My eyes have been opened so wide it hurts. Truly an amazing experience, it's so hard to convey right now how it was, I think I need to let it sink in, even trying to write about it now is hard, the words just aren't coming. What Lek (the founder) and the park are doing is incredible. When you see how elephants are treated in Thailand for tourist trekking & such and then what they are trying to do to rescue & protect them it's unbelievable. It's a pretty emotional journey we all went on so I dont know where to start, I'll probably be blogging about it for a couple of days because there's so much to say. I guess this is to just sum up how it was, and it's so strange because I literally feel like this is the end of my trip, I dont know why, like I feel this is the highlight of my journey and will be throughout, just feels a bit strange - like I have to keep reminding myself - that I have 5 months left. Maybe in a couple of days it will change but right now, trust me when I say, I could have stayed at the park indefinitely - yeah, that good.
I guess over the next few days i'll post stuff i've written in my journal - it's a lot more chatty and not so "oh my god, so much emotion"... But for now i'll just leave it at that. It's 8:00pm here and alot of the volunteers have come back to Chaing Mai so we're all meeting at 9:00 for goodbye drinks. Visit http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/ and if you're thinking about coming to Thailand to see elephants, REAL elephants, then avoid any of the tourist trekking or street elephants because it's beyond belief how they treat them. I might sound a bit preachy or whatever when you're reading this back home but im just trying to be honest, I disregard credibility right now.
And on a lighter note, I have loads of photos so it wont be something I forget... Unless I get a job there because let's just say i've been enquiring. Anyway, until tomorrow atleast i'll leave it there, my brain needs to settle. Thomas Havell loves the gentle giants of Thailand. X
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Hi Tom, thank you for my special message, wow it sounds fantastic I,ve been watching a program on sundays about the life of them in the wild & they do seem lovely animals, they all stay in there families and look after each other, its the wicked people of the world that poach them and treat them badly.. I,ll look forward to the dvd, I bet your getting quite brown we wont recognise you when you come home ;-) I had a nice message from ben on saturday he,s following you as well & says he,s getting itchy feet now, esp after reading your blogs. The snow has just gone after a week there,s still abit at the park though & we,ll prob get some more so they keep saying, it,s been really cold I could,nt get the car out for 3 days coz of the ice.. :-( Hope you had a lovely evening look forward to your next blog.. Take care lol mum,dad & benson xx
ReplyDeleteWow Tom that place sounds absolutely awesome I had already looked at the web site and thought what a great job these people are doing but your words have just magnified the situation.Really pleased that you are continuing to enjoy yourself and am sure you still have plenty of highlights to come,maybe you will have time to go back there at the end before you return home. Take good care love Christine and Malcolm xxx
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