When we started to dream about long time stay in Asia we also thought about how we could tribute to the local project in the countries we visit. We decided that to try to visit places that makes difference and contributes to ethical environment. We call it Heart projects.

We thought that we would need a week after arriving to get settled and just relax but guess what? 4 days was enough for us.

Today we took a day trip to Elephant Wildlife Sanctuary who cares for elephants that can’t live in the wild. Like old Saidee who has bad eyes and needs help not hurting her self. Many elephants comes from shows and tourism which

is not ok.

Every time you visit an animal attraction make sure they are all right. One way is to follow the link below in the end of the blogg ”Tourismteacher” because just because the attraction says that they are ethical don’t mean they are!

For us the day started early when we’re were picked up at our hotel driving to the sanctuary. We were greeted on arrival by Saidee and gave her som morning breakfast. Our guide Abba had an introduction and safety briefing with us. We were just 4 in our group and even with COVID everything felt safe.

After the debrief and Saidees morning breakfast we made our own breakfast for the little one Shirlie but before it was time to feed her we went for a walk and feed some of the older elephants who were a bit scary for me. The only thing we were told was “don’t walk backwards “ the elephant will follow. And what did I do? When the big one wanted more food, I walked backwards 😂😂 but that was ok. Now it was time to take a walk in the jungle with Shirlie She is a bit like every youngster and half way in she decided to walk a bit on her on. It only took a few moments for her to discover that’s we had the food and then she was happy to find us again.

The next activity was to mixture some “cream” to fight Mosquito bites and let them have their daily massage. We just rubbed an elephant with this with brush and our hand. After that it was time for a clean up and then a mud bath and a real bath he really enjoyed the treat. We could participate in everything and learned a lot.The elephants really looked like they enjoyed being taken care of, or was it just funny to see us standing in mudd up to our knees? Either way it was a cool experience.

The hole day was an experience and our guide was very good to educate us both about the elephants and on the herbs that grows around Thailand.All the elephants in the Sanctuary is elephants that has been used for tourism or shows around Thailand and wouldn´t make it in the free. If you looked at Saidees ears you could see that they were cut by knifes and it really looked bad, thats they way she was corrected in previous days. I really recomend you to visit, but be very careful and check out in advance if the place you plan to visit really is ethical if not choose another place