Puppy Love at ENP

Those who knew me before this trip will know that I've got a general tolerance for dogs but I've never been a full on ERRRRRRMAGHERD-WOOSE-A-WOOD-WURL person. I like the idea of dogs and I've always been around them and know that they are inevitably part of my life, and I love the idea of snuggling and playing, but there's always so much shedding and grease and slobber and considerations and poo. Similar to my ideas on children.

The day before I arrived at ENP I refreshed my knowledge of the park, and had forgotten (somehow) that they also accommodate over 400 dogs! Much of their rescue efforts occurred during the terrible 2011 floods in Thailand - so many villages had to be evacuated of humans that they were forced to leave the dogs behind. The ENP team at the time took inflatable dinghys and rescued as many as they could take, bringing them home to the park for them to roam in big runs and receive the medical treatment and love so many of them desperately needed. More recently the ENP generosity and love itself is becoming abused, with owners who are fed up of their animals just dumping them at the gates of the park.Thailand has a terrible reputation for dog cruelty just because they are not highly regarded at all. Much like in England we look at rats and don't think twice about putting down pest poison for them, so too are dogs widely considered in Thailand. I'm not going to preach about the pros and cons of cultural relativity with regard to the respect awarded to and placing of different animals in different societies (although I would love to do research on that), so let's just settle on the fact that for some of the dogs Thailand doesn't want, ENP provides a home with the hope that the dogs will find their forever homes with adoptive families throughout the world.

Elephant special food and care

At ENP we show love in a huge number of ways, but we go full scale Jewish grandmother when it comes to showing love through food. The majority of our ellies are happy destroying corn stalks, grazing the park's grass, having a cheeky watermelon basket and reaching up into the canopy to break branches for the best leaves, but some of them can't.

Om nom nom banana rice balls

Tong Kham and Yai Bua have each faced years of malnutrition and abuse, and came to us in a state of starvation and sickness: both needed to gain 300kgs from their arrival weight, and their health was truly critical. For these situations we prepare rice balls: sticky white rice, salt, and nutrient pellets, all mushed together with tamarind and yellow bananas to make it taste nazz. Each ellie will get a different number of servings throughout the day depending on how much weight they need to gain or how well they take to the rice balls, and their progress is monitored to see how long they'll need these yummy grubs for.

They think it's tasty...

Elephant Invasion!

Do de do de doo, shredding some corn... poot te poot te poo, shredding more corn... Do de do de doo, bagging some corn... Poot te poot de poo, carrying some corn... Do de do de doo...
HOLY MOTHER OF MOLY THERE'S AN ELEPHANT IN THE KITCHEN.

Now what should have gone through my mind next should have been: "there's an elephant who has broken into the kitchen looking for extra food. You are carrying a bag of food. You are heading towards the elephant. You should move the food and yourself out of the nose and eye range of the elephant." 

What actually went through my mind was: "COOOOOOOOOOOL." 

Dani was really going for it, that gal. The human kitchen staff came rushing out to move their motorbikes out of her way, just in time as Dani reached up to the nearby tree and pulled down entire branches exactly where the bikes had been moments earlier as she selected the finest leaves for consumption. She used her trunk to expertly reach for the baskets of rice balls, salads, and watermelons all being prepared for the morning feeding rounds and all of which had been hastily pulled away out of her reach after her first few trunk dives had destroyed the perfectly formed batch of rice for Bou Loi. I wondered why she hadn't put her legs up yet, she could definitely climb onto the platform... 

Elephant enrichment

One of my favourite things about elephants is how hilariously destructive they are. What super precious and protected 800 year old tree? OH you mean my post mud-spray scratching post. NBD. Nope, I haven't seen your brand new motorbike, but let me show you my super awesome nail file - it's got flames up the side!


Ellies are renowned for being intensely intelligent animals. Their social intelligence enables them to remember intricate social ties between herds, recall exact locations of the burials of their relatives, and to recognise the faces of elephants they once bonded with and then were separated from for huge stretches of time. Their physical intelligence matches this, with exceptional fine motor skills which enable them to use their trunks with such dexterity that they can peel an ear of corn one leaf at a time! The very tip of their trunk has so many nerves it's hyper sensitive to touch, allowing elephants to pick up a single thin twig, break it down to ideal size, and then use it to scratch their eyelids with pin point precision and total control. Medo was an absolute boss at this - I'm pretty sure if that stick were an eyeliner pencil she'd put us all to cateye shame. For such a huge animal, it was such a shock to me to see such delicate movements!

Elephant Nature Park: Week Two

Following my incredible first week at ENP I moved onto the second week volunteer programme which was a lot more intense and closer with individual elephants than the first week. 

Week One was a brilliant introduction to ENP and the truly incredible work Lek and her entire team at the park are doing, giving me a taste of how everything clicks together and why this work is so important. Week Two, however, was an incredible experience for being so close to individual elephants, getting a lot more responsibility, and being able to get to know the inside workings of the park a little more.

