Good Morning Elephants!

May 27-28, 2024

The hum of bugs and the roar of water is interrupted by a bellow from the thick jungled hills. I lower my book onto my lap, raising my gaze from the wild-wood balcony to the green hill beyond. Bugs flit in and out of my vision, but they’re not the only reason I’m in long pants and socks. It’s not cold, but the slight breeze does occasionally lift the baby hair on my arms. It’s cool and comfortable.

Another bellow.

I can hardly believe what I know to be true. It’s the call of an elephant.

I’m at an elephant sanctuary.

And it’s not even my first. I spent the whole day among the elephants at Pon Elephant Sanctuary. First, a mom and a youngster, only a year and half old. Then, five lovely ladies ranging in age from 6 to 50 years.

My tour group spent three hours feeding, and walking with the elephants. They’re Asian Elephants, so smaller than their African relatives, but still massive. They rise high above me, their eyes above my head, their trunks as long as my body. And they reach out again and again for food—sugar cane pieces. Elephants eat 400-500kg a day—10% of their body weight.

Each elephant has a trainer who is with them, ideally, for life. These elephants are domesticated, bred and born in captivity, but, at least at this sanctuary, it seems like a fairly good life. They are visited for several hours in the morning and in the afternoon by tour groups that feed them and fawn over them, and then (according to our guide), they get to roam around the area and eat more and more and more.

We jumped into mud pools with the elephants, getting just as covered in mud as they did. Then dipped into the river to wash, but I think the elephants did more to help us wash than we did for them!

At this point, Georgena and I said goodbye to our group and climbed into the back of a pickup truck. Less than twenty minutes later, said pick-up descended the steep Thai mountains to another of Pon’s sanctuaries. But this one we had to ourselves.

Our guide, Chang, which is (coincidentally?) the Thai word for elephant, showed us to a bamboo hut of generous proportions and left us to clean the mud out of our hair and to relax. And so it is that I sit on the deck of our private cabin overlooking the bend of a river, hills sprouting with vivid greenery, that I hear the bellow of an elephant.

That night we cook dinner with Chang and eagerly climb into bed to be “woken by the elephants” as Chang promises.

I’m already awake when two elephants lumber up and Chang greets us at our hut with a full basket of sugar cane.

I know it’s anthropomorphizing, but with their trunks lifted in the air, it looks like the elephants are smiling. Or maybe that’s just me.

Chang takes my phone and captures the moments, which feels really touristy and also we’re in our pajamas….but there are elephants. Elephants! That’s all I can focus on.

The experience yesterday was fun, but this is completely different. To have cooked dinner with our host the night before and now to be deep in the middle of the Northern Thailand jungle and to have elephants at our doorstep. I know it’s a contrived experience and these are tame elephants, but for creatures that were born into captivity and therefore can never be truly wild, this seems like a pretty good life.

Chang leaves us to get dressed and we wander down to the kitchen area where other elephants gather. Like I said, they eat a ton, so several workers are cutting sugar cane and other goodies and tossing them out between the elephants, who scarf them up as quickly as they can stuff them into their mouths. Sometimes quicker–we watch as some of the elephants load their mouths up with sugar cane until they can’t fit anymore just to get it away from the others quicker. Mischievous!

One of the other workers gives us tea and coffee and we just wander among the elephants. It’s super weird, partly because it feels like we’re intruders from another world and partly because it’s just so unbelievable.

We have breakfast, then head to the river. Then we walk around the sanctuary meeting all the elephants. I lose count but there have to be at least 20 here of all different ages. We meet one that likes to blow raspberries on people’s cheeks. It’s cute but also weird because I’m sure they trained the elephant to do that. And I don’t know if that feels wrong or not.

Honestly, I’m conflicted in my thoughts about elephants. They started as wild creatures, but then so did dogs, cats, horses. There are still wild versions of all of those things out there, just as there are wild elephants in Thailand too.

The elephants here have probably been born into captivity for several generations, so if they’re smart, curious creatures, what’s wrong with teaching them a few tricks as long as it’s done humanely–like giving dogs treats when they “shake” people’s hands.

Somehow, it feels different than with a dog and I wrack my brain, but I think what it comes down to is the size. It somehow feels more wrong to domesticate and train something so massive. But in most other ways, they’re similar. Wolves and elephants live in groups, maintain close family ties, and are smart creatures.

So is it really wrong to teach an elephant that was born into captivity to do some tricks and allow a human to rest their hand on their shoulder?

There were several babies at the sanctuary of various sizes–if you can think of a creature that stands as tall as me as a baby! But there was one that looked like a true baby. Chang cut really little pieces of sugar cane for us to feed to him.

After a short visit to a beautiful nearby waterfall, we bid farewell to the elephants and returned to Chiang Mai, which felt like leaving the garden of eden and returning to the real world.