Beautiful Chang 🐘

 Thailand has an interesting relationship with elephants, or “Chang” as they are called here. They are a national symbol of strength and intelligence, and have been used for hundreds of years in both war and labour work. They are revered, but also sometimes exploited for tourism…it’s complicated. You can read more about it here. 

We knew we wanted to be able to interact with elephants, but didn’t want to support any business where they were chained and/or abused. An Elephant Sanctuary seemed like the best option - we went to one and had the BEST day!!! We were able to feed and bathe 6 elephants up close and personal…including a baby and his momma. 

First we had to change into elephant trainer (Mahout) clothing so the elephants would “trust us”. They taught us all about elephant care and we made a concoction of vitamins and medicine to feed them. We fed them behind fences first, and then slowly phased into being up close and personal with them, and then finally bathing them in the river. 

Some of the elephants would get a bit pushy with their trunks, like very focused on whether or not you have food. Especially the baby, he had no manners or patience which kept us all laughing. He was not quite 2 years old, so still quite a bit smaller than the other elephants. Here he is not obeying his trainer and practicing his tight-rope-walking on a log:

One older elephant was so sweet and gentle and didn’t mind us standing close to her. She was older, 56 years to be exact, which is why in the picture her ears, trunk, and feet are lighter in color. Asian elephants get lighter with age, just like humans with white hair. Elephants usually live to 80 or 90, with the oldest known one in Thailand lived to 109. 

Here’s a fun video of Jared mixing up their vitamin treat and our favourite elephant waiting ever so patiently:

We had a great day with these beautiful strong creatures! 🐘