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| My new friend |
Boxing Day today and this morning we took off for Maetang Park, an elephant sanctuary. It took an hour and a half drive north and we watched an interesting documentary on the way about the park.
The park has been in operation since 1995 and takes in rescued elephants from various places. There are numerous elephants that came after logging was stopped in Thailand, as they were used in the logging industry. There are ones that were injured in land-mines in nearby Burma, a lot of blind ones from tourists' flashlights, others at the hands of humans who worked with them. One particularly sad story was a mummy elephant who gave birth while working and her baby slipped down the mountain and was killed. She then refused to keep working as she was so sad and her keeper poked her in her eye to get her to move, blinding her and when she later defended herself when he again abused her, he damaged the other eye.
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| After their bath |
In total there are 66 elephants, all but three kept in open areas with no fences. Most are domesticated so are happy to be around visitors to the sanctuary.
We got to feed them and bath them, although they're pretty good at doing that themselves; their trunk holds 8 litres of water which they use to spray over their backs. It was so special being up close to them, touching their hide (very soft considering it's 2.5 centimetres thick) and trunk. We had one moment where we were walking around and a couple, although about 50 meters away, got agitated because they couldn't see the baby of their pack. They were making lots of noise and stomping about and our guide very quickly moved us into a safe area. Just reminds you they are wild animals after all.
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| Last Boy show |
Tonight we went to a Lady Boy show; a cabaret with transgender & transvestite males. A great performance, impossible to think some of these stunning girls are actually guys! Great bodies, great boobs, and no package in sight, unbelievable! A very unique Boxing Day!
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