This left many of these domesticated elephants out of work, abandonned and unable to fend for themselves in the wild. Many of the elephants Lek has taken into her care were logging elephants, trained to work for years in the logging industry before logging became banned in Thailand because of all the destroyed forests. While we were there, we watched a documentary on how elephants are mistreated in Thailand and literally, everyone was practically crying. She bought 100's of acres of land from the government in the mountains of Chiang Mai where she provides a safe environment for them. She started with only 4, and now has about 32 elephants under her care. Lek Chialert is a woman who started Elephant Nature park in an attempt to save elephants. A century ago there were 100,000 elephants in Thailand.
In Thailand, while elephants are supposedly very revered, they are victim to much abuse and have become endangered. We met up with 2 other CCS volunteers, Annie and Alice, at the Elephant Nature Park and I was so blown away by these animals and what they have been through. The entire place, from our room to the pool is absolutely gorgeous, yet small and quaint and boutique-ish (I know these all seem different but somehow they all go together here.) Lastly, the food and the service has been great. We are staying at the Vieng Mantra on a small narrow road, similar to the winding roads in Phi Phi. We are staying in the historic Old City, which is surrounded by a centuries old brick wall (or the remains of it.) It is so nice to walk around here and see all the shops, restaurants, markets and temples. I've been able to walk around in jeans and t-shirts without so much as breaking a sweat. There are lots of beautiful tree covered mountains in the distance and best of all, there is a gorgeous breeze. It is beautiful and busy and quaint all at the same time. It falls somewhere in between the crazy city life of Bangkok and the more relaxed village/tourist life of the islands. Within minutes of arriving here I could instantly tell that it is my favorite city that I've visited in Thailand. On Friday morning, Gerry and I left Trang to fly about 1,000 miles north to Chiang Mai.