World Voyage – Bangkok Day 2

February 18, 2023

This was yet another “best day ever”!!! I got to visit the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary located in Pattaya, Thailand, just an hour drive from where we are docked.

The Elephant Jungle Sanctuary was founded in 2014 and is dedicated to rescuing elephants and creating a ecotourism program that will provide an opportunity for tourist to interact with elephants without riding on them. To date they have rescued over 100 elephants and have created 4 camps. The first thing we were told was it was up to the elephant on how they interacted with us and if they wanted to leave they could.

Our introduction to the elephants was the chance to feed them. Elephants eat up to 10% of their body weight each day but only digest 40% of what they eat. They eat 20 hours a day!! We were provided small pineapples and bananas to feed the elephants. I tried feeding a pineapple to the smallest elephant and she was having none of that and tossed it back at me! Banana she wanted bananas!! After all the banana were gone she started picking up the pineapple and munching those. She had juice running down her trunk as she stripped of the green top and tossed the pineapple in her mouth.

One of the other elephants need a drink so with her trunk she grabbed the hose filling up her trunk then tossing it into her mouth!! Their trunks can hold up to 10 liters of water at a time.

Then it was spa time!! We got in the mud pool with them rubbing their faces with mud while stroking their trunks. A elephants skin is rough with course black hair. As we rubbed them they flapped their ears and tail in a sign of happiness.

After the mud facial then need to be rinsed so they headed to the water hole. Once they were all in we joined them and used brushes and water bucket to clean the mud off!

Fun Facts from my visit:

How do you know how tall an elephant is? You run a string around the outside of an elephants foot and multiply that measurement by 2 it will give you the height of the elephant.
How much sleep does an elephant need? They sleep on 4-5 hours an night. I must be an elephant!!
Can elephants smile? The guide said this was not possible but if you look some of the elephants in my picture I believe they are smiling.
Who have more vertebrae in their necks giraffe or elephant? They both have 7!
Do elephants have eyelashes? Yes, they do and in several of the close ups you can see them.
What an incredible experience. I am so blessed!!!