Speaking of unforgettable, amazing experiences, I’ve got a couple of them to tell you about. For our first freewheeling day, Kit hired a private driver for us for the day and we had him take us to Tiger Kingdom. The tigers at Tiger Kingdom have all been hand raised from teeny, tiny cubs to interact with people and pose with them for pictures. These animals are not drugged. Tigers are nocturnal and normally sleep during the day, so when people visit, the adult tigers are in a period of sleepiness and low energy. They are also well trained and very used to people. Even so, when you enter the enclosures with the tigers, you have to be careful and follow the tiger trainers’ instructions. You must only approach the tigers from behind, only touch them on their backs and tails and you must use a firm touch when you pet them. The risk of being eaten or mauled is small, so of course we were all over this. I mean, the tigers looked pretty well-fed. No need to snack on an American girl, right? After reassuring each other that this was surely the case, we signed our lives away and had the experience of a lifetime!
This tiger’s name was Donny. He is a large adult male. He was very well-behaved and calm. Every few minutes, the trainers would give him small tidbits of raw meat to ensure his continued cooperation. He was absolutely gorgeous. Tiger fur is not at all soft. It is rather coarse. And when I held his tail, I was shocked at how heavy it was. Homeboy could do some serious damage if he decided to whap you with that thing.
We also got to meet Donny’s younger brother, Oliver. Oliver was completely unexcited to meet us and was determined to snooze through our visit. That didn’t stop us from giving him a cuddle, however.
Then it was on to see some white tigers. These cuties are only nine months old and if you want evidence that the tigers here are not drugged, all you have to do is visit any of the tiger youngsters. They are adorable but extremely rambunctious, as most youngsters are. The two we met are named Whipped Cream (female) and Ka Ti (male). These two were much more difficult to wrangle and Whipped Cream was a little diva with a major attitude. She even swiped at and scratched one of the trainer’s hands. If there was any drugging going on, these two would have definitely been first in line. Super duper adorable, but definitely not the perfect photos that Donny gave us. It’s all good, though. We loved getting to pet them and see them up close and we got a kick out of their antics.
What a totally amazing experience! Mom said that petting a tiger is something she has always wished she could do. In Thailand, dreams do come true.
After Tiger Kingdom, we rounded out our day with a visit to the Elephant Poopoopaper Park, which has products for sale made from - you guessed it - elephant poo-poo. Because no souvenir collection would be complete without some authentic elephant poop.
Our driver, Ae, (pronounced “A”) then drove us to shop in a lacquer factory, an umbrella factory and a celadon pottery factory. Then we stopped by a local Kongdom Hall on our way back to the hotel. No one was there, unfortunately, but we left a note on someone’s car.
Day two of the magnificent beasts tour began with our being picked up at our hotel by the Happy Elephant Home, an ethical elephant sanctuary that we had booked a half-day elephant experience with. There are many elephant sanctuaries in Thailand to choose from. We specifically wanted to go to an ethical sanctuary. Ethical sanctuaries rescue elephants from abusive situations and also take in elephants who have been injured or are too old to work any longer. They also offer elephant experiences that do not include riding or any other type of on-command performances like painting or other tricks. Before researching elephant sanctuaries, I had no idea how bad riding is for elephants. They look so big and strong, but their spines are actually not very strong at all and riding them is very damaging and causes them a lot of back problems and eventually a lot of pain. Now that we knew the score, we definitely didn’t want to be a part of that, nor did we want to see elephants forced to perform. We wanted a true ethical sanctuary where the elephants are well cared for, treated with kindness and allowed to be elephants. Enter the Happy Elephant Home. They checked all the boxes plus provided transportation to and from our hotel. Yes, they allow people to come and interact with the elephants. The interaction consists of petting them, taking photos of them and with them and feeding them bananas and sugarcane. If the weather and water are warm enough, you can get in the river with them, give them a mud bath and help wash them off. Evidently, they love this - but only if it’s hot out and the water is warm. Otherwise, forget about it, because if an elephant doesn’t want to go for a spa treatment, an elephant isn’t going to go for an spa treatment. Period. The elephants roam free on the property and are not goaded into interacting with visitors. They actually come to you voluntarily because you’ve got the treats and they want what you have. If they tire of interacting with visitors or are just not feeling it that day, they are allowed to go on their way.
