Thai Elephant Home

After a very long flight from New York, I and the other GLA students arrived in Chiang Mai greeted by an excited staff. For the next three days, we visited extravagant temples, a Christian school, and busy markets. My favorite activity in Chiang Mai was visiting the school where we exchanged our American culture with the students by teaching them slang words and they taught us about Thai dances and games. It was uplifting to see the students so happy, welcoming and excited to meet us. Our elephant education began in Chiang Mai where we visited the Elephant Conservation Center and Elephant Hospital. It was the first time I had ever touched an elephant which was scary and amazing!
When we arrived at Thai Elephant Home, the elephants greeted us and we were assigned a roommate and our elephant. My elephant was named Mae Chan and she was a sweetheart! Our counselors took us on a five hour trek where we rode our elephants, played in the mud with them and then took them to the river for a bath. It's daunting the first time you are riding or standing next to an elephant, but the mahouts are right there to guide us. That first day was surreal - I never thought I would actually be interacting with an elephant so intimately. Even though we were all pretty sore the next day from the riding the elephants, we got used to it quickly. All of the staff and counselors were helpful and outgoing. The atmosphere of the home is warm, safe and comfortable. Our days started at 5:30am, but we were always excited to see what the day had in store for us. In the morning, we shoveled our elephant's mess, bathed our elephants and fed them new grass before our breakfast. The food is INCREDIBLE - and this is coming from a very picky eater. Everyday, we did service work (grass cutting or dam building) which was tiresome but everyone participated and no one complained. We did have a lot of free time to get to know each other and I loved hanging out, playing bananagrams and cards. The two weeks flew by and I was sad to leave my elephant and new friends that I made.