Ban Choeng Thale

Elephants!! First, my impressions of elephants prior to this experience: they are big, really big. They are scary because they are big. They do not belong under human care. They do not like humans. Horses are kinda big and kinda scary, therefore elephants are big and scary.

After this experience, Elephants are not so scary, still big. Elephants do not belong anywhere but in LEGIT sanctuaries, wildlife parks, and in the wild. There are only 2500 wild elephants left in Thailand and they are in a protected park (similar to wildlife parks in Africa). The Green Elephant Sanctuary is a legit sanctuary among the various “riding parks” here in Phuket and everywhere in Thailand. I have zero interest in riding an elephant, a giraffe on the other hand…. Giddy up. There are zero chains or confinements, except at night when they sleep where they have massive pens that looked like something out of Jurassic Park. Apparently they are legit big dumbos that are constantly searching for food and clumsy af, so need to keep them in the pens at night to avoid them destroying the village.

12 elephants, 2 herds (each herd was rescued separately). The oldest lady was over 60 years old and lost her teeth so she gets lots of bananas. The youngest elephant is a male and is almost 5 yrs old. Each elephant has a handler which is with them almost 24/7 and that trade/skill has been in their families for generations. They also live in little huts in the sanctuary village full time. The elephants follow them everywhere and listen to commands, it’s pretty cool to see. I fed each one sugar cane (sugar cane to them is like chocolate chip cookies to us. I fucking love chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal raisin belongs in the trash) and bananas, and they bop their head and flop their ears with joy. These elephants live the best life, and love tourists since that means plenty of treats, mud baths, and play time.

I’m over 6’ tall (I’ve made enough height jokes in previous posts, Joie is getting upset) so some of these lady elephants are easily 8-9ft tall, can reach up to 12ft and 6-12k pounds. They eat 600lbs of food per day so the lack of tourism has really hurt this place and their ability to keep the elephants fed while also rescuing new ones. Rescuing = buying them from “farmers” who use them as slave labor, or parks where tourists ride them improperly. The most recent rescue I wasn’t allowed to get close to since she only trusts her handler. She was rescued from a logging farmer/company who used and abused her for labor. An elephant costs about $60,000. A wealthy Swiss man who loves elephants owns the sanctuary and wanted to open a 2nd, but couldn’t due to the pandemic.

Spa time. Each elephant can’t wait to get in the mud pit since that means scrub and massage time, same bro, same. You get dirty, very dirty. They should provide goggles because that shit gets everywhere. I learned that elephants are silly big doggos that have an awesome personality when they are treated well. They are very domesticated so if you ever see a wild elephant, running and screaming is still the move. After the mud spa, they move over to the fresh water pond where these cheeky little fuckers spray you with water from their trunk and roll around like children. I kept my distance from the rollers because it’s a fucking elephant, that’s why. Except little Po Po (5 year old Peter). He sits back on his hind legs and wants all the pets/splashes. The handlers call him “naughty boy” since occasionally he runs around and splashes everyone. Who rescued who today 🥺 (thank you Nicole Ngo)? We bonded. Look at his little face of joy in the first pic, I can’t.

Next up is the jumbo dumbo (my phrase, not theirs) shower, basically a giant rain shower. Not a terrible idea if you have a mansion back home for all the weird stuff. The elephants again love it since they get scrubbed and cleaned while being fed treats. If Winston got to play in a mud pit with smiling happy strangers, then play some more in a pond, then get scrubbed all while being fed treats… you get it. They truly love these animals and the animals love them back, it’s heart warming. After the shower, I got to take a legit shower then was fed yummy Thai food. They pour their heart into the presentation, the way they cut the fruit into pretty shapes, and it’s hilarious how they think “tourists” only want homemade Thai chicken nuggets. I told them to make whatever they would eat and they were stoked.

12/10 experience. The service was 14/10. 3 photographers, caretakers, full lunch staff, bathroom staff, 2 curators, and a driver. Appreciate the shit out of you guys.Read more