4th Jan Daily Postings

Wow, I didn’t realise different parts of Thailand had such a big difference. Shopkeepers in Phuket definitely have more to learn from those in Chiang Mai. My experience in Phuket turned me off from bargaining when the shopkeeper threatened to chase me out. There is definitely a big difference in Chiang Mai where they automatically cut down the price when you’re reluctant to buy.

Officially beginning Day 1, our group headed off to the Elephant Nature park from the hotel.

The elephant nature park is an amazingly beautiful and serene place. There are many elephants roaming with their trainers(mahouts). We had many chances to interact with the elephants today by bathing, feeding and watching them play in the mud ,etc.

However even this scenery is tainted with the horrors of man-made accidents and poaching injuries. One elephant had its back broken due to being banged by a car while another had one of her legs injured and made limp due to a poaching trap. Seeing the elephants walking around with their injuries caused by humans makes me see how much more we can do to prevent harm done to such gentle creatures.

Did you know the process of training an elephant to follow a mahout’s command to continuously walk while having someone ride on it requires the use of hooks in their skin. Prolonged elephant riding also shorten’s the elephant’s lifespan.The ENP is one of the few camps that does not mistreat their elephants like other camps that promotes elephant riding. They even treat their elephants like pets, naming them like we do our dogs. I’m glad that the ENP takes these disabled elephants in for surely these elephants would not be able to give rides. Camps like these deserve more support from the government as currently their funds only comes from the volunteers as well as tourism. This camp also requires a lot of funds to acquire land to allow the elephants to roam and for their meals..

Here’s a link if you want to donate  http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/how-you-can-help/

We had some interviews with the Caucasian tourists there and found out some tourists purposely chose ENP because of their good treatment of elephants. A large portion of these tourists were also volunteers that come to the ENP yearly. Our findings from the interviews were that they’re abhorrent to ivory poaching as expected with the usual reasons of status and medicinal properties of ivory popping out. The guide Jen also mentioned that the thailand poachers deserved bad karma because of them hunting elephants for their tusks despite their religion forbidding them to harm elephants.

Nothing much differed from our research although a new point we learnt was that religion definitely does help to a certain extent on preventing poaching. A point to note was that even Jen didn’t know how to get into contact with the black market for ivory. On a positive note, not knowing is a good thing.

Chiang Mai’s cool weather was indeed a plus point in the city. However at the elephant nature park where the heater doesn’t work, it was a problem. Amenities we take for granted everyday really serves to show how much we’re dependant on it when we’re found without it.

Lastly here’s a picture of us bathing the elephants.