Back in Chiang Mai

After 8 amazing days at the Elephant Nature Park we are back in Chiang Mai.  We are here for the day and 1 night then we are flying to Bangkok in the morning.  From there we take a 6 hour bus ride south to Ban Krud where we will be for the remainder of the trip.

More about the last 8 days.  We stayed at the the Elephant Nature Park just North of Chiang Mai.  We worked our tails off there caring for the elephants and helping with the daily operation of the park.  What an amazing experience!  It was an opportunity to learn more about elephant conservation and the plight of the Asian Elephant.  There are 35 ele's currently living at the park and all of them are either orphaned, injured or have been rescued from abuse.  Learning their stories and seeing their recovery provided many valuable life lessons.  Teens that have struggled with there own healing were truly inspired by these amazing animals.  There are blind elephants, elephants recovering from drug addiction, (their owners would give them amphetamines to get them to work longer hours in the illegal logging trade), and one ele that was forced to breed when she was just a juvenile.  This act of brutality resulted in a broken pelvis and two dislocated hips.  She now walks with a terrible limp.  But once again, she has a great life at the park and her healing and strength to carry on and be a great friend to one of the blind elephants is truly inspiring.  

On another day we hiked up into the forrest to do a tree blessing.  Ajahn, the Monk that is a friend of the program visited us with some Buddhist scarves made from the Monk's saffron robes.  He preformed a really powerful ceremony blessing the scarves and then we took them to an area in the jungle where hundreds of trees where planned to be cut down.  We tied the scarves around trees in that area making them sacred and sacrilege to cut down.  Logging is illegal in Northern Thailand because of the ecological devastation and because without the trees the rainy season creates tremendous erosion and even devastating mudslides.

One of the most powerful days of the trip so far was spent traveling deep into Northern Thailand to a hillside village and school to deliver school supplies, blankets and medication.  Words cannot describe the incredible experience so I will just post some photos and let you imagine how powerful this day was.  This tribal village has never seen westerners and is devastated by poverty.  Lek, the founder of the Elephant Nature Park, grew up in this area just south of the border of Burma so it is a very special place to her.

We are excited for the next leg of this trip but are all very sad to leave the elephants.

Enjoy these photos and I will post again as soon as I am able.

Peace and Love!