Thailand: Living with elephants

My entire Asia itinerary was built around one thing: elephants. I’ve been following the work of Thailand’s Sangduen “Lek” Chailert for two decades and have sponsored four rescues. Lek is a revolutionary in both conservation and humanitarianism, laying her life on the line to end elephant cruelty in tourism and logging, while also championing opportunities and rights for Burmese refugee mahouts (who make up most of the workforce at her rescue park). Spending a week in the mountains of northern Thailand on the Living with Elephants programme (120 eles plus 200 dogs and 2,000 cats) has been both heart-warming and harrowing. Our contribution as volunteers is realistically mainly financial and awareness-raising, hence writing about it here. That said,  we did shovel a lot of sh*t! 

The back story as to why elephants have ended up at the sanctuary is one of unimaginable abuse hidden behind tourism propaganda. And it needs to be told.

People (as I did) tend to assume that Thailand's domestic elephants that carry tourists, perform in shows and paint cute pictures have been trained. Instead, they've been broken. The 'crush' process - and Lek’s work - is best described in this short movie: Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story (link may not work but it's available on amazon and apple). To break the spirit of an animal as large and powerful as an elephant takes some doing. Kidnapped from its mother and nannies (who are shot), it is shackled to a frame and tortured for days/weeks until it has lost any will to live. If it hasn’t killed itself by deliberately standing on its trunk, it is ready for a life of hard labour.  

Lek and her team rescue elephants at great financial cost and human risk (engaging the owners in the more lucrative livelihood to be gained from humane elephant activities). At her park, they get to live out the rest of their days unchained as part of a family herd. Sadly this may not be many days as they are usually old, crippled or sick when their owners are ready to discard them. For some it's too late for any kind of rehabilitation (the circus elephants who were severely traumatised and dangerous had to live across the river in ones or twos). 

Some may bathe for the first time at 70 years

The famous Kamla herd who don't know what a viral hit they are

Basic accommodation at the sanctuary

Darrick - Lek's husband and a bit of an elephant whisperer

Walking the disabled rescue dogs

Burmese refugee also finding a new life in northern thailand

Flower meadows thriving off elephant dung

Each line tells a story of suffering

Sunrise over elephant dormitory

Spending my free hours at cat kingdom

Missing Marge

Enjoying a special feast on national elephant day

Sorry white saviour alert but Lek has created a school for kids of the refugee workers who would otherwise not have access to school. Our visit was very well done, they each ran craft stalls and we bought their goods. 

Lek and her unique bond with each rescue. No one else would be able to get this close

After everything they've been through they can still be very goofy!

The mahouts also have an enviable bond - carefully selected and usually connected for the elephant's lifetime

A worn out old lady. And an elephant.

I cried a lot during the week. What really got me is that they forgive, even if they can't forget. They have every right to attack any person after decades of abuse but instead they are generally inquisitive, funny and empathetic. Some are reclusive and moody byt there has never been a safety incident at the park, even though visitors are allowed to walk among elephants and many break the rules, going for too close and touching them. 

Temple-tastic

Book-ending my time at the sanctuary was a week in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, doing some client work and a bit of sight-seeing. I was originally due to spend a couple more weeks in southern Thailand but I wanted to come back earlier and check in on Dad. Also, I've been here during slash and burn season and the air quality is almost unbearable. I kept wondering why I couldn't shift a constant headache and sinus cold.

So until next year's travels, I will wallow in these amazing memories - from hiking the tea plantations of Sri Lanka and glimpsing the other side of the Maldives; to cruising Kerala with new friends and being up close and personal with the largest land mammal. I may not (yet) be a fully-fledged digital nomad but what a privilege it is to be able to roam this world for months at a time.