One of the Best Days Ever

Hello from Chiang Mai!

One of the main reasons that we came here was to experience some time face to face with elephants, so when we ventured out to the surrounding mountains of Chiang Mai, we knew that we were in for a special day, but we had no idea just how magical our adventures would be. At Patara Elephant Camp, we spent the day with happy elephants in a very wild environment. These elephants are cared for with the utmost love, and it shows through their gentle nature and patience with the people who come to visit them. We were introduced to newborn babies at the reserve (the youngest was 2 and 1/2 weeks old, and couldn’t even hold anything in his trunk yet). Each of us served as mahouts (elephant keepers) to our assigned elephant for the day.  We learned how to feed the elephants, do a general health check (which included sniffing their dung and squeezing it to see how much moisture was in it), and even rode bareback on their heads in the pouring down rain on incredibly steep slopes no less to a waterfall where we bathed them! It was dreamy. The one thought that kept running through our heads was, “This is one of the best days of my life.”

There was a photographer that took very candid shots of us throughout the day and the photos really captured the moment. We know that there are lots of photos here, but we couldn’t cut too many! They get better as the day unfolds- you’ll see…xo