Elephants, Mud, and Fun... Oh No!

February 25
Today was one of the best ever!!!! I spent the day at the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary. They are located approximately 60 km from the city of Chiang Mai and is an ethical and sustainable eco-tourism project.
This vehicle took us up the long bumpy, dirt road. We sat at in the back of the truck for 3 hours. I was the one by the tailgate and no seatbelts!!!

Rice fields along the way up

This is the toilet.... You'd use it if you had to!

Elephant Jungle Sanctuary is home to almost twenty formerly mistreated elephants, who are now free to enjoy their lives. It was explained to us that Asian elephants are smaller than African elephants. They can reach 6.4m in length, stand as tall as 3m at the shoulder, and weigh 5 tonnes. Both male and female African elephants have tusks, while only the Asian male has a small tusk.

We had to carry bags and bags of bananas to the sanctuary, climbing on wooden slats for ladders. We were each given a small ball of warm rice, we wrapped it around a small piece of tamarind and rolled it in unhusked rice.
Crushing the unhusked rice.

They called it their vitamins.

This is what I saw coming towards me

They love their bananas and sugar cane. We couldn't feed them fast enough... Their trunks were everywhere!

The gestation period of elephants is approximately 2 years. Here is a pregnant elephant... She won't give birth until next year. Here I thought 9 months was long!!!

The baby elephants are loads of fun. They hug and kiss you with their trunks. They are literally "sucking face" when they kiss you. You can feel and hear the suction... Then loads of wetness on your cheek.

After lunch, everyone headed to the mud pit. I was hesitant about going in. Once I saw it I decide I would be a watcher instead of a doer.


This is as close as I got to the muddy elephants. Funny thing is as they walked by me, they shook and I landed up getting pretty muddy.

They then walked to the river to rinse off. Everyone was given a bowl and a brush. Elephants love to be brushed...

The Sanctuary took lots of pics, I'm still waiting for them to be posted on FB. I'm off to catch a flight to Koh Samui, then a ferry to Koh Tao. My beach time begins.