One of the most popular things to do in northern Thailand is to visit an elephant sanctuary. But for some reason, it just didn’t interest me that much. I like animals as much as the next person, I think, but I’m not a big fan of zoos and artificial environments. We’ve seen elephants on a wildlife reserve in South Africa which is as close to seeing them in the wild as a reasonable person would expect to experience. So it wasn’t high on my list. But after a few weeks here in Chiang Mai I started thinking, well, if we don’t do this popular thing… we might regret it. We dragged our feet and never really planned anything, and then a couple of days ago a local expat from Ohio suggested getting together a small group to visit a small, local operation where we could spend the afternoon with some Asian elephants. It seemed like the perfect opportunity. So we opted in.
As an aside, one of the main concerns that folks have with elephants as a business is the ethical treatment of the animals. I don’t get the sense that there are truly wild elephants in the jungles here anymore but since many visitors have expressed concern over their treatment, a number of businesses here specifically cater to the market of people who care about ethical elephant sanctuaries. The facilities in that space don’t paint the animals and don’t offer rides on them. Usually things like that are connected with poor animal treatment since they are a side show. But these places (and the one we visited) do offer opportunities to feed, walk with, bathe and to an extent play with the animals.
At Johnnyboy, our group of eight arrived at our scheduled time. We parked in a little field and then walked a short distance through some trees crossing over a one person bridge to enter the facility. I’m not sure how many elephants they have there but we spent most of our time with three of them. One male, two females. The elephants were free to walk around to an extent but were being guided by their caretakers from one area to another for various activities.
After getting a look at the place the first thing our group did was have a tasty homemade lunch of fried rice, roasted chicken and watermelon. After lunch we prepared a little snack for the elephants. We took salt, whole grain rice still in the hulls and tamarind and mixed it together with a mortar and pestle. The snack served as a laxative for them. We were told that the elephants get constipated easily and the tamarind helps with that.
After making our medicine balls, they asked us to wear these woven smocks. We were told that the elephants see those and realize that we have food and will pay attention to us. After suiting up we took our sticky tamarind balls over to the open fence to feed them to the elephants. When you hold it out in your hands the elephants reach out with their trunks to pick it up and they chomp it down. Somewhere around that moment I realized that I’d probably never touched an elephant before. In this close proximity you could feel their bristly hair poking you, touch their leathery skin and sense the strength within their trunk. Another thing that you tend to notice, since you’re standing at nearly eye level with them, are their long eyelashes and their curious gaze. When you look into their eyes they are looking right back.
After giving the elephants their medicine we were then handed satchels loaded with fresh sugar cane, which is delicious, so it’s easy to see why they love it. With our sugar cane in hand we went for a short walk through the jungle with the elephants. There were three elephants, seven of us visitors and three staff members from the sanctuary. As we walked we could hand the elephants pieces of sugar cane. But you had to keep an eye on your bag of goodies, because they can see where it is and if you’re not watching they would take liberties to reach in and grab a trunk full on their own.
Walking with the elephants on the trail was a good time. But it was a little unnerving on narrow parts of the path, and a couple of times I found myself standing between two of them which was humbling. It’s pretty clear that they have the right of way.
After our jungle hike it was time for a mud bath. Basically time to play in a muddy pond with the elephants. After that, there was a short walk to the river to play in the water. People used small buckets to throw water at the elephants and the elephants would sometimes use their trunks to spray water back.
Seeing the elephants up close was a fun and unique experience. I’d recommend it. It’s not like seeing them in the zoo, but also not like seeing them on safari. These elephants seem somewhat domesticated, but not necessarily trained like a circus animal. They didn’t do tricks or anything. But they are comfortable being around people and didn’t seem easily startled or concerned with us walking with them or touching them.
We were fortunate to have met someone who lives here in Chiang Mai to set up our visit. She’s learned a lot about the area and is a mindful person so I trusted her selection to be one that would not only benefit the locals, but would not be so exploitative of the animals. If you’re in Chiang Mai on your own, just know that the smaller sanctuaries will work with you to set up rides from the city to visit. And at Johnnyboy, they not only will feed you, but they also offer bamboo rafting where you can see more elephants nearby. Our host at Johnnyboy who calls herself Banana was an absolute riot. She puts on a show and her laughter is infectious. We had a great time and I’d recommend the experience.
