New Erawan Paradise Elephant Camp – Please Spread the News. :)

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Slowly, positive changes are happening, thanks to Lek, the wonderful founder of Elephant Nature Park.

Erawan Eles pic 72Save Elephant Foundation’s Sangduen “Lek” Chailert, along with a group of volunteers, recently freed five elephants from Sai Yok elephant camp. Their new home is at Erawan Paradise, located in Kanchanaburi, in midwestern Thailand.

Located approximately 50 kilometers from Kanchanaburi, Thailand, the Erawan Elephant Retirement Park is the newest project sponsored by the Save Elephant Foundation. The first five elephants to call the park home arrived in early July, 2013. All the resident elephants are former tourism elephants, rescued from trekking camps, street-begging or performance shows.

Spread over 50 acres, the facility operates similarly to Elephant Nature Park and volunteers will help maintain the retirement property, as well as assist the mahouts with the elephants.

Watch the movie via the link below – it’s fantastic to see this stuff happening.

Erawan Elephant Retirement Park

Bucket List? Huh! I’m Turning 50 and I Have a Pooh List.

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Evil personified! This one took a jandal hostage and wouldn't give it back until lots of food was thrown at it. Bundi, Rajasthan.

Evil personified! This one took a jandal hostage and wouldn’t give it back until lots of food was thrown at it. Bundi, Rajasthan.

You hear the term ‘Bucket List’ bandied about quite often, yes? I was fortunate enough to cotton on at an early age that the world is a fascinating place and I had started a list of countries and things I wanted to see by the time I was 12. Tibet, the Pyramids, Bedouins in Arabia, Castles in England, Frogs in the Amazon, Iguanas in Galapagos, the usual run-of-the-mill stuff.

I’m not entirely sure where the ‘Bucket List’ term originated, but since I’m about to turn 50 and inherit my license for eccentricity, I’ve decided that I shall have a Pooh List. I know – I’m such a grown-up. And I’ve already ticked off several of the items on it: Continue reading →

Elephants in the Street and How I Suck as a Westerner and a Tourist

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I am guilty. And I was ignorant. I didn’t know.

This baby is so hungry she tried to latch onto a passing elephant she didn't know to suckle. Photo by Lek Chailert

This baby is so hungry she tried to latch onto a passing elephant she didn’t know to suckle.
Photo by Lek Chailert

I went to India four times before I saw my first real live elephant. At about 2 o’clock in the morning, in Pahar Ganj, a place bustling with people and traffic and street dogs and rubbish. I was so thrilled to finally see one that I didn’t stop to think that the poor thing was probably stressed out by the noise and traffic, and also probably just hanging out to get off the hard tarmac and go to bed. Continue reading →

Life is Far Too Important…

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“Life is far too important to be taken seriously.”

— Oscar Wilde

Playing with Faa Mai. Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Playing with Faa Mai. Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Pachyderm Banana Hoovers and Buffalo Sludge-Boulders – Day 7 Elephant Nature Park

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Two BFF's at the elephant clinic, Elephant Nature Park.

Two BFF’s at the elephant clinic, Elephant Nature Park.

Jodi had told us that some of the elephants could be drama queens, and on this last day I got to see it for myself. I was lolling about in the dining area having my morning coffee and looking across at the elephant clinic, where there was always an elephant to be seen who lived there on a semi-permanent basis due to her need for ongoing foot treatment, plus another elephant who hung around keeping her company. Every day at ENP I had seen both of them there together. Today something caught my eye – there was only one elephant (Number 1). The more mobile one (Number 2) had gone for a wander around the back. Elephant Number 1 suddenly noticed she was gone and made a hell of an uproar! She started bellowing ‘Come back! Where are you?!’ – presumably in Thai Ele language – and kicking up a right fuss. I spotted the other one come out from around the back, and I actually saw her heave a great sigh. She took her time wandering back to the front of the clinic then trumpeted to Number 1 – ‘All right! Keep yer proboscis on, I’m here!’ They touched trunks and felt each other all over for a little while then settled back into their usual routine of, well, eating. Ah, the trials and tribulations of a BFF relationship. Continue reading →

The Ideal Friendship…

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The ideal friendship is to feel as one while remaining two.

– Sophie Swetchine

Hope and his mahout/minder Korn going for a wander at Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Hope and his mahout/minder Korn going for a wander at Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Look Deep into Nature…

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Look deep into Nature,

and then you will understand everything better.

– Albert Einstein.

Faa Mai. Four years old and one of the happiest elephants in the world. Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Faa Mai. Four years old and one of the happiest elephants in the world. Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

To See the World in a Grain of Sand…

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To see the world in a grain of sand

And to see Heaven in a wild flower

Hold infinity in the palm of your hands

And eternity in an hour.

– William Blake
Mae Jan Peng (Full Moon) - one of the oldest elephants at Elephant Nature Park. A hole was made in her ear in her harder days previous to her retiring at the Park. Her mahout now puts a fresh flower in it every day to make her feel more beautiful.

Mae Jan Peng (Full Moon) – one of the oldest elephants at Elephant Nature Park. A hole was made in her ear in her harder days previous to her retiring at the Park. Her mahout now puts a fresh flower in it every day to make her feel more beautiful.

Weekly Photo Challenge: ‘Companionable’. Size Really Doesn’t Matter You Know…

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Mong Dee, mahout, and his elephant friend Sao Yai out for a walk. Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Mong Dee, mahout, and his elephant friend Sao Yai out for a walk. Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

I decided to enter into the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge. This is the photo I chose for the subject ‘Companionable’.

Mong Dee and his elephant friend Sao Yai are great companions, and the love between the two of them is palpable. At 5 foot 2 inches I tower over Mong Dee, one of the smallest men I’ve ever met. And his best friend is a member of the Largest Mammal on Earth Club.

No hooks or other beating implements are allowed at the Elephant Nature Park where these two live – it is a sanctuary in North Thailand where elephants are rescued from unhappy situations and given a beautiful, loving home at the Park, and the elephants are managed with love and positive reinforcement.

I volunteered at this sanctuary in 2012, and I intend to go back this year in September. Volunteering there last year was the most unique and privileged experience of all my travels. Every day I get an update on Facebook from the Park about the elephants and how they are doing, and every day they are in my thoughts. So from my point of view, the elephants of this Park are the companions of my mind. Hence my choice of photo for this particular subject.

Mong Dee keeps bananas at the ready while Sao Yai bathes in ecstacy...

Mong Dee keeps bananas at the ready while Sao Yai bathes in ecstacy…

The Way to Love Anything…

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The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.

– Gilbert K. Chesterton

Chang Yim - young male elephant and all around ratbag. Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Chang Yim – young male elephant and all around ratbag. Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai, Thailand.