There are a lot of elephant rides given in the Ayutthaya area. This is a controversial thing, with many westerners trying to change the practice. However the Thai people generally see nothing wrong with it, having lived and worked with the elephants for thousands of years. And of course there is a lot of rhetoric and misinformation thrown into the mix by the animal rights organizations.
The Royal Elephant Kraal Village is the non profit organization that looks after the elephants that give rides to the tourists. Most of the riding is done by Thai tourists, not western tourists. And most of the visitors that come to the Royal Elephant Kraal Village are Thai.
There are almost 80 elephants living there, and they have an active breeding program that has produced over 60 successful births in the last 20 years.
The place is totally open for day visitors, however it is not advertised as such. It costs nothing to go for a visit, and you can stay as long as you want. However they also do paid "homestays" where you are assigned an elephant to care for over a three day to two week period.
When we walked in, Colleen came over to greet us. She's a volunteer from Arizona, here for a two month assignment. She was really good at answering any of our questions. and giving us information.
Just outside the corral are these beautiful elephant statues.
This is the old royal corral where the king used to choose which elephants would work for him.
This female adopted the 3 year old youngster when its mother died.
They are all very gentle and friendly, however Collen said they each have their own personality, and will usually back away if they aren't wishing any human interaction.
The males are kept at a separate enclosure.
This little guy is only one year old!
It costs nothing to visit, but they do sell treats to give to the elephants. We thought it was worth spending the 200 baht ($5.60 USD, $7.60 CAD) for a big basket of treats!
I took a few videos for you as well... here is the first one...
Feeding the elephants.
This one was funny, just resting her trunk on the railing.
Elephant treats! They love bananas, corn, and cucumbers!
The little one is such a cutie!
Somehow, it manages to peel the banana and spit out the peel!
It was such a fun experience!
Yummy treats!
When you don't have any treats to give them, they just seem to accept that.
Colleen took some photos of the both of us.
A little information about the elephants being looked after here... https://elephantstay.com/about-us#factsaboutelephants
It's easy to spend some time here.
This one is pregnant and due within the next month or so.
Giving the 3 year old a bath.
They love the water and are walked down to the river twice a day. But only in the morning and evening when it's cooler. I wish we would have known about this earlier in our stay in Ayutthaya and we would have made the effort to come back during those times.
The caretaker left the hose running, and this one elephant knew how to suck the water directly from the hose and spray herself down...
What a good time we had learning and interacting with the interesting creatures.
But... gotta go... we have a train to catch! Next post later today.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last minute Christmas deals at Amazon.com
And in Canada...
at Amazon.ca.
I love elephants! A friend of mine went to Thailand years ago and may have gone to this same spot to visit with and feed the elephants. As long as they are treated well, which I believe they are there, I don't have a big problem with it. Where and when they are mistreated, I am livid. These are such amazing, magestic, intelligent, and loving animals, they deserve nothing but respect and kindness. Glad you got to see and interact with them.
ReplyDeleteWe love elephants too and would never want to see them being mistreated wither. We truly believe that they are well looked after here at the Royal Elephant Kraal Village. There ae several places throughout Thailand where there are elephant sanctuaries and from what we have heard this one is not one that is visited by many western foreigners so I would expect that she probably visited one of the other more popular ones here in Thailand.
Deleteloved the Elephant tour. First we see Ruth as the dog whisperer, now you have graduated to elephants.
ReplyDeleteSo glad that you enjoyed it, I know that we sure did! Lol, I won't be trying that with lions, tiger or bears though. :-P
Delete