Phuket Elephant Conservation, Phuket, Thailand

We decided to go with this tour because it focused on elephants that needed to be hospitalized and or past rescues. We purchased off the Renaissance Hotel, a hotel brand under the Marriott chain for approximately 119 Canadian each or 2800 Thai Baht each. We were picked up at the Renaissance Hotel which is a 5 minute walk from our rented condo. Our pickup time was 11:45 a.m. It took about 45 minutes to arrive at the Elephant Conservation Park. It appeared to be close to Phuket City. When we arrived it was apparent that this place was quite new. In fact it is a few months old, they received enough donations to get this place going. They have to charge a lot of money to spend time and learn about the elephants because each elephant eats approximately 300 pounds of food and they takes a lot of mula. There are 8 elephants at this park.

A bunch of palm tree branches being delivered

for the elephants. We watched an elephant eat these branches but she was a diabetic so she needed to soften her food first due to her lack of teeth. First she banged the palms on the concrete to soften them up.

Watch Video: Older Elephant Eating

We could see wooded mountains in the background and the Park was very pretty and well laid out.

A nice waterfall was running.

The huts were connected for ease of the viewers.

We were greeted with a dragon fruit tea which is delicious and then we also could get any kind of specialized coffee or Coke if we wanted to. I chose the Thai Milk Tea which was delicious.

This tasted like the Chai Tea Latte at Starbucks but better.

The Thatched roof main hut was on higher ground and we could see the elephants down below which was quite exciting. These elephants for the first time in their lives are now being properly looked after by a Mahout that actually loves them. Veterinarians frequent here and are interested in the health and the welfare of this large wonderful human-like animal.

We sat around and talked and drank Thai milk tea which again was super delicious. I had two cups and then we made our way down to one of the female elephants to take pictures of her and be close and spend time with her and Garth got to feed her.

We made our way then to a another sheltered area out of the sun where there were many posters and we watched a 7-minute video and Melly our guide talked for approximately 1/2 hour about the life and the health and the welfare of each elephant and how they came to the preserve.

This is the story of Look Doi

All of the elephants are female and this is the story of Tong-Kham

We walked to a different thatch roofed building and learned how to make elephant dung fiber paper.

This is a big pile of Elephant dung. This weighs about 18 kgs and they poo every couple of hours.

The dung is boiled down so the uric acid or the pee is out of it and the sand is out.

A big wok pot to boil down the fiber from the poo.

This leaves just the fiber remaining. The fiber was very clean and given to us in a ball. We had a screen and we soaked the ball in water and spread out the fiber over the screen and made our own paper. We then decorated it and put it in the sun to dry. We could take it home if we wanted to but ours was not quite dry yet because it was a cloudier day.

Darren the Arsty Fartsy guy was first in
line to
grab a screen.

Melly the Mahout explaining to us how to make the paper. She has some dried samples in her hands.

Our Dung Paper masterpieces.

We moved to another area where there were four elephants eating at the feeding areas and they were not tied up. They always have this kind of lose rope bridle around their neck. It's there so that the Mahout can guide the elephant if necessary.

From here all of the Girls were led into their feeding station. They are not tied up at any time.

You can see the rope bridle in this image.

One of the girls was not behaving which is understandable because she was a teenager. Eventually she came flying into get fed. Maybe she had a tummy ache?

Watch this link: Teenage Female Elephant having a Hissy Fit

We stayed there for quite a while to watch because it was fascinating. You can't get too close because they bash the crap out of the palm trees to soften them up and pieces are flying all over the place and you can get hurt. Most of us managed to keep the concrete bar in between us and the three-four ton Gentle Giants

Watch this video: Older Elephant Softening Her Food

We watched them come in one at a time and really they're quite gentle because they could have stampeded us at any moment and they obviously chose not to, thank goodness. Humans are their friends now, they have been domesticated. Thailand has approximately 3600 wild elephants left in protected areas.

We walked over to the road and watched them come down from an exercise session up in the hills. When they came down from the hill, it was a little disconcerting when you have a 3-4 ton animal headed your way.

Watch this Video: Elephant Walking Down from a Workout

Melly was explaining about the use of their ears for keeping bugs off of them and cooling themselves off.

