Maerim Elephant Sanctuary In Thailand
When you visit Thailand don’t be basic and ride an elephant. You have to visit an elephant sanctuary and actually spend time with them, hands down it’s an incredible experience. I decided to visit Maerim elephant sanctuary for this experience. I actually read an article recently that said that due to COVID-19 many elephant camps that chain up elephants and let people ride them as a tourist activity have released the elephants and permanently got rid of the elephant riding seats. Small small wins! I’ll run you through my experience.
As always whenever I initially interact with animals I move awkward and nervous. Scrap that, it’s not actually limited to animals. As soon as I got to the sanctuary the group, there was about 25 of us, were given a briefing where they went over safety measures, which includes telling guests about an elephant kiss. I was shooketh, because I basically was told that an elephant might kiss me with it’s trunk. But the trunk is like a hoover suction and you could bleed. I thought “Hell to the nooo” and was stressed out for like 10 minutes. The sanctuary also gave everyone clothes to change into. You’re not going to win any fashion competition wearing it, but they are comfy and you clearly stand out to staff.
Once I was up close with the elephants, after being given a large bag of fresh fruit for them, all my worries disappeared. To the point that I wasn’t even putting fruit on their trunk and was feeding their mouth directly. I didn’t realise how much I actually liked elephants until I chilled with them. I’d been on a safari before, but this was a complete different experience. I want to tell you their names, but I’d be lying if I said I could remember. But the big one in the picture was my favourite, she was my home girl. We had a connection. I can’t say the same about the little elephant who had zero manners. She legit tried and then suceeded in teefing fruit from my bag. Her social skills were moving mad.
As well as feeding and interacting with the elephants the group had the opportunity to give them a mud bath, and then head into a lake with them to wash the mud off. If you snooze you lose, and I got stuck in the mud trying to navigate around elephant piss so didn’t get to splash around in the water with the elephants. The mud was mad thick and I weren’t trying to drop for anybody.
After showering off and changing back into my original clothes it was dinner time. Everyone in the group cooked either chicken noodles or tofu noodles. The food tasted good, but I will say that it was at this big-big age that I realised that I couldn’t follow simple instructions. My plate was over flowing VS everyone’s plate.
Throughout the experience pictures are taken of everyone individually on a professional camera so at the end you have the opportunity to buy images. This was proper one of those experiences that I didn’t realise I needed until I did it.
Interesting fact: Female Asian elephants don’t have tusks!
