making the this like iced chocolate drink. And selling is like our kind of bakery bake stand food drive or whatever you want to call it. Um, but it was delicious. And I kept coming back for that. And the little kids that were running it, were making fun of me. And I was like, yeah, it's so good. I can't help it. So that was interesting. That was a lot of fun. So the the final point, if you are kind of a luxury traveler, ENP may not be the best place for you specifically because of the bathrooms. So I kept the the worst for last, the bathrooms are all communal. And the showers were always either ice cold, or boiling hot. And I'm one of those girls who takes like crazy steaming hot showers. These were too hot. For me, they were like, painful to stand under my skin would immediately turn like bright red. So their water pressure, and their water temperature isn't always predictable. So while I was there, I didn't shower a whole lot, it was just really difficult. And a lot of the times their water would just go out, you know, you would turn the faucet and nothing would come out. So I do encourage you to bring things like baby wipes and take like baby wipe baths while you're there, which is something that I did learn how to braid your hair if your hair is long enough for that to keep it out of the way and keep it as clean as possible with dry shampoo is your best friend, we would also take bucket Baths or bucket showers when we really needed to. So there was a giant bucket like huge, huge huge bucket underneath the shower faucet. So the shower was kind of like one of those beach showers where if you turned the handle one way it would spout out the bottom and then into this bucket where normally it would be like a foot bath. And if you turned it the other way it would come out of the actual showerhead. And so this massive bucket would be sitting under there and it would always be full, they would always keep it full in case their water would go out. And in this massive bucket or these little like plastic kind of beach buckets and you just you know, scooped water out of the big bucket to pour on yourself and give yourself a little bucket shower. And I did that a few times. Um, and usually that water is ice cold. So that is something to keep in mind if you wanted to come and volunteer for any extended period of time. But I all this was also in 2017. So this may have improved since then. But I can't promise anything. But I also saved the best for last because multiple days a week, adult not the children but adult Thai masseurs would come and station themselves on this like beautiful overlook over the grounds. And you could get like a full Thai massage for like five US dollars i think is what it was like five or $10. And after working all day, your muscles are very sore after doing all the work and the volunteer work. So it was absolutely wonderful. By far like one of my favorite things that the park offered. If you are planning on staying for an extended period of time they do laundry as well it does cost money, but they will fully wash and dry your clothes for you. So that is also something to consider especially for backpackers if you need if you've been backpacking in Southeast Asia for a while and you you know need your clothes washed, they will do that for you.

44:09  
I will... I told you a little bit about loop abroad and they do programs all over the world. And I think they just started one in Florida in the US if if working with sea life there as well. I've done two programs with them and I absolutely love them. If you want to look if you're a college student or a veterinary student, I highly encourage you to look into them for your study abroad programs or study abroad internships during your breaks. You can actually get they are not sponsoring this, by the way I just really liked them. You can get $100 off of your admission using me as a reference. So you can use my name statia mintner. That's sta CIA, m I n t n er as your reference to get $100 off because I am an alum so I tell them that I sent you and you'll get a little money off!

