Stormy Travels: Visiting Friendly Giants

Hunter and I woke up at 6:30 and got ready for breakfast. We had to have breakfast early as we had an activity planned at 9:30 that required us to take the boat back to Phuket island departing at 8:30. It was raining this morning, but we had umbrellas right outside our front door which we made use of. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a lake on the steps to exit our villa but we had sandals, and having wet feet wasn't the end of the world, although it would have been nice to not have to get them soaked so soon. Breakfast was a buffet breakfast at the Tonsai restaurant we went to for dinner last night. There was a delicious spread of food. Slightly fewer options than the previous hotel, but better quality. I had some pastries and the special Naka poached egg. Hunter had an omelet and chicken sausage. They also had a juice bar of cute little bottled drinks. When we were done we returned to our villa to pack up our backpack and head out.

Hunter always gets the best photos of me!

Walking to breakfast

Juices

Egg station

Bread station

Noodle bar

Indian food

Rice and more "lunch" type foods

American food

Fruits, cereals, juices, cheese, and meats

Salad bar

Meat and cheese

Pastries

Fruit

Granola and bloody mary station

Granola and compotes

The Naka egg

Danish

Fruit, omlete, and chicken sausage

Hunter took a picture of the bathroom which was super fancy

The hotel did the boat and taxi arrangements for us which was lovely and the taxi wasn't too expensive. Our destination was only 10 minutes away and he told us he would be picking us back up when we were done which was so convenient! This morning's exciting activity brought us to the Phuket Elephant Sanctuary (PES). I did a lot of research into ethical animal experiences prior to coming here because it was very important that we not support harmful animal activities. There are still various practices in Thailand and other nearby countries that are not great for animals such as any tiger touching, elephant riding or trick shows, and monkey holding. They use various torture or drug methods to keep the animals under control and I did not want to do anything that supported such practices.

To the boat

The shore of the island

Back to Phuket

The taxi (I took a picture so we could find the same one when we were done)

When we arrived at the main office we paid the remaining fee to visit the sanctuary and were seated in a waiting room before transferring to a truck and being taken to the 30-acre sanctuary. The road was very bumpy and only 1 lane wide which is why they don't allow you to drive to the sanctuary entrance yourself. Upon arrival, we were given socks and rubber boots to put on and then told to help ourselves to various refreshments while we waited for others to arrive. When everyone was on site we watched an informative video about the sanctuary as well as how to behave around the elephants. It also had a cute animated portion showing you what not to do that made us laugh. Everyone in the animated visitor family besides the mom got hurt by the elephants because they didn't follow the rules: mothers and women really are the best!

Here is more information about the elephant sanctuary. Their youtube account has tons of videos if you are interested in learning more: Phuket Elephant Sanctuary

The main office

The waiting area

On the truck to the sanctuary

Rubber trees!

Part of the canopy walk

Canopy walk

Looking for the friendly giants!

Introduction and video

PES purchases older elephants that are no longer wanted by their owners due to various reasons that cause them to no longer be profitable such as blindness or injuries. PES has space for up to 25 elephants at any time and they currently have 10 elephants on site currently. Of those 10, 9 are females and 1 is male. They tend to get more females because they have smaller reproduction windows where males are fertile their entire life and thus are much more valuable and expensive to rescue. The males with ivory are especially valuable as the ivory can legally be sold after their deaths and due to poaching restrictions, legal sources of ivory are incredibly rare. They do not rescue babies unless they can rescue the mother and baby together because a baby elephant requires a lot more work and is more "naughty" (the guide's words) and disobedient than older elephants.

After the video, the real tour began. It started with feeding two lovely elephants Kannika and Cattleya. Kannika used to be partners with Madee, however, Madee passed away recently so they are trying to make a new friendship for Kannika. Kannika is over 36 years old and used to do elephant rides for tourists. She was one of the first elephants at the sanctuary. Cattleya is over 45 years old and before coming to the sanctuary worked in a logging camp in poor conditions.

This is Kannka

Their trucks have so much power!

This is Cattleya

We then visited Dee Lerd in the hydrotherapy pool. She is over 60 years old and used to work in the logging industry. She is referred to as grandma due to her age, it was funny you could see how old she was almost like a human. We also learned about mahouts, how they live with the elephants, and that each elephant picks their own mahout. Beside the hydrotherapy pool, we also saw the elephant bedrooms. They make sand mound beds to help the older elephants rest easily because getting up from laying on the ground can be too hard for them to do.

