Dear friends,
Today, I want to take you on a journey, the very journey that changed my life. I will be introducing you to some incredible people, the beautiful elephants they care for and the deeper mission behind it all.
Chai Lai Orchid co-founder Alexa, Sevoy the elephant & myself
In June of this year, 2023, my partner Chris and I went on a journey to Chiang Mai, Thailand. We love animals and the ethical treatment of animals is very important to us. Chai Lai Orchid caught my eye when I was researching where to stay. Little did I know that this stay would change my life. I have always loved elephants, the first toy that I was given was of an elephant when I was born and the lifelong love for them began then.
While staying at the Chai Lai Orchid, I got to know not only the beautiful rescued elephants that live there but also the incredible, inspiring story behind it all. We were staying for 2 weeks which little did we know was the longest any guest had ever stayed. I mean, why not, it is my kind of paradise. Let me introduce you to who makes this place one of the most remarkable, heart-warming places on the planet.
Meet Alexa, she is originally from New York however, has been in Thailand for 9 years. Herself and Bay an indigenous Karen man founded Chai Lai. It all started when she met a girl who was being sold into the human trafficking trade. She, of course, wanted to help the girl but found out the hard way that no safe house would take her. In Thailand, if you do not have paperwork, you are considered illegal (stateless). Even if you are born and raised in Thailand. Unfortunately, if your parents do not have the paperwork, you are considered illegal. This deeply troubled Alexa and she vowed to create a safe place for these women and girls to go. She set up an organisation called Daughter's Rising with a co founder named Hannah .
Daughter's Rising
Alexa managed to find an abandoned eco-lodge for the same price as her apartment in New York so she swapped her life to dedicate the rest of it to helping out at-risk women and girls. A lot of people have been displaced by the 70 plus years of fighting that has been going on in Myanmar (formally Burma), Thailand's next door neighbour. Due to this, it has become easy for these women and girls to be taken advantage of. There are currently 7 refugee camps in Thailand housing between 8 thousand and 15 thousand people in each one. Again, if they have no ID, they are considered illegal and have no opportunities to study or obtain fair work.
Now with a fixer-upper eco-lodge in her possession, Alexa could begin what has now become an incredible sanctuary. The first location that Alexa had was next door to an elephant camp. The current Chai Lai Orchid is at the second location. At the camp, the elephants were abused, used for heavy tourist chair rides, chained and malnourished. Alexa with the heart of gold that she has, had to do something. It was then, she started rescuing elephants. Thailand has a massive tourism industry, Alexa put two and two together and decided to rescue elephants alongside helping vulnerable women and girls by creating a place for tourists to go and visit the rescued elephants.
100% and I will say that again 100% of the profits from Chai Lai Orchid go to Daughter's Rising. What Daughter's rising does is provide fully paid scholarships for vulnerable women and girls. They support the girls for all 4 years of their degree. The aim is to educate a population that has been forgotten and stripped of their rights to an education. Meet Sandar.
Sandar & Myself
Sandar was one of the women that Daughter's Rising has given a scholarship to. Sandar who was originally from Myanmar has been in Thailand for around 14 years, 10 of those were spent in a refugee camp. She was given the scholarship and studied for 4 years in Bangladesh. After obtaining her degree, she came back to work for Daughter's Rising and is now the Director and, Daughter's Rising first paid employee- the first of many we all hope.
Daughter's Rising has given out 35 scholarships so far, 18 of which have graduated. There are currently 17 students mid-course that are being sponsored with Daughter's Rising. They received 259 applications this year for a scholarship. Of these, 53 have been put forward for interviews and between 30-35 will be selected to receive a scholarship for 2024. This provides the students with everything they need for the 4 years of their study. You can actually help in several ways, by donating a one off payment of your choice or pay for an entire scholarship. What may seem like a small amount to you can help these girls and goes a lot further than you can imagine. Another option is to volunteer, which I will go into later on in this article.
Just when you think that Chai Lai Orchid cannot get any better, they do. They also run a Kids House. The kids house is where 10 children from underprivileged families and communities stay, go to school, eat and engage in activities all under the care of the house mother, Malida.
