Testimonials from visitors and  volunteers

I applied via their website when I got back home and then waited on pins and needles to find out if I'd been accepted.  The acceptance came at the last minute, leaving me with barely enough time to scramble around for a ticket to Chiang Mai, and off I went.

My adventure came in three parts:  Visiting the rescued elephants in the mountain, going on the Jumbo Express, and falling in love with GingMai.

The first few days were spent in the mountain, getting familiar with elephants and helping to administer treatments for various wounds from which each elephant was in recovery.  We met the elephants at a river a couple hours north of ChiangMai where we bathed them (involving bristly brushes and getting very very wet), then rode them back up to the camp in the mountain.  The ride was several hours and it's amazing how comfortable I got sitting on an elephant's head.  My elephant during my stay at the camp was MaeKieu, a sweet gentle pregnant sow.  Each morning

I would accompany her mahout into the jungle to find her after she had spent the night grazing freely.  It sounds like a hopeless task, but the mahouts know their animal well and know likely places to look.  I lucked out and was able to find my elephant each time after only a couple hours hike, but others weren't so lucky and were led on wild chases (with the  elephant in the lead) through banana fields and rivers for up to six hours!  The camp itself was hospitable but primitive.  You could always tell when the elephants were playing in the creek by the color of the water at our end.  What an amazing introduction to these great animals.  They were very curious and friendly, not to mention always on the lookout for food.  Much of our day to day activity was conducted under a wandering trunk leaving slime in its wake and we very quickly got used to all things elephant. The next part of my adventure was the Jumbo Express, a mobile clinic administering to tribal villages along a river near the Burma border, vaccinating and treating elephants, livestock (water buffalo, cattle, pigs, chickens, and ducks to name a few), dogs, and villagers.  We traveled via a bamboo raft which was half sunken with our weight, spending a total of about nine hours on the river during our 2 night/3 day trip.  Along the way, I got quite adept at administering rabies injections for dogs, drops and injections to tiny chicks and full grown chickens for Newcastle disease, as well as hiding de-worming medicine in lumps of tamarind for the elephants; and after falling in the river a few times, finally managed to get the hang of steering a 700+lb bamboo raft in rapid current.

At the end of Jumbo Express, I was dropped at a farm in a tiny village called Sanpayang, about an hour north of ChiangMai.  There I fell in love; the object of my affections was a little three-month old orphaned boy named GingMai (Little Tree).  He lost his mother tragically when he was three days old and went through incredible terror before finally being taken in by Lek; you can read his story here (http://thaifocus.com/elephant/news/gingmai/index.htm).  My days and nights with him were amazing; he required 24/7 care.  There was an average of 3-4 volunteers at the farm on any given day all focusing on his care and well being.  We did shifts at night feeding him, making him feel safe when he wakes in the night after a nightmare, and cleaning up after his pee or poo.  The days were filled with the same, plus work around the farm supporting his care:  gathering and chopping wood for the fire to boil water for milk and sterilization, keeping the fire going all day/night, washing and sterilizing his 2L bottles (he consumed about 10 bottles per day) and utensils used for making milk, making sure he gets his supplementary vitamins and minerals, treating his healing wounds, cooking and cleaning,...the list goes on, and the hours fly by. It gets exhausting, both physically and mentally thanks to the average of four hours sleep per night and the average daytime temperature of 36C degrees, but it was so worth the time I got to spend with the little boy.  He was still just a baby, learning to manage his little trunk and exploring his surroundings, seeking relief from teething by gumming bamboo poles, clean laundry, my knee, shoulder, hand, just about anything he could get his mouth on.  Needless to say I had difficulty leaving him when it was time for me to come home, and ended up extending by another week. Now I'm home and after a week of restlessness, I'm finally sleeping through the night; the first week I kept jumping out of bed at 3am thinking I'd overslept for my shift with GingMai.  I'm sleeping better these days but dreaming of elephants, one little guy in particular.  It was one of the best experiences I've ever had, and I'm counting the days until I go back.  Check out the Volunteer section of this website for (http://thaifocus.com/elephant/volunteer.htm) for details on the program; find out how you can help
(http://thaifocus.com/elephant/enp_uhlp.htm), financially or otherwise; take part in the program if you have a week or two to spare.  I guarantee you it'll be one of the best things you do.