Elephant Care in Chiang Mai, Thailand

I volunteered to help look after some elephants on a sanctury . I’m 60 years old & was aware most volunteers would be much younger & I was right. The work was hard at times, especially with the heat, but the support & encouragement and advice I got was brilliant and I managed to complete my three weeks & do all jobs required. Hands on work with the elephants was fantastic. The local co-ordinating team were very helpful with all aspects. Accommodation & food was adequate and clean. Food wasn’t always to my liking but that’s just personal taste.

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My daughter (18) and I (54) had a great time volunteering at the elephant project. First of all everything was very good organized by involvement volunteer international in combination with volunteer world. All questions were answered quickly. We felt very good beeing taken care of while doing the booking, preparing the journey and during our stay. We were taken to the elephant camp by a private driver five days a week. The trip took one hour each way. However, it passed quickly as every day there was something different to discover on our way there. Beeing with the elephants was an amazing, unforgettable time. There were five elephants (50/60/10/4 and 1 year old). Our daily work started with cleaning the area, removing the elephant pu and leftover food, feeding them, preparing vitamin balls, going for a walk with them, bathing them in the river, sometimes collecting wood for a fireplace. We had one hour lunch time. We got every day very lovely food and fresh fruits and had enough time to relax and observing the elephants. The Manager, a very nice man, liked to tell us many things and answered all our 100 questions ;-) We learnt so much about the elephants. It was an amazing experience. As well as having an international exchange with the other volunteers at the accomodation. It was so interesting to hear and learn about the other foreign countries. During our stay and our time at the elephant camp we were accompanied by a Thai coordinator. She was doing the work together with us and was the whole time available. We had a great time and it felt (still feels) like beeing friends. We learnt so many things about the country and the locals. The coordinator at the accomodation and all the other staff as the cook/housekeeping and the driver were very very nice, made feel us very comfortable, tried to assist and help whenever needed. We felt very good taken care of at all times. The food was traditonal Thai food, always nicely prepared. Every day we got fresh fruits. The cook even asked us if we had a favorite dish she might once prepare. The accomodation was very fine. It was a big villa, quiet located at a pond, next to a golf course. Everything seemed freshly renovated and was very clean. We booked a private room and therefore had a bathroom and toilette at our own. The other volunteers shared a room and had bathrooms outside on the floor. However, there were many bathrooms, so each person had one bathroom for himself. Three days a week we did an excursion/visited a market together with the other volunteers. Therefore we had free transportation. We also had tabletennis and bikes we could have used.

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