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AN ELEPHANT NEVER FORGETS AND NIETHER WILL YOU ! - ben_in_boomba - 03-06-2008
The following article is a testimonial piece I wrote about a place my wife and I stayed at whilst on honeymoon in Thailand. It's called Elephant Stay and it is located in a village in Ayutthaya, which is about an hour and a half out of Bangkok. Basically you go there and stay in cabins and the whole time you're there you get to do lots of amazing things with elephants. The program is run by a couple of women who are originally from Melbourne and the whole thing is just fantastic. If this article interests you then please go to www.elephantstay.com to find out more!
So, youre thinking about taking an overseas vacation. You keep hearing good things about South-East Asia, but you cant decide exactly which one of the many beautiful places youd like to visit.
So, being the happy-go-lucky, float like a plucked chicken feather on the breeze and go where life takes me spirit that you are, you throw a few darts at a map of the region to narrow down the field of potential destinations. But after watching your first two darts land in the middle of the Indian Ocean, many nautical miles away from the nearest land mass, and the third one hitting the wall and falling unceremoniously to the ground, you abandon this technique and eventually book a trip to Thailand. Congratulations wise move youll love it! But now what?
Apart from having the odd takeaway from the Thai restaurant down the road (and finding out how hot is too hot) you know very little about your chosen holiday destination, and thus have absolutely no idea what you are going to do once youre there. So you speak to a friend that knows someone who knows someone whos been to Thailand, you flick through a dozen or so travel brochures and somewhere along the line you hear about this place where you can literally work, rest and play with elephants.
Being someone who loves all creatures great and small (in varying degrees, understandably) you hit the Net to find out the who, what, why, how, which, where, whens of this place and Hey Presto! here you are at ElephantStay.com (Either that or youve ended up at this website accidentally after misspelling a search for Eleventh Day, whatever the hell that is, sounds like some kind of cult)
In any case, here you are reading all about Elephant Stay and youre thinking that it sounds like something you really want to do. From someone who has recently been there and done it, please trust me when I say that you are now just a few mouse clicks away from booking yourself into an amazing experience that will remain in your memory and in your heart forever.
My name is Ben and I live in Brisbane, Australia. (Jimboomba to be exact for any South- East Queenslanders that may be reading this) My wife Niki and I travelled to Thailand in September 2007, for our honeymoon vacation. We spent 3 days at the Elephant Stay kraal and the things we did whilst there and the people we met made this the best part of our trip by a long way. Bangkok was amazing, a real head spinner, Phuket was beautiful, but nothing we did in Thailand (or anything weve done anywhere else weve been for that matter) could match our time in Ayutthaya. I would now like to take this opportunity to share with you some of our reflections of our time in the village and make my best attempt at convincing you that the Elephant Stay experience is something you absolutely MUST DO while you are in Thailand.
1) THE ELEPHANTS: Ill assume that you are an animal lover, and that elephants feature prominently on your list of Animals Id Like To Get Touchy Feely With. However, you may be thinking that youve already had some amazing animal encounters and so youre not sure if theres anything mind-blowing left to do.
Youve been to a few circuses and seen a few animals doing a few clever tricks. BORING! Youve been to open range zoos all around the world and seen a variety of creatures doing their thing in a semi-natural environment. BORING! Youve swam with dolphins, held a koala, fed lions. BORING! Youve been mauled by a bear whilst camping in a national park. BORING! Trust me; I strongly doubt that you have had an animal encounter like Elephant Stay.
You may also be thinking Yeah ok it sounds kinda cool but Im tired of just looking at animals from a distance - I really want to interact with them, to touch their skin, to feel their breath, to get up close and personal.
Well, how can I put this Unless you can figure out a way of turning yourself into one of those little birds that pick ticks and lice from the ears and nostrils of large herbivorous animals, which is, lets face it, not altogether impossible but highly unlikely, you will never have a more up close and personal experience with elephants than you will at the Elephant Stay kraal in Ayutthaya.
With the expert help and guidance of a mahout (an elephant trainer/handler/guardian) you will be walking right beside elephants, you will be climbing all over elephants, you will be sitting behind an elephants ears, riding it down to the river for its daily dip in the river which somehow turns into a dip for you as well. The zoo you went to didnt let you do any of those things, did it? During your time at Elephant Stay you will also play an integral role in the day to day care and husbandry of these amazing animals. So, if you want to have a personal, interactive encounter with elephants then Elephant Stay is DEFINITELY the place for you. Youll see what I mean when you are sitting on an elephants back with a hose in one hand and a scrubbing brush in the other.