On arrival at the Happy Elephant Home, we were given special outfits to change into. This serves a couple of purposes. First, these outfits look and smell familiar to the elephants so it cuts down on their stress and makes visitors seem somewhat familiar right away. Second, hanging with elephants is messy business. They constantly give themselves dust baths so when you touch them or they rub against you, you’re covered in dirt. If they’re damp, you’re covered in mud. And then there is the slime factor. One of the elephants snorted out of its trunk and suddenly my foot was covered in elephant snot. As in drenched. Glad I was wearing rubber sandals that were easily rinsed off. And double glad it’s trunk was pointing down and not up when it snorted or I would have gotten an elephant snot facial. Somehow I don’t think that would have been a good look for me. Definitely not the happy elephant experience I was looking for.
We’re definitely not winning any style awards but the elephants seemed to like it.
Chopping up sugarcane for the elephants. We gathered it up and carried it in baskets to the elephants.
The first elephant we met is named Molo. She is the oldest elephant there and is blind in her right eye. She is happy just hanging out in the front pasture of the sanctuary and acts as the sanctuary’s welcoming committee. She is very, very calm and sweet and patiently stood there, letting us pet her, feed her and get our pictures taken with her. Of all the elephants we met, she far and away had the best manners. You’ll see what I’m talking about in a moment.
After feeding and having our pictures taken with Molo, we hiked a little farther into the sanctuary and met Liam and Tongbai, both females. Liam is by far the largest elephant we met. She is absolutely huge! She was super sweet, though, a very gentle giant. She was by far my favorite elephant.
This is Tongbai, a medium-sized female elephant. Her back left leg was injured and doesn’t bend at the knee when she walks, but she gets around pretty well.
There were also two baby elephants - Halloween, who is three years old, and Pancake, who is two years old. Halloween is a little larger and lighter in color. Of the two babies, she is the more mellow and is better behaved. Pancake is smaller, very dark and has the most amazing, crazy hair. Both babies were cute and very rambunctious, but Pancake is just an out-and-out freak show. She is absolutely crazy. She came barreling over a hill when she heard us. I mean girlfriend was moving! She knew there was food to be had and she was determined to get it. All of it. The other elephants are pretty orderly and wait for you to offer them sugarcane by hand. Pancake would sneak up behind you and snake you with her trunk, reaching into your basket and gathering up all the sugarcane she could grab. And she is strong! Once she started snaking you, you could not get your basket away from her until she decided she was done. Then the little rascal would drop most of the sugarcane she stole so she could raid another basket. Here’s the problem with her technique. Besides being greedy, when an elephant drops food on the ground, they will not eat it because they can smell elephant waste on it, so after she dropped it, none of the other elephants would eat it. If we picked it up and offered it to them, they would take it and drop it like it was hot. Pancake was persistent, too. If she knew you had sugarcane on you, she would come charging after you and chase you down like an two-bit felon until she caught you and shook you down for the goods. It was hysterical. I learned to keep one eye on her at all times so I could avoid her and save my sugarcane for the other elephants. I shared some with her by hand and she did chase me down at one point and raid my basket, but it was towards the end of feeding time and I had already fed all the other elephants so I just let her have at it. Whatcha gonna do when an elephant, no matter how big or small, charges you for food? I’ll tell you whatcha gonna do. You gonna give it up so you don’t get snapped like a twig or squashed like a bug.
This is Halloween.
And this is the naughtiest baby elephant in Thailand. Introducing Pancake. (These people really need some help picking these names! They must have been hungry when Whipoed Cream the tiger and Pancake the elephant were being named.)
That crazy hair, tho!
Pancake preparing to snake someone.
Jill getting snaked by Pancake. She almost pulled Jill over!
Keep your friends close - and your crazy baby elephants closer!
And here are some random shots of these beautiful creatures.
Such a fantastic day and amazing memories! Thailand has done right by us in that department. We are now in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and are set to visit Angkor Wat tomorrow. It might be a couple of days before I can post to the blog again. We have a very, very busy day tomorrow, leaving the hotel early and returning late, and between the intense heat and humidity here in Cambodia and running our buns off all day -we’ve just been told we will be walking over 10,000 steps tomorrow - I have a feeling I am going to crawl back to the hotel tomorrow night and just collapse into bed. Catch you all in a couple of days.
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