Elephant Nature Park

I went on a trip for round square week at my school. Round square week is when we take a week off and go away from school to learn. For my round square week I went to the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai Thailand.

The Elephant Nature Park is a park in Chiang Mai Thailand for Elephants that a Lady rescued and the lady's name is Khun Lek (Koon-Lek)(Khun=Mrs/Mr). 

It was a trip to learn about what elephants need to be treated like. Now I'll tell  you what I learned. 

The the most important thing I learned was that elephants are not tools. They are living creatures like us. They don't want to be trapped up in tiny little cages; they want to be free like us. Would you like it if you were trapped up in a cage for your whole life with people/tourists looking and taking pictures of you? It would be annoying, wouldn't it? I also learned that the elephants are an important part of Thai culture.  They are respected and honored by the people, yet some people live in the woods and put the elephants in tiny cages and hit the elephants with hoes, sticks and all sorts of things. This goes on for days until the elephants finally listen. It's sad to hear this but it's also good to know that people like Khun Lek are trying to help the elephants

My favorite part was washing the elephants (you can see the picture below).  We stayed in cabins and ate delicious food, but that's another story. I'll tell you more later but now I have to jump in my pool. Can't take the computer with me!

Me washing the Elephants