2) ACCOMMODATION AND FOOD: If youre the kind of person who likes to have your toenails pedicured and a mud mask done while your sitting on a gold plated bidet, then there is a chance that you might be slightly underwhelmed by the accommodation at Elephant Stay. But then again, how many 5 star hotels can boast that they have elephants wandering around the grounds? The huts at elephant stay are clean and comfortable. Yes there is electricity and air-conditioning, hot water and a proper toilet. Ultimately though, the huts are just somewhere to sleep at the end of the day if youre spending too much time in them then youre totally missing the point. So the lodgings get a tick from us.
Now, the food. Before your trip to Thailand, at least one well-meaning person will sit you down and warn you about the food over there. (This person may not have even been to Thailand, but will tell you that theyve seen a lot of salmonella stories on those current affairs shows) By the end of their lecture you may be so worried about the issue that you vow to consume only bottled water and dry crackers while youre on vacation. But the meals we received during our time at Elephant Stay were made fresh to order with the best organic ingredients and were absolutely delicious. AND nobody suffered any side effects. Whether youre vegetarian or carnivorous, whether you like your food spicy or mild, your individual preferences will be catered for. Admittedly a steak burger and fries might be a problem, but why eat Western food when youre in a village in Thailand? Bottom line is, the food was so good at Elephant Stay that we thought about going bulimic just so we could taste it twice. The phrase Taste bud Orgasm comes to mind.
3) THE VILLAGE PEOPLE: No Im not referring to the sexually ambiguous pop group who were huge when Disco ruled the world. Im talking about the people who live and work in the village that Elephant Stay calls home. So friendly, so happy, so helpful. Everywhere you go you will be greeted with a nod, or a wave or a smile or a Swat Dee Krub (which means Hello in Thai but youll pick up some of the language during your stay). For all the comforts and privileges and material playthings we have in the Western world, how many of us can say that we live in a place where you feel like part of a community? Where strangers smile and wave and appear genuinely happy to see you. When we first heard about Elephant Stay we wanted to go for the elephants. But at the end of our time at the kraal, we wanted to stay for the people. Youll know what I mean once youre there.
4) THE COST: Trying to keep the purse strings tight? Concerned that after stocking up on an Imelda Marcos sized shoe collection in Bangkok, a couple of days at Elephant Stay might blow out your holiday budget? Well for the experience we had at Elephant Stay, we found the price more than reasonable. Once youve been there and done it, Im sure you will agree. But if you still need some convincing in the meantime, try to look at it this way: Your money is going to a fantastic cause. The legacy of your financial contribution will go on long after all those shoes have fallen apart.
If you max out your credit card on souvenirs and trinkets instead of going to Elephant Stay youre going to be paying interest. Some portion of that interest will go towards financing the retirement of the Banks Chief Executive Officer. Whereas, if you withdraw some cash and get yourself along to Elephant Stay, any money you part with will be directly contributing to the happy and fulfilled retirement of a heap of beautiful elephants.
Now if you compare one of these elephants to the CEO of a bank, you will see that the elephant is an endangered species, whereas the bank CEO appears to be a protected species; the elephant has a warm, magnetic personality, whereas the bank CEO has the personality of a half eaten prune, and finally, the elephant has a kind and loving soul, whereas the bank CEO does not have a soul. So, with these facts in mind, whose retirement fund would you rather contribute some money to?
Unless you happen to be a bank CEO, surely you must have chosen the elephant?! Forget the budget, go a little crazy, youd only spend that money on stuff you dont need, youre not going to miss it that much. In the short-term, your savings account might dip a little, but in the long term you will have amazing memories that will stay with you long after the dodgy tattoo youll probably get in Phuket fades away.
So there you have it. These are some of the reasons we loved our Elephant Stay experience and why YOU should go there too. We were genuinely sad to leave, and we still miss the elephants and the people and everything about life at the kraal. But we will return one day.
In the meantime, we hope that you decide to go there and experience it all for yourself, especially if you are already thinking of going to Thailand. Ultimately, the way we see it, going to Thailand without experiencing Elephant Stay would be like going to Paris without seeing the Eiffel Tower. Like going to Rome without seeing the Colloseum. Like going to Scotland without seeing the Loch Ness Monster. (Ok, ok, so 98 percent of people who have been to Scotland havent actually seen the Loch Ness Monster, and the 2 percent who say they have also claim to have been abducted by aliens at some point in their lives, but you get the drift!) REMEMBER: An elephant never forgets and neither will you! We certainly havent.
- jfish1936 - 03-06-2008
I took the liberty of emailing this to friends, telling them it came from Brisbane Forum.
What a super honeymoon place!
- jfish1936 - 03-09-2008
Grandson & young lady came for the weekend. They went to SEa World to swim with the dolphins. Then to Noosa's Trio's Restaurant, and finally a gondola ride on the Noosa River. Then he knelt and proposed to her!
(She said yes)
So I showed them the OP here, and they are considering it for their honeymoon.
- ben_in_boomba - 03-11-2008
I hope they decide to go there, they won't regret it.