I can't believe I rode on an elephant today! I have seen pictures and videos of people doing it, but I never thought in a million years, I would be able to do in another country.
We went to a sanctuary called Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort. It's located at least an hour away from the school. The resort was beautiful and had an amazing view of the Golden Triangle. You could actually see Myanmar across the resort and Laos on the right side. Also, I heard that celebrities stayed at the resort such as Scarlet Johansson.
Before we saw the elephant, the staffs at the resort showed us a presentation of the elephant camp and how they took care of them. I was very glad with the way they treated the elephant and the mahout, who are elephants trainers or keepers. They give the mahout and their family a place to live, food, and healthcare. Plus, the elephant were able to roam freely on an enormous grassland. The elephants are only allowed to give rides for 2 hours per day and rest for the rest of the day. I'm glad that they gave this presentation because it showed that there are places that actually care for the elephants and don't mistreat them as you see online . Anantara is one of the place that treat the elephant and the mahouts very well.
After the presentation, we had lunch and then we change into clothes that the resort provided for us. The clothes help to protect our bodies from the prickly hair on the elephant. We drove a truck down to the elephant garage. Bruh, the elephants are huge!! I was so shocked, but they were very friendly. We were able to feed them bananas. It was so cute watching the elephant take the banana from my hand using their trunks and put it into their mouths.
The mahout showed us how to get on the elephant properly. At first it looked a little scary, but I was able to climb on the elephant properly. The elephant didn't understand English, so I had to talk to the elephants in Thai. In order for me to get on the elephant, I had to say lift in Thai so the elephant will lift her leg up. Once she did that , I would climb on her leg and jump on the elephant's back. They also showed me how to get off the elephant, I told the elephant to kneel and bow her head in Thai. Then I would slide down the elephant. Once everyone was able to learn how to get on and off an elephant, we swab the elephant for our microbiology class.
We rode the elephants to the river, which was like 15-20 minutes away from the elephant garage. The ride was relaxing and soothing. The elephants were so playful! One of the elephant went to a little pond and suck some water into her truck and start spraying the girls that was on her back and everyone around them. The elephants would stop for a while to eat some leaves or take a dump. Once we reach the river, the elephants went in and was playing around there. They would spray their body with water and play in the water. It was hard for a few of my classmate to hold on because the elephants would turn around and lie on their backs in the water! It was so funny to watch, but thank goodness they were okay.
I'm glad I was able to experience this moment. I was able to do something that I wouldn't be able to do if I hadn't join the program. I would like to emphasize that Anantara is a great elephant sanctuary that put their elephant their number one priority. Before you start criticizing about riding elephants, please make sure you do some research on the place before you start to comment about the place. Thank you!!!
