Thailand – Wild life
A Day with Elephants at Elephants Sanctuary
We have explored few options before deciding on the Elephant world in Kanchanaburi…
1. Elephants Sanctuary in Kanchanaburi – ElephantsWorld
- 1 Day program from 9AM to 4PM
- 2500 THB for Adult, 1500 THB for Child
- Drive from Bangkok to Elephant World – 2 and 1/2 hrs
- They arranged round trip taxi (4000THB) from Bangkok to Elephant World. Pickup from Bangkok at 6:30AM
2. Elephant Sanctuary near Pattaya – “elephantjunglesanctuary”
- Half a Day programs
- 2500 THB for Adult, 1900 THB for Child
3. Elephant Sanctuary near Krabi
- you need to stay in the Krabi town for this and we had only 2 days in Krabi.
Out of these 3 options we end up booking the Elephant World Sanctuary in Kanchanaburi.
Our taxi driver pick us at 6:30AM from hotel. We barely had time to eat breakfast. When we came out of the hotel, already life has started in the streets with food stalls, food deliveries and vegetables etc., We reached Kanchanaburi around 9:15AM.
We paid the fee in the office at the entrance. We all got water bottle bags and water bottles. Once we enter inside, we got instructions and then had to wait for other members to join in the group.
We are not allowed to ride the Elephants here. Only Mahout (a person who works with, rides, and attends an elephant) can ride on the Elephant.
Elephants feeding time :
They can eat single banana or a bunch of banana’s or a whole watermelon…For some of the old Elephants volunteers were peeling the watermelons and giving the inside part only.
They have names for each Elephant and their diet plan.
Play time…
One of the Elephant was playing with tire. Rolling it, kicking it and lifting it with trunk . When the tire rolled in to mud with slight slope like one feet deep, it was so hesitant to go down to get that tire. It was an amazing feeling to watch these big animals in their natural habitat. Even for a big Elephant, one feet seems like a big thing.
Very nice location with a stream of water. Location suites very well as the river serves as natural source for water.
Cooking a pumpkin sticky rice for Elephants. They mixed vitamins or any medicine for Elephants in this sticky rice dessert and feed them.
Mom and baby
1 month old baby below. It was living on milk still. It can’t bite the peeled banana. It was very playful. All wires or watches it is pulling with trunk. We touched it and played with it. It was so ticklish to grab on to it.
Bathing time…
What an awesome experience with Elephants. It’s a life time experience for us and kids. We all had fun day here. These are unique experiences.
Damnoen Saduak Tiger Zoo
Before our trip, I was doing some research on Tiger temple in Thailand. There was a BBC article and also some videos on this tiger temple. I did some research and there was not enough good reviews. I read they don’t treat tigers good and sedate them etc., So we didn’t plan to go there.
After our Damnoen Saduak floating market trip, while coming back our driver told that there is another Tiger Zoo which is open. I quickly look it up and it was closing at 4PM . We thought we will give it a try and we reached there at 3:50PM.
There was a registration desk at the entrance and they had different packages. You can go inside if you buy one of the package. Packages are like taking pictures with Adult Tiger, baby Tiger, feeding baby Tiger etc.,
We decided to do pictures with Adult Tiger and bought the ticket.
We walked inside and went towards the rooms where they kept Tigers. There was a baby tigers in the first room. We went near to window and it was so aggressive, one of them jumped towards us to the window.
Next we walked towards the big area where they were planning to take pictures. There were lot of Tigers, some playing in the water tubs and some in the rooms. They opened one of the room door and 4 tigers came out in to that area. Tiger trainers were inside the area with those tigers.
Tigers were ferocious walking inside the area. We asked trainers their age and one of the Tiger is 4 years and 400 pounds. We were scared and a thought came in my mind to go back. But then told to my self lets do it.
Trainers sprayed water on the grass and let them relax. We are asked to remove shoes and socks. They gave us some instructions like , No running, no looking in to their Eyes, no going in front of them, no flash, and etc.,
One of the Tiger sat down in the water and relaxed for some time. Trainer went and drive that Tiger towards the table. Tiger came and sat on the table. Then we took some pictures with Tiger.
They were giving a small chicken piece with a straw to look up and give a good pose.
After the pictures at table, another Tiger was sitting on the grass. We went there to take pictures. There are 4 people inside with us. another 3 people just outside walking and making some noise for Tiger to look.
A once in a life experience to go stay that close with the Tigers. Unforgettable and unbelievable. Some of my relatives didn’t believe this is real , some shouted not to do this again and some had question why risking life?
But I would say go for it and do it… You won’t regret it…:)
Trip Dates : July 07, 2018 to July 12, 2018
