Okay, one of the items on my 'Must Do Before Leaving Thailand' list was to ride an elephant, but pursuing this activity is trickier than you might believe. I didn't want to ride an abused elephant, and the vast majority of elephants that the public is allowed to be near has major abuse in its past, so I was looking at elephant rescue farms. The only problem with that is that many rescue farms don't allow riding, which makes sense, but didn't do anything to get me nearer my goal. However, semi-near my site there's a (magical!) place called Patara Elephant Farm, and my friend Chai and I went and had one of the coolest days EVER visiting and riding the elephants there!
Okay, I literally have HUNDREDS of photos of this day, it was so amazing! Not only are these just a fraction of the photos I took, but Chai's camera was full of photos and at the end of the day the guides gave us a CD of photos they took!
Patara is a really cool elephant farm, and they really do focus on the education of people about elephants, which we both appreciated. All of their rescued elephants have survived and thrived in their new home, they employ local tribespeople, and what they're doing to aid the dwindling elephant population is laudable.
Patara is a really cool elephant farm, and they really do focus on the education of people about elephants, which we both appreciated. All of their rescued elephants have survived and thrived in their new home, they employ local tribespeople, and what they're doing to aid the dwindling elephant population is laudable.
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