Swimming with Elephants in the mountains of Thailand

Tanna Gavin
Nov 4 · 8 min read

So now that I have come to a new found appreciation for this trip, I reminded myself to make the absolute most of it. We have met so many people that have been traveling for many months and years, seeing much more than I, but it is good to remind myself that we are super lucky to be able to do this and not a lot of people have the opportunity for such adventures.

So, with that, I told Ben I wanted to visit an Elephant sanctuary.

Although a very touristy thing to do while in Thailand, it was important to me because elephants are my absolute favorite animal. They are SO strong, so mighty, yet incredibly gentle, and actually quite emotional. They love to play, they cry, and they weep when one of their own dies.

The only other experience I’ve had with elephants is riding them at the Minnesota renaissance festival. I make an effort to do it every year, paying about eight dollars for a 30 second ride. However, after my experience at the sanctuary, I will no longer partake in that activity when I return back home. I’ll explain more why later on…

We were advised to go to a particular one called Into The Wild Elephant sanctuary by a couple of friends we had met in Hoi An, Vietnam who were in Chiang Mai the same time as us. Over happy hour they told us they went there and said they had a blast and we should definitely go to that one. So, we booked our tickets for the following morning.

We were picked up in a tuk tuk at 7 in the morning with seven other people. Three older woman from France, one girl from Scotland, one from Whales, and a couple from the UK on their honeymoon. We piled into this little truck car thing and headed an hour outside of the city.

The journey there was an adventure in itself. The drive up the mountain was a series of incredibly sharp turn backs and other cars and motorbikes were flying by. Trucks filled with people in the bed were headed into the city to go to work.

We eventually go to the sanctuary and were led up a path for a little introduction. The founder of the sanctuary, Pai, was our guide and he gave a quite long explanation of how the sanctuary got started.

Pai giving his speech

While traveling Burma (Malaysia) him and his brother came across a village that had an elephant that was used as a tool to carry large trees up or down the mountains, was forced to roll trees or boulders with their head, and was constantly chained and whipped for misbehavior. They bought the elephant from the village in order to save it, not knowing the elephant was pregnant.

After a few months of finding the perfect land and building basic accommodation for the workers they opened up business. They now own five elephants and have three small mountains of land where the elephants roam freely. There are no fences around the mountains to contain the elephants and there is a beautiful river that flows through their property. He told us that he sold his house back to the bank and it will take him 23 years to get it back with how much money is required for the sanctuary. Pai was super cool and very friendly and we got really lucky to have him as our guide.

Ready to get started, Pai turned toward the jungle and made this super loud grunt noise, calling the elephants to him. A few second later, the elephants came.

Elephants responding to Pai’s call

When asked how he learned to speak elephant, he simply said Youtube. Ha!

In the above picture you may notice we are all wearing red shirts. This is because the elephants are conditioned to know that we are not a threat and that we will also give them food.

The elephants lined up near the make-shift fence and we were given a bag of sugar cane to feed them.

I was out of sugarcane and the elephant didn’t seem to understand…

After the feeding we went on a little walk around the mountains. It was crazy to be simply walking besides these massive creatures, coexisting in such an organic way. There were a few other Thai guides with us that knew the elephants very well and helped redirect them if they ever wandered off, though only verbally, never physically.

Walking through these mountains I remember how quiet it was. All you could hear were birds chirping, the sound of the river, and the small rustle of the leaves from the wind. There were no cars, no planes, no music, just nature. It was serene and beautiful.

After our little hike we led the elephants to a river so they could take a little dip. We watched they play with each other and splash and drink water.

I looked at Ben and said “wouldn’t it be fun if we could go swimming with them!?” he smiled, and agreed.

After watching the elephants frolic in the water for about a half hour we led them back to the little main hut. We were told to then put on our swimming suites. SO excited, I was the first one changed, and the first ready and lined up for what was next.

We were led to a small mud pond right outside the hut where I saw the elephants go into. We were told we were going to give them a mud bath.

Yes!!!

Then, I saw two elephants piss right into the pond and one shit it’s brains out. Perfect melon sized poop balls plopped into the water. I was disgusted, but I wouldn’t let that deter me from getting even closer with these beauties.

One of the Thai guys came around and spread mud all over our bodies, so there was really no going back after that. I was covered in elephant shit but I really didn’t care.

Ben seeing who is stronger — him or the elephant.
I am literally hugging the elephant in this picture.

And then of course, after a mud bath, you need to wash off, right? So we headed toward the river.

Pai told us to jump in and have fun with the elephants in the river!

I was the first one in the river. Obviously!
My buddy accidentally kicked me in the stomach. It’s okay though, I still love her.
When the elephants went underwater you couldn’t see them at all. It was crazy! They also swim with their eyes open.
I was very happy, needless to say.

You can see in a few photos that Ben is rather stoic, making sure that we survived this awesome experience.

You know him, all business.

This is the last photo the photographer shot after our swimming excursion. Ben was talking with Pai about how he could potentially expand his business, get more elephants, or more funding.

Very logistical.

At the end of the elephant adventure we were led back to the hut and given locally made fried rice wrapped in banana leaves. It was excellent!

Right before we left Pai came up to me and asked me if I would read something for him in English. He said they are reviews from TripAdvisor for his sanctuary. Still in my swimming suit and knowing only half the company spoke English, I obliged.

There were five different posts he had me read and they all were titled something along the lines of “worst experience of my entire life” and such. I guess a competitor elephant sanctuary tour had been bad mouthing him on TripAdvisor and it had effected his earnings for the past month or so.

The posts were personal attacks on Pai himself, saying that he was a bad guy, and used whips and chains to control the elephants and constantly kept them tied up. Horrible lies and outlandish statements, I had a hard time reading though the posts without giggling at their ridiculousness.

I finally made it though the last one, laughing at this point, becuase of how insanely incorrect the posts reported the sanctuary, but then I looked at Pai. He was nearly in tears.

He said that he would never ask us to give him good ratings, hoping we would feel inclined to do it on our own, but he was desperate.

I felt like a total asshole.

The girl from Scotland asked what the other company was so she could leave a bad review on their page but Pai said “that wouldn’t be very nice. I don’t want revenge, I just want people to come have fun with my elephants with me.”

I hugged him, and promised to write him a bad ass TripAdvisor review. Which I did!

Overall, it was was a dream of a day. I was exhausted, but the happiest I could remember being for quite some time. I think the reason why I love elephants so much is because they are SO much bigger than you, they could rip your body apart, they could be violent and dominant, but they aren’t. It’s not in their DNA. They want to have fun, be free, be safe, and play in the water in the sun. And in reality, don’t we all want that?

If ever you are in Thailand, I highly suggest going to Into The Wild Elephant Sanctuary and request Pai as your guide.

Tanna Gavin

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