Hey animal lovers ❤ We just had the coolest experience ever while we were on our trip to Thailand! We visited an Elephant Sanctuary, and it blew our minds!

The whole experience was just extravagant. You know how everyone has an animal that they adore… Well, mostly just girls do this, but a lot of people just really identify with 1 specific animal. For me, that animal is the almighty Elephant! I love their presence and their skin, the beautiful noise they can make with their trunk. This was totally the highlight of the whole trip!

The Sanctuary that we visited is called Elephant Jungle Sanctuary: Phuket. They specialize in rescuing and treating elephants who have been tortured and abused. Most of their elephants come from circuses, riding attractions, and other touristy type places that train them through methods of torture such as stabbings, whipping, etc. I loved this particular sanctuary because their #1 priority was not about the tourists and making sure we had fun… Nope. Their #1 goal was to protect their elephants while we had the privilege of serving them for the day. It was beautiful.

First, we met them and introduced ourselves.

Then, we prepared their food and medicine. 

Next, we fed them (for the first time that day)… They eat around 300 kg a day! 

Then, we played in a mud bath with them! Super fun, but I’ll spare you some of the natural (and frankly just gross) details.

Afterwards, we went for a little swim in some much cleaner water and gave them a bath and scrubbed them down to get all the excess mud off. 

Later, we played with them and just socialized. 

Before this big adventure, I imagined it would be something that I checked off the bucket list, but now, I’m even more in love with these beautiful creatures! I am already looking into ways to be around elephants again in the near future 😉 The thing that I loved the most was their personalities. They are always up to no good and full of mischief! The older, larger ones were incredible, always patient and very aware of the humans. Even though they could have totally squashed us, they were careful not bump into us or step on any toes. The babies were a different story, but that’s just because they’re so playful! One of the little guys kicked the Hubs, picked me up by their trunk, and sprayed us in the water…. Literally like big kids just running around playing with everyone!

This is definitely an adventure I’d encourage you to attempt on your trip to Asia. When booking, make sure the place is a safe environment for the elephants. I don’t mean to sound preachy, but seriously, it’s important to know that your money and time is going into companies that are ethical and treat their staff (including animals) with love and respect.

– the Wife