Then they were lead away.

The elephants need lots of exercise and stimulation just like humans do. They are so similar to us. One of the Girls was fed too much sugar cane and she got diabetes and her feet were messed up and she lost her teeth and it affected her eyesight. Sugar does the exact same thing to humans.

The Mahout lives with their elephant for life so they are very connected.

In a work-out session.

We watched them workout in an area down below. They can throw sand on themselves and dirt which is a form of a sunscreen and it cools them off and it helps keep the bugs off of them.

They can pack a lot of dirt in their trunk to spray on their backs, and sides to protect themselves.

We washed up several times throughout the day with washing stations everywhere because you're hands get very dirty and when you are touching the elephants they don't like sunscreen or lotion smell. We had a chance to use a large mortar and pestle and

we pounded down a small Thai banana and some minerals, protein and vitamin pellets.

Rolling them up they looked like big chocolate balls that I thought
that the elephant would snarf down.

We then rolled it up with our hands and made a protein ball which we could hand feed to the elephant.

Garth looks quite proud of his accomplishment.

We were given a basket and fed them chunks of pineapple and fresh sugar cane chunks.

This was our first time to really touch the elephant's trunk, which was bristly and hard. I had imagined a velvety snout but not so much.

We got to stand around and just enjoy the elephants and take pics with them. We were all meandering around and the only thing separating us from the elephants this time was bamboo, which they can snap like twigs.

Elephants drink a lot of water and need about 200 liters of water every day and they need to cool off in water or mud up to 4 times per day. It came time to move the elephants to the Car Wash, they call it. The Elephants did not even need to be led to the Car Wash. They obviously love the cool water on their bodies and they probably love the attention that we were giving them. We were all hot and wanted to jump into the Car Wash with the Girls. They probably would not have even minded.

We all started moving around because this was exciting. We could take a brush and help clean them and I even got to take the hose and water them down and feed her water. This Car Wash contraption sprayed water from above on 4 of the 8 elephants that live here. We got to brush them with these big sweeping brushes and as you are helping them they stare at you with these big human looking eyes and seem to stare right into your very soul. It was quite an experience that I will never forget.

Watch this Video: Elephant Washing Station

Their skulls are very hard and bony. I was very leary of her trunk because she could kill me with it if she wanted to but she is domesticated and gentle.

The elephants seem to get very playful after their scrubbing and cleaning and wanted to walk around and meet people and scratch themselves on trees etc.

She was shiny and clean in this photo.

She pranced right past Darren and they are so quiet you don't even know if they are behind you.

I had thought that one elephant was coming my way, I was sitting on a concrete embankment and I jumped up and got onto higher ground. It turns out that she just wanted to scratch her butt.

Watch video link Elephant Conservation in Phuket

Video of her scratching her butt and moving towards me and me baling.

We made our way to the main Hut and enjoyed a buffet meal served to us which was delicious. It was varied Thai dishes like Pad Thai, etc including a salad, fruit and desserts.

This was some sort of Pistachio treat and actually quite good. In English it was called a Selfie.

Darren is allergic to garlic so he got to learn how to cook his own meal. Melly taught him how to make his own Pad Thai.

Honestly Darren's Pad Thai was better than the buffet Pad Thai. Now he knows how to make it garlic free.

After the meal we got to just sit around and talk about the amazing experience that we all just had.

This is an impressive place because you're not pushed through like any other kind of typical tourist type place.

I was dictating to my blogger.com app when I had a free minute so that I would not forget any of this awesomeness. An elephant came up behind me with his Mahout literally about 10 ft behind me and they are so soft-footed, I barely heard her. I didn't even know that the elephant was walking behind me until I saw it walk past.

It's a very leisurely place and we could help feed and bathe the elephants and take pictures and touch their trunks and talk to them and spend time with them.

It was just a really nicely laid out day that did not feel like rushed. It is important to be quiet around the animals and not to be behind them when they are eating. We learned a lot about elephants and we were all so glad that we came.

These people genuinely care about their elephants and you can tell in the way they treat their friends the elephants.

I would do this again in a heartbeat.