You cant go to Thailand with out visiting an Elephant farm...
After doing some research I finally made my selection of being an Elephant keeper for a day at Patara Elephant Farm in Chiang Mai. These elephant keepers work year round,m to make sure these animals are healthy and functioning properly and most importantly increasing their population.
As soon as we got there we got a quick tutorial of what to expect and even got a chance to sit down and play with a one month old elephant. What a surreal experience that was! After about an hour we finally got to meet our elephants. Me being 6'3 230 pounds I was awarded the biggest elephant of the fleet, Panolo.
He was extremely friendly and very obedient. He was also very hungry to say the least.
To start off our experience we were taught how to feed them. We were given a big basket of bananas. You wave them in front of their face and their mouth opens immediately allowing you to place the banana on their tounge.
These big guys can eat!
After that it was time to give them a bath. Elephants throughout the day throw dirt and water on themselves to keep the bugs away, and boy do they like baths.
We were given a bristle sponge type thing to scrub all the dirt off and to clean their tusks.
After that we took them for a ride through the jungle, making sure that we sad on top of the head and neck area. Sitting on their backs can cause life long injuries. The keepers are well aware of whats good and bad for these elephants.
After a 30 minute ride through the jungle we stopped for a late lunch which concluded our day. If youre planning your next vacation Thailand should definitely be on your bucket list along with visiting one of the elephant farms in Chiang Mai.
Here are some extra pics that were taken. Some are the baby elephant that we played with in the beginning.
Hope you enjoyed!
