Elephant Sanctuary in Northwest Thailand

Huge. Intelligent. Curious. Ancient looking. Fascinating. We visited elephants and it was such a gift.

To celebrate Susanna's birthday, we booked an overnight elephant adventure and homestay in the mountains of Northwest Thailand. As soon as we arrived at Chai Lai Orchid, there were elephants to observe and connect with. The guides introduced us to the individual elephants accompanying us that day. We then learned to feed them and made a food mixture that helps keep them healthy.

The climax of our tour was walking down to the water with the elephants, watching them swim and then being invited to join the elephants. The water was quite cold, being in the mountains, but it was incredible to share the water with them. The guides invited an elephant to spray us visitors with the river water, which was a surprise!

We were served lunch in their cafe. As we were finishing up, along came an elephant momma and her 4 year old, along with their mahout, or elephant caretaker. These men (we only saw male mahouts) and the elephants have a tender and ongoing relationship. Often mahouts come from a family with these skills. Chai Lai Orchid describes their commitment to offer the mahouts "education and fair wages. We provide them with a knowledge of their rights and also best practices for taking care of the elephants so they can be both happier and healthier.”

This business does a lot of things right. They aim to improve the lives of elephants and people, especially those at risk of exploitation like displaced Karen (ethnic-minority peoples from Myanmar). Chai Lai also founded Daughters Rising, a non-profit that aims to empower at-risk girls to break the cycle of poverty by giving training and employment to ethnic minority women who otherwise had very limited job opportunities.

All that said, it's still a bit of a 'tourist show' where the elephants are strongly encouraged to stay here and interact with the tourists, rather than letting the elephants do what they want. But, I get it, happy tourists help pay the high costs of elephant food, land, employment wages, etc. Overall, I'm very happy we went!

We hung out with the elephants for a couple hours, which was deeply inspiring. They are magnificent.Read more