My final week in Thailand was one of the most memorable of the trip so far, and certainly the highlight of Thailand for me. I knew I wanted to see elephants, but I wanted to see them in as natural a state as possible, which excluded many of the training and riding camps around the area. Many of the camps use very extreme methods to “tame” the elephants, and even if they don’t the elephants are frequently malnourished as they simply do not have enough time to eat as much as they need to. Finally, when they aren’t working they are always tied up to ropes maybe 15 feet long at a maximum. It is not a pleasant sight, and personally I think it is too bad that anyone supports that side of the industry. After a little research I discovered a relatively new organization called the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary. The goal of this organization is simple: purchase as many elephants as possible from the training and riding camps described above, and just let them live. At this point the animals are no longer “wild”, so they divide groups of them into a few of the local Karen hill tribe villages scattered through the lush countryside. The purchase cost of an elephant also includes covering the salary of its mahout, or “person”. Each elephant has one mahout for life, and if that mahout dies the elephant is frequently out of control. Elephants can live around 70 years, so young elephants have young mahouts. To cover the costs of housing elephants and mahouts, the Sanctuary does offer opportunities for tourists to hang with the elephants, take a mad bath and wash in the river. In my opinion, this is small price for the elephants to pay for the vastly improved life situation. The relief of stress is made evident by the fact that two of the older females have given birth in the past two years, even though they are at or past the normal age to do so.

After being in pretty much constant motion for the better part of two months, I decided to sign up for a week-long session at the camp, really having no idea what to expect. Needless to say, the elephants were very special, but (contrary to what I imagined) it ended up being all about the people. After two days at the main elephant village I was assigned to a Karen guide named Artid and I basically just lived with him and his family for the next six days. I spent four days in his village (about an hour away from the main village) and a day and night at his mom’s house about two hours away. One of my favorite parts of living in the village was experiencing how tight of a community they are, especially when it comes to meals. A few times Artid and I started eating, then either brought our food to a neighbor’s or a neighbor would join us. Then we would all continue to sit around the expanded collection of dishes with our endless bowls of rice and all enjoy together!

At the end of my week they invited me to stay one more night for free to attend a wedding in the village. I was officially the first white dude to attend a marriage ceremony there! I was trying to be all discrete in the background, but at one point the MC said something and they all laughed (good-naturedly, I think) and turned and looked right at me. I also had the opportunity to help one of the guys carry 1x1x20 foot logs from the jungle to where he was building a new house. Even with eight guys per log they were….frieking heavy. I weigh probably twice as much as most of them (and am probably about half as strong), and it was sheer pride and willpower that pulled me through. I am so greatful to Artid for being such an incredible human being and making my experience such a unique and memorable one.