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A trip to the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai is one of the unique experiences that you can only get in Thailand. While there are many elephant sanctuaries that claim to be ethical, always do your research before deciding which place to visit.

Remember it is not natural for elephants to be doing tricks such as painting or balancing a ball from their trunk. Please, please, please never ride an elephant. It does terrible things to their very sensitive spine and back. Elephants are seen in these types of terrible conditions all over Asia including Vietnam and India. If you see any unusual activities similar to these it’s best not to support that business.

With that being said, I chose to visit the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai. The park’s elephants are mostly rescue elephants from logging camps, trekking, orphaned babies, or were in land mine accidents leaving them severely injured. Thus, they are unable to return to the wild.

Volunteering at Elephant Nature Park

Elephant Nature Park has three options for visiting and volunteering, each varies on length of time.

• Half day tour
• Full day tour
• Two days one night
• One week volunteering

All of these options offer different activities and depend on how long you stay at the park. I chose to do the two days one night stay, which in my opinion was plenty of time to learn about the park and elephants.

The local volunteers are excellent and very knowledgeable. They do this everyday and the elephants treat them like family. I’ve heard great things about the owner of the camp, Lek, but I didn’t meet her while I was there.

What to Expect at the Park

You can expect a lot of elephant poop and bananas!

When you first arrive at the park you will be divided into groups depending on the tour you purchased. The overnight stay group was divided into two groups with not more than 15 people per group. The day trip tours have quite a few more people per group.

After checking in with your group, your first task will be feeding the elephants bananas. This is their morning snack, and the elephants are always hungry! Each group is given a large basket of fruits to feed the elephants. Usually these are bananas and pineapples. The local volunteers have this saying at the park:

No food, no friend

It definitely holds true because once your food is gone, so is the elephant.

After snack time is when your group will go into the park and meet the elephants. This will take up the rest of the morning, then it will be lunch time. The park provides a generous buffet lunch with plenty of different options. After lunch you will go back into the park to see more elephants, this time having their daily bath in the river. There will be another snack time for the elephants, which means more bananas. Following snack time is when you’ll be able to check into your cabin for the night and freshen up before the buffet dinner and evening entertainment.

The next day is quite special because you are the first ones inside the park before all the day trip tours arrive. You’ll be given the unique experience of having the park mostly to yourself for one last tour.

Meeting the Elephants

At the time I visited Elephant Nature Park, there were about 80 elephants. Seeing an elephant at a zoo or from far away is completely different from standing right in front of one. It’s quite the experience! Their trunk can be so precise in picking up the smallest thing, yet strong enough to be a little terrified of it. Their skin is rough and a little fuzzy. They love throwing mud on themselves to keep them cool. It also acts somewhat as a sunscreen for them.

Your local volunteer will explain each elephant’s story and little facts about them as you tour the park. You’ll be able to interact with the elephants and get to know them too. I learned how to tell the difference between Asian elephants and African elephants based on the shape of their skull. You can also tell the age of the elephant by how sunken in their temples are. The more sunken in, the older the elephant.

Elephants are very social animals and like to be around their family and friends. They have different sounds that they make when they call different elephants. You’ll be able to hear them in the evening. Elephants apparently like to talk a lot at night!

For more things to do in Northern Thailand check out this post!