Voluntourism: Elephant Nature Park, Thailand
"Playground time" with the elephants.
Photo: Cathy Esibill
Voluntourism--taking a vacation that includes some charity work--is a travel idea whose time has come. In our May 2008 issue, Condé Nast Traveler held the World Savers Contest, asking readers to report on their good deeds with an essay and photo documenting a recent voluntourism trip. Last week, we posted Beverly Orthwein's winning entry. This week, another one of our favorite contest entries.
by Cathy Esibill
Partly due to my fascination with all animals, my husband and I decided to spend part of our last trip abroad volunteering on an elephant park in northwestern Thailand. The Elephant Nature Park was founded by Sangduen "Lek" Chailert, a petite Thai women with a massive capacity for love. She has dedicated her life to the plight of the Asian elephants, which suffer ill-treatment and misunderstanding--with little protection from the Thai government.
The park is situated 60 kilometers north of Chiang Mai and is currently home to 31 elephants. Lek's goal is to provide a natural sanctuary for the animals while raising awareness about the traditional--and abusive--domesticating practices that still persist today. Volunteering at the park was a wonderful and fulfilling experience. During the day we participated in various tasks that included (but were not limited to) cleaning up after the elephants and other farm animals, preparing their food, planting crops like corn, building wheelbarrows, tables, and benches, and--my favorite--making treats called "banana balls." Our reward was elephant feeding and bathing time. Two times each day, we happily fed them their fill of bananas, pineapples, cucumbers, and watermelon. Afterward, we followed the elephants and their mahouts to the river. Once there, the elephants would lie down in the stream as we scrubbed them clean with buckets and brushes.
It was during these times that it was possible to get close to the elephants. As the week progressed, we became increasingly more comfortable with them, learned about their personalities, and marveled at their intelligence and playfulness. We made friends with the mahouts and learned about their personal struggles (most are Burmese refugees). We wrapped sashes that had been blessed by Buddhist monks around trees in the surrounding hills as an effort to save Thailand's forests. Each night we could view films or hear lectures that Lek and her staff had prepared in order to further educate volunteers about Asian elephants, and also to give us ideas for how to help after our time at the park was through.
We returned home inspired, and we haven't stopped talking about our time in Thailand or the elephants. We have already set up a fundraising dinner; I will make Thai cuisine and show photographs from our trip. The money we raise will go toward adopting our favorite elephant, Jungle Boy. We've also joined the Elephant Nature Foundation and aim to continue to speak openly about the cruelty these majestic animals are enduring, in hopes that awareness will grow, along with the support that Lek and her park need to successfully save the rest of the elephants.
Further reading:
* Cathy's travel blog
* 2008 World Savers Congress: Condé Nast Traveler's signature event
* VolunTourism.org
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Hi!
This experience seems so wonderful I wish i could go there soon. What you're saying about the way you get to know how to communicate with the elephants is so true : you really have to live it to understand it ;-)
If you're interested, here's a video by Richard Lair, talking about the mahouts, it's so interesting! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzdyoOQomDI&feature=related
Bye!
Posted by: Jojohn | March 01, 2010 at 06:30 AM
Hi!
This experience seems so wonderful I wish i could go there soon. What you're saying about the way you get to know how to communicate with the elephants is so true : you really have to live it to understand it ;-)
If you're interested, here's a video by Richard Lair, talking about the mahouts, it's so interesting! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzdyoOQomDI&feature=related
Bye!
Posted by: Jojohn | March 01, 2010 at 06:30 AM