A day at the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary

If you have Instagram (or any form of social media), I’m sure you’ve come across people posting incredible pictures of themselves getting up close and personal with elephants. I kept on seeing these pictures and couldn’t wait to experience it for myself. Elephants have always been my favourite animal, so spending a whole day with them was just surreal.

About 6 years ago, riding elephants in Thailand was popular among tourists. One thing you have to know is that riding elephants is completely unethical and you should never do it (but you probably already know that). Elephants would be overworked, mistreated and pretty much forced to live a miserable life. These types of companies are becoming less popular now, but a few still do exist.

The Elephant Jungle Sanctuary is a place where rescued elephants can live freely together in the beautiful Doi Inthanon National park near Chiang Mai. Sick elephants are nursed back to health and the money from tourists helps support the local community as well as the sanctuary. The guide told us that the elephants pretty much just sleep, poop, eat, roam around the jungle and play in the water. Chill vibes all round.

We paid 1,700 Thai Bhat (£45) for a half day at the sanctuary. You can also do a full day, but a half day pretty much takes up the whole day when you factor in travel time. For the afternoon session (there’s also a morning session but pick up time is 6:30am no thank you)... we were picked up from our hostel in Chiang Mai at 11:30am and arrived at the sanctuary around 1:30pm. You get changed into traditional clothing and then have about an hour where you can feed the elephants watermelon. Some of the elephants know how to play the game and decide to just take the watermelon straight from the bucket... fair play.

By the end of the hour and a bit you’ll be sweating buckets because the traditional top they provide feels like thick wool. But you then get changed into swimwear and go have a mud bath with the elephants. One thing to note about the mud is that it can stain your skin orange for a while... so I wouldn’t like, rub it on your face.

After the mud bath you go down to a fast flowing stream and bathe once again with the elephants. This water is fresh! You can also climb up and then let the water carry you down the stream. A natural water slide. Make sure not to bruise or cut yourself on the rocks below (they’re mostly pretty smooth though).

Lunch is provided after you shower and get changed. There’s nothing quite like eating a delicious meal overlooking a beautiful jungle with elephants in it. Best lunch view I’ve ever had really! You then have some more time after lunch to chill with the elephants and say goodbye. All in all, I highly recommend adding this experience to your bucket list! Your money goes towards a great cause, you get up close to one of the most majestic creatures in the world and you can finally get that stellar instagram pic you’ve always dreamed of!

Big love,

Belle x