Thailand has between 3000 and 4000 elephants , of which approximately half are domesticated in some way , be it for elephant rides for tourists , in a sanctuary or rescue , or sadly chained up next to a village for work.
We took a trip up to Kanchanaburi last year and were fortunate enough to see them bathing and playing in the river, but they were in a rescue. We really wanted to see some in their natural habitat and so off we went to the Kaeng Krachan National Park about 75km from Hua Hin.
Our journey took us up past forest and lakes , valleys and upwards in elevation. Slowly we started to see signs for ‘don’t feed the wildlife’ and ‘beware of elephants’. My first thought was ,who on earth stops to feed an elephant from their car ? I looked up and read an article about pineapples being thrown from trucks by the truckers, only to backfire on them as the elephants were grabbing pineapples as they drove by !
We saw lots of elephant excrement on the side of the road and the kids were in awe as to the size of the blobs , the ‘size of coconuts’ and one ‘the size of daddy’s arm!’ The kids started classifying the pachyderm poop into fresh or old depending on how dehydrated it was and how dark in color it was. Quite the car game !
Tourists have also been seen stopping their cars to get out for photos and throwing bananas at the animals for their amusement. The elephants are then agitated when the supply of food stops, and have been seen to charge at cars causing much damage and fear. Whose fault is this though , not these large mammals , but the ridiculous humans.
This is a link to elephants seen on the road we drove on:
We saw evidence of broken trees and large trails through the brush (see video at the bottom) but alas no elephants. The best time of day is dawn and dusk as that is feeding time according to the locals. We did wonder at some point , what would we do faced with a herd of elephants blocking our road ? The answer is slowly drive past and do not make a noise or try to feed them. These animals must be left in peace otherwise they will start to encroach into civilization and this will lead to their demise.
We had a wonderful adventure out and made it up to Pala U waterfalls where the kids swam with carp and clambered over rocks with hundreds of colorful butterflies overhead.
One last note , in our first visit to Thailand many years ago, before we had our small children , we opted to ride elephants as tourists do, and now knowing the horrendous conditions that they are kept in and the hurt inflicted on them , would encourage visitors to contact a rescue and visit the elephants this way. The local rescue in Hua Hin has a great program , and offers a ride and bathing of the elephants for a fee that helps feed and maintain the rescued elephants in their facility.
Elephants are so weird looking , but so fascinating. Disappointed we didn’t see one , perhaps on our next visit.
~Arlene
Seven Months in Siam 