Elephant World (Thailand):
Our Christmas holiday was enjoyed in Bangkok, Thailand. On Christmas day, we decided to go to EW (Elephant World), a place where we serve the elephants. We had hired a car company to be transportation through out the holiday, so we drove to EW (~3 hrs north of Bangkok). On the way, we watched the original "Miracle on 34th Street", and enjoyed banana, chocolate, and strawberry milk. Halfway there Grahm decided to hurl and we had a smelly car for the rest of the way. When we arrived to EW, we received free elephant style water bottle holders, and were able to pet and feed elephants that were outside the gates.
After our arrival, we were lead to the "main/mess hall" building. We put our stuff in a locker and then started with the day's activities. Throughout the day, we did multiple activities of service for the elephants, such as feeding, bathing, sorting out food, more feeding, and more feeding.
Below is Amber with the 75 year old Amber (Aum Pan)
Elephants have teeth under some layer of skin.
We got to go into the river and dodged elephant nuggets while scrubbing the sides of the elephants.
We learned many cool facts and tips about elephants while doing each different activity. One such fact was what type of food elephants like to eat, while we washed the watermelons we were about to feed them later on in the day. We got to make some sticky rice with unripe banana and pumpkins. We stirred everything with giant spoons over a fire.
We had Thai food for all of our meals. That included a lot of spice with curries and rice and plenty of fruit on the side.
EW was the home not only to elephants, but also to dogs and cattle. There were dogs everywhere at the main building and there was one dog who had his back legs broken, so he had to drag himself everywhere.
Towards the night time, we watched a elephant documentary about a village who used elephants in everyday life. Then we slept in a cabin that was made for tourists who were staying overnight at EW. There other cabins too, but there were used by temporary staff and other tourists.
This Elephant was one of the first elephants at EW. We fed this elephant with the sticky rice balls that we made.
The next morning Dad, Grahm, and I woke up very early and went on a hike with others up a mountain, where the elephants go up to rest for the night. After the hike and breakfast, we continued with feeding and bathing. We also floated down the river for a good hour, wearing life vests in 'diaper' style. After lunch and our last time feeding of the elephants we packed up and left the place having to say goodbye to our new friends. Something funny about this trip is that now every time somebody at home raises their voice, Drake reminds us all "don't scare the elephants!"
