The elephants were so sweet. They all had Thai names but I can’t remember what they were. There were six of them at the sanctuary and they were all huge! We got to feed them, pet them, splash mud on them them, and swim with/clean them off in the river. It was so fun! We rode there on a songthaew (“songtail”) which was slightly terrifying but we made a couple new friends. On the songthaew there were the six of us, an American couple from New York, and a German brother and sister. The sister was 21 and the brother was 16. They were all so nice! We ended up meeting up with the American couple for dinner a couple days later.
The elephants were really gentle. First we fed them bananas and then they ate sugarcane. I can’t believe how much they can eat!! We could either hold a banana out towards them and they would take it out of your hand with its trunk or you could plop it right in its mouth. It was a little freaky at first because they were so huge, but soon we got more comfortable and some of us got to put it right into their mouths. The guides had us put on traditional Karan shirts. They were scratchy shirts with interesting designs on them. They said we wore them because the elephants then recognized us as nice people that would feed them.
Swimming with them was so fun! The water was chilly because it was a river but the elephants still enjoyed it. We had lunch at the sanctuary, including soup, rice, watermelon, some sort of egg dish, and cantaloupe. When we were saying goodbye to an elephant that was alone and eating more sugarcane a guide came over to us with watermelon rinds and a few watermelon chunks and said we could feed it some more. It was really fun.
Then, on the way back to the songthaew, we passed a few piglets that were tied to a tree and running in circles around it one way then the other way. They were adorable!
Our day at the sanctuary was so fun!
Wow!