We meet again - Elephants

When you come to Chiang Mai you will see a lot of tourist agencies offering elephant treks in the jungle. It's hard not to do one even though you have to think twice about doing it. You never know how these camps treat these elephants and of course it's not a lot of fun for the animals to have tourists sitting on them every single day.

We did this amazing elephant trek last year, in a camp with only 8 elephants where each tourists got one elephant and we had the feeling that the animals were not suffering. It was one of the best days last year so we also wanted Jelle and Hendrien to have this experience. Elephants are amazing animals, they are so huge and also scary but they are so friendly (especially when you have food!).

We got soooo lucky that we were the only people during that day who booked the full day of elephants. In the morning we gave them food, got to know them and learned how to ride an elephant and give commands. Even though Tom and I already did the same thing last year it was just as exciting. When Tom told the guide that he had the leader elephant 'Big Joe' last year, he gave that huge elephant to him again. Somehow he felt even bigger and scarier than last year. 

The funny thing was that everyone got an elephant that matched a little bit their personality: Tom - the biggest elephant, the leader, always walking in front making the others following him. Nina - the show off elephant that always tried to catch up with Toms elephant. Jelle - the elephant who didn't follow any rules and just walked his own way, always doing exact the opposite of the others and Hendrien the Mother elephant who was pushing her baby up the hill.

In the afternoon we went to the river and washed the elephants and played with them in the water. It was just us 4 alone which was amazing. I didn't regret it to come back here and enjoyed every minute. elephants are amazing animals.