Visiting Elephant Jungle Sancturary in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Visiting the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary in Chiang Mai, Thailand was a dream come true.

  Spending two days loving on these gentle giants is an experience I will never forget. I have been obsessed with Elephants for as long as I can remember. My love for these amazing creatures is so strong, I completed a sleeve of tattoos featuring two of these amazing creatures.  Needless to say, it was of utmost importance to find an ethical elephant sanctuary to visit while in Thailand. 

After researching for days, we chose to visit before choosing to visit  Elephant Jungle Sanctuary.

If you are looking to interact with elephants in any country, and care about their well being, don’t be fooled by all of the touristy experiences. Through my research, many so called sanctuaries, allow elephant riding or trekking, and some even use chains or hooks to control the elephants. In a true sanctuary, the elephants aren’t required to do anything unnatural like giving rides or painting. They have plenty of land to roam around on and access to veterinary care. If your wondering why riding elephants is harmful, my girlfriend Stacia explains it over on www.stumblesafari.com.

Elephant Jungle Sanctuary in Chiang Mai offers several different options for interacting with elephants. We chose the overnight stay and I’m glad we did!

Our two day adventure including: transportation, lodging, and meals (very tasty, I might add) set us back a whopping $155.35 each. A small price to pay for a dream come true!

Day One

At 8:30am, we happily joined a group of elephant loving travelers, as we set off on our hour long journey to Elephant Jungle Sanctuary.  The adventurous off roading drive landed us at camp. Our excitement grew as we could see the elephants freely grazing in the distance.

After settling in, we were introduced to our guide for the day who explained a little about the sanctuary, the elephants, and how to feed them. They also gave us traditional Karen Tribe shirts to wear so the elephants would recognize us as friends. Next we were loaded down with bananas and sugar cane. We were told to put the food in their trunks, or, if we wanted; we could say, “Bon Bon,” and they would open their trunks allowing us to place the food directly in their mouths. Shortly, we were in the field yelling “Bon Bon!”  as the elephants came running! They really love to eat! In fact, at Elephant Jungle Sanctuary, they don’t do much more than eat, poop, eat some more, and sleep.

Bonus: If you book your elephant adventure online at Elephant Jungle Sanctuary, you will recieve a free Karen Tribe Elephant shirt!

Grass was next on the menu after the bananas and sugarcane quickly disappeared.

Shortly after lunch, we were shown how to make a natural medicine for the elephants using rice, limes, and bananas!

The medicine is used to soothe tummy aches and sore throats. Elephants only chew each bite a few times before swallowing which often causes sores and discomfort in their throat!

Once we formed this sweet smelling mixture in to balls, our guide directed us to change into our bathing suits for “sexy time!”

We jumped into our suits and went straight into the mud pit! It was a blast playing in the soft squishy mud with the elephants! Our guide made sure everyone got dirty too by slathering mud on our backs and drawing elephants in it. He was quite talented! You can see his lovely artwork on Jordi’s back!

Completely filthy, we walked with the elephants to a small waterfall!

I’m not sure who enjoyed splashing around by the waterfall more, us or the elephants!  It was a treat to see these massive animals flopping around in the water like little kids.

As the day was slowly drawing to a close we headed back to camp to shower and clean up a bit. We were allowed to visit a different camp of elephants right before saying goodbye to our group, and heading out to our accommodations for the night.

Day one was packed full of education and quality time with the elephants!

After a short 15 minute ride we had arrived at our lodging for the night. To our surprise, there were only two other people who would be joining us for the night and the next day! We quickly got acquainted with our new friends and chatted about our amazing day while watching the sunset over the jungle!

Kay and Kate, two hilarious guys, from the Karen Tribe introduced themselves as our guides for the next night and day! They were small but spicy! We had a great time laughing and singing while they played guitar.

As the night progressed, we were taken to a local night market! The people of the Karen Tribe were very generous and our cups were never empty! No language barrier could stop us from drinking and dancing the night away. It was truly amazing being out in the middle of the jungle partying with locals of the Karen Tribe!

Day Two

We awoke the next morning extremely excited for the day, although, we couldn’t fathom how anything could top day one! After chowing down on a delicious breakfast, our guide, Kay, let us know there would be a surprise later that morning! Anxiously, we headed out for the day! We drove through the jungle until we reached a camp with more elephants.

After interacting with these elephants for a few minutes, Kay walked us up a very muddy, slippery slope! Little did we know our surprise awaited us! Suddenly we laid our eyes on Charlie, a three month old baby elephant!

That’s right, we got to play with a three month old elephant named Charlie! Isn’t he the absolute cutest? 

Charlie was a rambunctious little fella! At one point he had my whole leg in his mouth!  He was very active and when his momma called him, he came running! It was adorable seeing his behavior and watching him interact with his mom! After playing around with Charlie for a little while, it was time to continue the adventure! We headed back down the hill, rinsed off as much mud as we could, and headed to another camp!

At camp eight we got to chill out with the locals while it rained! It was rad watching the elephants from afar. We also learned that the local people use banana leaf to smoke tobacco. I had to try it, and it was extremely strong!

After a relaxing lunch we headed out to another waterfall!

Near the trailhead we passed a huge black bull  just chilling in the woods. Watch out for that guy if you ever decide to go! After hiking for about 20 minutes, we came to the waterfall! It was way too crazy to swim after all the rain earlier that day! So we made a few boomerangs for the gram, enjoyed the mist, and headed back to play with the elephants one last time!

At the final camp we fed a rescued 76 year old elephant. He couldn’t eat the sugar cane or grass as well as the others because of his old age, so we gave him a whole bin of bananas. A few tears escaped my eyes as we jumped back into the truck for the last time knowing that we were driving away from this amazing place!

I think Jordi and I can both agree that our days spent at Elephant Jungle Sanctuary in Chiang Mai, Thailand were the BEST DAYS EVER! If I have it my way, I will definitely return one day! The elephants were well taken care of and the experience is one I will hold dear to my heart forever!