Kids House
At the kids house with the children and the house mum Malida(center)
Before they built the kids house, Alexa looked after 5 kids in her home. Of course, being the woman she is, she wanted to scale and help more so she built the Kids House. The oldest children here are 17 and once they leave the kids house, they have the opportunity to go to university or, if that is not what they desire, they can choose to enter the work force. Again, all with the funding and help from Daughter's Rising.
This is the best way to help underprivileged kids to enjoy a better life. Foreigners are not allowed to adopt these children so equipping them with the skills to lead independent lives after having the nurturing care of the kids house while they are children is the absolute best option for them.
As I mentioned earlier, just because your parents may not have official documentation for you even if you are born in Thailand means you don't have ID or a passport. You would think oh, well just go get one, no, it is not that easy. Passports are hard to get, expensive and can take 7 years.
A wonderful lady named Aida came to Chai Lai initially for a visit and like many of us, fell in love. She, a professional dance and yoga instructor has been volunteering her skills to enrich the girls in the Kids House. She has created a wonderful dance video and is currently raising funds to help Lawla, a very talented young girl who would like to study music and help support children in refugee camps through music.
Help Lawla
Click here to help Lawla Dreams
Aida & The Girls
Volunteering
I hope by now you are itching to help and I can tell you that these are some of the most deserving people on the planet. They may not have much but they would still give you the shirt off their back and share their last grain of rice with you. By volunteering at Chai Lai, you embark on a transformative journey that immerses you in a new culture and empowers marginalized communities. Volunteers are provided with teaching materials and guidance by a local teacher coordinator, fostering open-mindedness and adaptability.
The project focuses on aiding ethnic minorities and refugees, particularly at-risk girls and women, by offering safe housing, education, and employment opportunities. Accommodation is with local Karen families, providing an authentic cultural experience. Volunteers can participate in various initiatives, including supporting artisans, teaching English, and leveraging their unique skills to make a positive impact. Applicants must be at least 18 years old or accompanied by a parent to join the project. Gaynor is a woman who runs the volunteer program and is always looking for more applicants. Now, I am sure you want to learn more about the elephants.
Meet Charlie The Head Mahout
Myself, Chris, Aida, Charlie & Mae
Charlie and his wife Mae are from a local Karen village which is home to around 700 hundred people. Charlie has loved elephants ever since he saw them as a 12 year old boy, he said to himself "one day I will look after elephants". Once he was out of school, he went onto university, the first in his family to do so and studied agriculture. Charlie has now been at Chai Lai for over 6 years. They have 15 elephants and 1 mahout per elephant. Their job is to look after the elephants and ensure they don't get themselves into trouble. Unlike many places, the elephants at Chai Lai are never tied or restrained by chains or ropes. The mahouts will take a day shift and a night shift where they watch over the elephants.
Elephants are beloved creatures but of course due to their size if left, can destroy crops and get themselves killed. The elephants that Chai Lai rescues are females who have been used in tourism for heavy chair elephant rides, circuses and even logging which is still quite a large industry in southern Thailand. The reason that Chai Lai only rescue females is that male (bull) elephants can be aggressive. However, if a male is born into Chai Lai then of course it will be raised in the safe environment that Chai Lai offers.
Female elephants will let their mahouts know when they want to get pregnant. It is then that the female will be lead into the jungle to meet a suitable male. After a week or so, the female comes back and if all is well will give birth to a healthy baby 2 years later.
As you can imagine, elephants eat a lot of food in fact, they eat between 200-300 kilograms of food a day per elephant which costs around 8,000 Thai baht (US$228) a month. They eat grass, bananas and corn. They plant some of their own food but of course with the sheer amount needed, Chai Lai does have to buy food from local farmers and suppliers.
Beyond feeding the elephants, the Mahouts also make and give medicine to the elephants. When you stay at Chai Lai, you also have the opportunity to make the medicine, we did and it was a lot of fun. The elephants enjoy it too, so no bribery needed. It is made up of rice, tamarind, banana and salt. The rice and banana give them nutrients and energy, the tamarind aids in digestion and the salt cleans their teeth. Digestion is crucial to an elephant's health, if an elephant does not poop for 3 days or so, it can die. They only have 1 stomach like us so, the supplement of this elephant medicine is essential to their optimal care.