Here are some clips with the guide providing information, she talks about the mahouts too in it

Next, we moved to the canopy walk, but quickly exited to see two additional elephants including the first male they have ever had on site, Ampan. He was pretty shy while we visited and munched away on pineapple leaves. Ampan is over 60 years old, blind in one eye, and used to work in the logging industry. Beside Ampan was Sroy Fah who likes to be alone in her shelter without other elephants. They have tried to get her to go out and explore, but she doesn't go very far and feels most comfortable in her 3000 square meter (32300 square foot) shelter. She is over 40 years old and used to work in a trekking camp.

Elephant poop growing a watermelon plant. The guide assured us we were not fed watermelons that have been grown from the elephant poops here.

This is Ampan

He does not have tusks, so the owner was more willing to sell him to the sanctuary

This is Sroy Fah

In this video, she is cleaning the leaves off before eating them

We then continued on our walk and found Kannika and Cattleya again on a ledge by a pond. They were very picturesque and the guide continued to tell us more information about them.

Kannika's trunk is so long

Throughout our visit, all of the elephants were flapping their ears which is a sign of happiness

We kept walking under the canopy walk and visited Jan Jao next. She is over 40 and worked in the tourism industry. She was on her way to the bath nearby. The elephants have the freedom to go where they want, when they want, and how they want which was amazing to witness. They also are very routine animals and tend to be on a schedule they make themselves, but always know when it is food time and are quick to enjoy snacks!

Jan Jao

Time for some bathing

Jan Jao and her mahout

I love this action shot!

We next visited Fah Mui, snacking under a tree, who is in her 40s and was rented out for tourism purposes.

Fah Mui

A cool drop of water floating on a leaf

Next, just before going back up to the canopy walk, we saw Sri Nual. She is fairly large for her size and often is mistaken as being pregnant, but she only has a "food baby" our guide said! She is the only elephant at PES to be on a diet due to her weight. The others were mainly healthy weights or sadly malnourished when they arrived.

Sri Nial

Here she is eating bamboo

Here we are walking up to the canopy walk and then back to the main building

After visiting with the elephants and enjoying them getting to be themselves, we headed to lunch. It was also the elephant's lunchtime which they all seemed to know as they headed back into their bedrooms unprompted. They eat a ton of food, roughly 100kg per day of plant matter per ton they weigh. For the larger elephants, this means 400kg a day. Fortunately, PES is able to partner with some local pineapple plantations to buy truckloads of farm waste for $5/truck. This means one ticket can pay for a day's worth of food which is good considering that due to covid the PES was without vital tourist support for a long time. The elephants love these pineapple plant parts and the farmers otherwise would have no use for them. It was nice to see the elephants having a sustainable food option that was integrated into the local economy. Our morning program included a small vegetarian buffet lunch which had some delicious options! After eating we headed back to the main office where we met our taxi driver who took us back to the marina.

They are working on completing the canopy walk but covid stopped their funding. Hopefully they can get more money as tourism picks up because the walkway would be huge. It is so amazing these elephants can be enjoyed in their natural state rather than negative and harmful interactions that go on every day in trick camps and in the logging industry.

Kannika and Cattleya

Stopping for a scratch

When we got back we had to wait about 20 minutes for the boat, but the ride back to the island was quick. Since the weather was better we could see the other islands more clearly which was beautiful. At 2pm there was a small cooking experience as well as the daily ice cream offering. Hunter and I both had an ice cream cone and then waited for the cooking event. We made a traditional Thai dessert called bua loy which consisted of rice flour rolled into small balls and cooked in coconut milk and sugar. It was pretty tasty!

Islands seen in the distance on our ride back to the resort

The general pool

Ice cream!

making a snack!

After our afternoon snack, Hunter and I went back to the villa to enjoy the pool. It was so nice out and hot which made the pool very refreshing! We had a brief rain cloud pass over us which was fun as it was sunny and raining.

Rain falling in the pool

For dinner, we went to the restaurant here called Rum Chapel. We ordered the tuna tartar pizza which was okay. It was kind of bland tasting like a normal cheese pizza with some tuna chunks on it. We were not super thrilled with the food options on-site and expected there to be more local options than just Tonsai, but being on a secluded island resort there wasn't much we could change about the situation. There is a local restaurant on the island just outside of the resort that we will try tomorrow that seems to be more authentic and has excellent reviews on google.

After dinner, we went to the activity hermit crab destination. We didn't know what it meant until one of the staff showed us to the beach filled with hermit crabs at low tide! He found some pretty big ones too!

This guy was so big, the biggest hermit crab I have ever seen

After that, we went back to our villa and enjoyed the evening poolside while I also worked on my blog. Hunter was in the pool watching bats fly around, but I went inside because the mosquitos were feasting on me. Eventually we got hungry again and ordered a room service meal. I just had a few bites since I wasn't as that hungry and had snacked on some chips earlier, but Hunter really enjoyed it.