The Baby Elephant Walk
Well… they weren’t baby elephants. But I could not get the old song out of my head as these two gentle giants paraded around the jungle with us. No harm to them, no negative enforcement, just convincing them to come on a walk with us as long as we give them food! At Khao Sok Elephant Sanctuary in Thailand, the caretakers were very focused on making sure the elephants were treated with respect and not made uncomfortable by the presence of humans. We spent four hours with Wassana and Maruay (both female Asian Elephants), but the only things we really did with the elephants directly was feed them… and then feed them different food… and then convince them onto a jungle walk with us, with food. But every interaction was surreal.
With only the two of them, we got to really see their individual personalities and how they act in different situations. Wassana is 44 years old and used to work in the logging industry. It’s believed she ripped her ear in a bamboo forest when she was young. But Wassana is so kind and curious with all the visitors. Maruay on the other hand was part of a circus in Phuket. Eventually she got too big to ride the bicycle at the circus and was abandoned in the streets, never having lived out of captivity and not knowing how to survive and get food. She would go as far as using the end of her trunk and moving the nostrils like a human holding out their palm and flexing their fingers to motion to come closer, of course it was her way of asking for more food.
After feeding them bananas, we found out that they eat up to 350lbs of food a day which takes them around 18 hours to consume that much. So we went off to the farming side of the farm to learn that they also eat banana tree trunks. We dug up some young plants that had spawned nearby mature trees, replanted them in a new field, and cut a few trees down and chopped the trunks up into large chunks that the elephants loved. If the outer layers were too “crispy,” they would use their trunk to crush it and remove the outer layer (like an onion) before eating the rest. Quite efficient. Before our jungle walk, we crushed up some balls filled with sticky rice, bananas, protein powder, tamarind, and the crushed bees that couldn’t get over their own sweet tooth. Then, the “baby elephant walk” commenced. I really enjoyed our time with Wassana and Maruay, and I’m sure they are still doing well today. :)
Of course, I did more in Thailand besides spending 4 hours with some elephants. I relaxed on the beaches at Railay, swam in the lake by the shear cliffs of Khao Sok National Park, wandered the temples in Bangkok, and tried to avoid the pushy salesmen with flayed alligators on display. 9 days in the country flew by like nothing, and there’s so many more things I’d like to see there, especially the islands in the South and Chiang Mai in the North. But Thailand isn’t going anywhere, it’s just getting more crowded with people like me who see how beautiful and unique the country is. Don’t worry, they won’t run out of elephant pants. I promise.
Now my big trip to the other side of the Earth has come to an end, but if you know me, you know I can’t stay still for very long. I have lots more adventures coming up the pipeline so stay tuned! The full Thailand gallery is live NOW, right here on journeywithryan.com, the full video of my time in Thailand is at youtube.com/@journeywithryan, and as always I’ll be posting the highlights on my instagram, @journeywithryan. Sending lots of love from Thailand <3
-Ryan