The elephants that are cared for properly can live to be over 90 years old. Just 40-50 years ago, the average age of an Asian elephant was only 35-40 years old, less than half of their full potential due to mistreatment and hard labour. Elephants, just like us not only age chronologically but in appearance too. As they get older, their skin turns more orange. This can be an indication of an unwell elephant if they start to turn orange prematurely.
Taking care of elephants is truly a community affair, you may have heard the saying that it takes a village to raise a child, well the same goes for an elephant. To the people at Chai Lai , these elephants are family. Now let's get to staying at Chai Lai.
Charlie & Myself
Chai Lai Orchid
Staying at Chai Lai is an incredible experience. As a travel writer, I can say hand on my heart, this is my favourite place on earth to stay. They offer a range of wonderful eco accommodations, The Mountain View (where I stayed with the view pictured below), the Riverside and the Garden Room. These rooms are beyond comfortable with large 4 poster beds and an amazing outdoor rain shower.
Mountain Room with a view
One of the things that have made Chai Lai Instagram famous so to speak is their elephant room service. This is where the elephants and their mahouts come down to your room to wake you up in the morning with the most delicious multi-tiered breakfast and you can choose between a Thai breakfast or a Western one. The food, oh my gosh the food, best on earth.
Famous elephant room service
Breakfast
Now when you think that you are spoilt for breakfast, just wait until you eat at the cafe. The menu is huge, so affordable and truly delicious. Tuck into Pad Thai, Massaman Curry, Penang Curry, Khao Soi, Pineapple Fried Rice, Mango Sticky Rice and the list goes on. Not to mention their cocktail list but my favourite drink was the Thai Milk Tea which I had several times a day, every day.
Delicious food offered at Chai Lai
Not only is the food delicious but the service is second to none. They are attentive, friendly and helpful. The best time of the day is between 4pm and 5pm which is elephant happy hour. You get the opportunity to feed a whole basket full of bananas to the elephants and the drinks are buy 1 get 1 free.
Elephant happy hour
There are also an array of activities to choose from at Chai Lai, you can go trekking, ride atv's, go bamboo rafting, learn how to make elephant medicine, go to a jungle cooking class, weaving, temple visits, my favourite bathing/swimming with the elephants and much more.
Bathing with the elephants
The whole experience I cannot rave enough about. So if you are looking for an eco, ethical once in a lifetime experience, this is the place. They even host weddings if you are looking for that dream destination wedding, they can comfortable host up to 30 guests. One of my favourite things in the whole world is photographs. I believe they capture moments in time that we can look back on with fondness. James De La Cloche is a fantastic photographer who works with Chai Lai and even donates part of his earning each month to them. You will fall in love with the photos that he so naturally takes with the elephants like Boontong that he has developed a strong connection with. You can see his details below.
James De La Cloche Photography
As I draw this article to a close, this is definitely a career changer in terms of being able to write, which is one of my passions, and for it to be about a place that so carefully looks after both the community and elephants which is a cause so close to my heart. This was an experience that I will never forget and have vowed to return many more times before the sun sets on my life. Below is a picture of Kanoon's eye. It may seem weird to take a close up photo of an elephant's eye but I urge you to now, however you are reading this to zoom in on her eye. Her pupil is the shape of a heart. This unbelievable, natural phenomenon is rare but so is the purity of this place.
The Eyes Tells A Story
Kanoon, the elephant with the heart shaped pupil
I would like to end this by saying, help anyway you can, come visit, sponsor a girl, volunteer or even just speak about Daughter's Rising and give them a voice to prove that they are not forgotten. I would like to thank Alexa, Bay, Hannah, Sandar, Gaynor, Aida, Malida, Charlie, Mae, Pabo, Share, Cha, Bo, Satang, Da and so many more. I dedicate this to the memory of Sevoy, Chai Lai's Matriarch who passed away this past August. She had a hard life of carrying tourists around on her back with a heavy chair, when her body could no longer bare the weight, she was tied to a tree and left to die. Alexa rescued her and gave her the retirement every elephant deserves, may she rest in peace and her legacy live on.
In Loving Memory Of Sevoy, Chai Lai's Matriarch
Thank you from Chai Lai Orchid
Memorial to Sevoy
A parting message from Alexa, "be mindful of your impact on the community when you travel", thank you, until next time, Vegoutt everybody!
Chai Lai Sunset
Gemma Winchester- Writer
Christopher Courtney- Interviewer