Ruling the Cinema Spot with my tankard of tea

For the first few days I had an absolutely invaluable opportunity to shadow mahouts with their elephants in the jungle sections of the park which really opened my eyes to the social bonds and communication between elephants. I had never seen such free interaction between ellies and it was so beautiful to be able to observe them enjoying their natural habitat and becoming elephants again, rather than the same environment being their prison and being a slave within it. Read about these trips here!

Medo doing her thang

Elephant Nature Park: Week One

I felt at home as soon as I arrived at the Elephant Nature Park office in Chiang Mai. I knew it was going to be an amazing experience by the first 5 things I encountered through the door:

1. Beautifully helpful, cheerful, and happy staff helping me through check in and registration
2. Free T-shirts (1 for each week you're volunteering)
3. The best banana muffins I've had in a long time which perfectly served my Hobbit-travelling-style food requirements for second breakfast (especially after holding my map upside down when booking my hostel, resulting in an hour long trek across Chiang Mai at 5.30AM on Day 1...)
4. Free water bottles and over the shoulder HOLDERS. I kid you not, this is the best piece of kit I've obtained throughout 3 months of backpacking, and I am going home to make my millions by crocheting similar contraptions ready for the wild demand when Cambridge receives its annual quota of 3 days of summer. 
5. Similarly bleary-eyed volunteers from all over the world who didn't look at me weirdly when I immediately dove into the pile of banana muffins and joined in with my overtired excitement about the bottle holders

3 muffins (ok yes, 5 in the office and 2 for the road don't judge me they were so good and there were lots of them, I was basically just making everyone else feel comfortable enough to dive in too) and 2 cups of tea later I rolled into a minibus and the dream was beginning: I was on my way to Elephant Nature Park for 2 weeks of volunteering with my favourite animals! 

This girl is so much more elegant than I am. Just look at that leg lead.

Return to Thailand: Not So Settling in Chiang Mai

Oigch. That was a Grr of an arrival. Miscommunications with the hostel resulted in my totally confirmed and definitely going to be there shuttle definitely not being there and me being totally shattered and drained after an emotional goodbye with my super awesome travel partner and boyfriend in Cambodia having to figure out how to get from A to B. I hadn't planned anything because my shuttle had been totally confirmed. It was dark, I was tired, I had no plans, and I'm scared of the dark when I'm in a new foreign place and I have no plans.

I booked an 8.0 hostel, but as soon as I laid down on my bed I knew it was going to be a terrible night. I was exhausted, it was too late to change hostel, and so I laid on my back on a mattress which appeared to genuinely be a wooden palette wrapped in styrofoam with a sheet on top. 8.0? GTFO. At 3am I was on the brink of tears as the exhaustion and frustration and pain all came to a head: I had chosen as good a place as I could, and it was still mightily shit. I climbed down from my bunk and laid on the decidedly more comfortable floor, finally drifting off to sleep. 

This is one of the best pieces of art I've ever seen, I love it

The next day I fell into my classic pattern of solo travelling: fill all the time and space which has recently been filled by companions with stuff. 11 hours of walking every street in Chiang Mai old city, exploring every temple and every market stall possible, and I was absolutely wiped out. So much so that my face genuinely caused the receptionist to ask if I was okay and whether I needed help. 

Beautifully colourful art in the markets

Fun fact: Chiang Mai is home to a lot of female-only prisons, and the city has a huge variety of prisoner-run community outreach and integration programmes including cafes, massage, restaurants, and shops. Pretty cool. 

Strange fact: walking through Chiang Mai on Valentine's Day meant I accidentally walked through a match-making festival! Couples came to be told whether they were compatible enough for a successful marriage and singletons came from all over to be blessed for better luck in love. Interesting stuff.

Shopping for love in a temple car park

That night I stole an empty low bunk in the dorm which had an actual mattress and as I sank into it I let it all wash over me. I had had a great time exploring the temples and markets, I had loved seeing the artwork paving the streets, but I was just exhausted. I couldn't wait for the prospect of staying in one place for 2 weeks. Putting my bag down and leaving it there for 2 whole weeks! Unpacking my things and not rushing to re-pack them all for the next day, taking my trainers out and not instantly reshuffling my boots to fill their gap... Most of all, I was so looking forward to seeing the same people for an entire block of time. Hostels are great for socialising and meeting new people, but everybody is on their own path and all you do in most situations is to cross paths as you both continue your trajectories. You might be in the bunk below a potential best friend, but if you're sick or tired that night and you don't feel like striking up conversation to find out, then that's the opportunity gone. To be in the same place with the same people doing the same project for the same fundamental reason: now that was a great thing to look forward to! 

Chiang Mai: where the streets are paved with art

Bring it on, Elephant Nature Park. 

Getting into the elephant mood