45:01  
So I wanted to end this with ways that you can support ENP, so you can sponsor a dog or elephant on their website. You can also buy locally sourced coffee from them if you wanted something back for the money that you're giving or buy them something from a wish list that they have posted. However, I do want to note donations go to save the elephant Foundation and the Serengeti Foundation, who are partnered with ENP, so ENP does not directly accept those donations online. So it goes to those two foundations. And the money is kind of split up between ENP and their sister parks throughout Thailand and Cambodia and Southeast Asia. Their website also has a queue what they call an elle shop, which is really cute and the prices are all listed in Thai baht. So that is something to keep in mind. Thai baht Is their local currency and I don't know the conversion rate off the top of my head to USD but it the price will be in baht and it looks like an insane amount of money but conversion rates it's not usually a whole lot and that includes their costs for the volunteer program so you do have to pay for the volunteer programs as you normally do this pays for your housing this pays for your food and this helps the park keep running. So the last I heard it was about $400 a week which is really not bad for the volunteer program but it may have changed since I last read that so here are some final tips for visiting ENP This is just for the Elephant Nature Park this does not include their sister parks or their other programs. They those other parks and other programs may require some other things. So I encourage you if you wanted to do those other ones um to look on their website. But for ENP you usually need to stay overnight in Chiang Mai before you come in the van comes to pick you up I think around 8am from their Chiang Mai office. So if you're flying into Chiang Mai directly and want to directly go to ENP you do usually need to stay overnight. Same thing if you are coming from you know different city if you've been in Thailand or Asia for a while it is highly recommended to get travel insurance I do recommend world nomads but they have some insurance included in your fee but if you know you get seriously injured or if you get really sick I do highly recommend having that travel insurance just in case you need to pay part of the balance in cash upon arrival cards are not accepted at the park that includes for snacks that includes you know their their coffee and their souvenirs and things like that. So and this goes for a lot of Thailand as well I found they generally don't accept cards, especially Western cards. So bring a lot of cash with you. Um, you can either pay it in us they accept us dollars and Thai baht. So if you're not from the US, you will need to convert I highly recommend you to convert anyway, because it makes your life a lot easier in Thailand if you have Thai baht rather than US dollars. So some vaccines are recommended or required to either enter Thailand or to come back home from Thailand, depending on your country. So check out the CDC website for that at ENP bedding is supplied so your you know pillows, blankets, mosquito net, all of that good stuff is supplied, but you do need to bring your own towel and toiletries so they don't provide you towels and they don't provide you, you know, little shampoos and conditioners that you would find in hotels and things. All fitness levels are welcome. So if you're not a particularly quote unquote fit person, they will still definitely love your participation and your help and they will accommodate your fitness levels. So you will never be forced to try to do something that you're not comfortable doing there. However, the park is not very handicap accessible. From what I remember, you do have to walk across some fairly uneven ground pretty frequently. So if you are someone in a wheelchair or someone who uses something like crutches, or a walker or anything else to get around, this may not be the best place for you. And if you are planning to volunteer for the full week, that always starts on a Monday. So just keep that in mind while you're planning your trip. So last week, I ended by giving you some fun facts about Asian elephants. I didn't want to do that twice in a row. So here are some fun facts about visiting Chiang Mai outside of Enp. Chiang Mai is Thailand's second largest city behind Bangkok, which is in southern Thailand. The city center is surrounded by a walled moat known as the Old City and this moat. This wall is ancient and it's really really Really cool to see I do believe it's also an UNESCO heritage site. The population of the city is 1.5 million 80% of locals were born there so there's a lot of local culture and history there. um a lot of the people, you know will continue working in in family owned restaurants and shops, and a lot of people just, you know, stay there. It's a very beautiful city. Chiang Mai also receives 2 million foreign visitors a year on average, over 20,000 expats live there. So these are expat stands for like, in the US, we call them ex patriots. I don't know if that's what it actually stands for. But this is basically people who have moved to Chiang Mai, who are not from Thailand are not Thai citizens, but they have an apartment have you know, are living there fairly permanently, using visas and things like that. Chiang Mai means new city in Thai. The city alone has over 300 Buddhist temples.

51:07  
So if visiting temples is your thing, and which it's definitely one of mine, they're absolutely stunning. This is a really great city to do that. October to February is the best time to visit weather wise it is the driest and has some cooler temperatures because Thailand can get extremely hot in the summer times. But is often the busiest because of the weather because it's like the best time to visit. The city was established in the 13th century making it over 700 years old. And there's over 50 Elephant sanctuaries in Chiang Mai. Not all of these are ethical as you can imagine, but there are over 50 so it is really, really important to dig deep and try to find one like ENP that you can know feel good about visiting. Chiang Mai is also home to 10 different indigenous hill tribes which is really cool. And finally it's full of traditional markets including the famous Night Bazaar, which I have been to and it was absolutely huge. One of the largest like night markets have ever been to or outdoor markets I've ever been to. And it was kind of crazy. It was really crowded but it was it was a lot of fun. So if night markets and like outdoor traditional, like markets are your thing. also recommend Chiang Mai It was a lot of fun. That's all I have for you guys today. Thank you so much for listening. And I will see you in two weeks and then we will do a wildlife warrior highlight and we will go more in depth about LEk who I briefly talked about the founder of ENP. sources for today's show can be found in the show notes. Thanks for listening