Elephants, take three

We have been to MaiSa elephant camp (baby elephants), Lampang elephant camp (elephant hospital) and now to the Elephant Nature Park.
So here is what I have been learning. Not all elephants camps are good for elephants. There are degrees of friendliness. Mai Sa had the elephants performing, and pretty much only exists to make money (except that the elephants are generally well looked after)-the capitalist camp. Lampang, which has a free hospital, so the healthy elephants perform to raise money so that sick elephants can receive free care- the socialist camp. And then there is the Nature Park, where the elephants do not perform at all, they get to run free on the property, and tourists get to interact by paying money, feeding the elephants, learning about elephants, and helping out by doing things like washing the elephants. This is perhaps the Utopian camp
[babies playing in the river- they aren't doing what you think] The Nature Park is the only one of its kind in thailand that is like this. I sincerely feel that there is room to transform many of the camps away from the capitalist style camp, to the utopian or at socialist camp. Most spectators want only the best for the elephants (this is why we go to the camps) and want to be with these amazing creatures. Since 99% of the camps have elephants performing, we go to these because there is no other choice (sort of like buying an inefficient car in the states- there aren't a lot of other choices). Additionally, most people don't know what goes on behind the scenes, and well hey, it beats extinction. So just as I truly feel that car companies are crazy to not create super efficient cars for the public to buy, I feel that elephant camps should restructure their ways to be more friendly to the animals. There is no reason not to except that the momentum exists to create camps that have elephants who are submissive and doing a show.
We went to the nature park with our Thai friend Sian. He knows a woman who works there. How could we pass that up?
The day began by driving in his truck to a local market and buying many many kilos of sugar cane to feed the elephants. As Jeff and I carried said sugar cane through the market, there was a steady stream of giggles from all the thai folks in the market, I'm not exactly sure why the entire market thought it was funny for two farang to be carrying loads of cane, but I can only guess that it was a rare site. It was pretty fun.
Then we drove up to the park with guavas, pineapple, watermelon and cane to donate to the large beasts. The elephants park is in an incredibly picturesque valley (exactly what you might think of when you think of a valley full of asian elephants). There are elephants everywhere. Elephants eat something like 6 million kilos of food everyday, so our small donation was nothing much, but it was like being the ice cream man since our treats were some of the elephant's favorite types of food). Actually, the ice cream analogy goes a bit further. After feeding the elephants our treats, the visionary behind the camp, a woman named Lek, bought a bunch of ice cream bars, and proceeded to feed them to the elephants. Apparently orange popsicles their absolute favorite food. Jeff even got a kiss in exchange for the popsicle.
Then we learned a bunch about these sweet creatures and how they become amazing friends. There is a blind elephant who has been adopted by a younger healthier elephant and in the last 5 years, they have never been more than 100 meters apart. As we were watching the elephants, we heard a loud elephant roar as the caretaker elephant realized she was 50 meters away, and took off across the field to be close to her blind friend. It still makes me weepy to think about it. What an amazing sight.
[Jeff and I washing them down] It was then bath time, and we all dove into the river along with the elephants to scrub them down. They love being scrubbed and the either sat there patiently as you rubbed them down, or they would gently play with you by splashing about or rolling around in the river. As big as they are, I always felt like they are super aware of where I am in relation to me and that they would never run into me. It is a cool feeling to be so close to them.
[looking for more to wash] The whole day was an incredible experience and I can't wait to go back. So if any of you come to visit, we will schedule a trip up there and perhaps even stay the night. Apparently, elephants can snore quite loud.