Visiting an Elephant Sanctuary -

When ever I’m asked what one of the best things I’ve done is, the first thing that comes to mind is always visiting the elephant sanctuary in Phuket. It almost feels surreal while your there and was the most exciting day. The most important thing when looking into an elephant sanctuary is ensuring that it is specifically a sanctuary and that the elephants are being looked after and not used for any form of entertainment. That includes riding the elephants, wearing a ‘costume’ or even standing on a pedestal. This will make your whole experience feel even more wonderful as you know you’re giving something good to these animals who need it most and they always are only ever doing it out of choice. If you want to hear about what a typical day at a sanctuary may look like… Read On.

Our day started off with a drive out in to the forest where a large area of land is taken over for the sanctuary, giving them endless space to roam. We were greeted by our other group members and then given some time to say hello to the Elephants and watch them roam and play together before going into a hut to prepare some food for them! We were chopping up bananas and other local fruit ready for their breakfast.

We then spent a good hour or so feeding and playing with the elephants, they were loving it as much as we were! There were also photographers dotted around the sanctuary so we had plenty of photos to look back through at the end of the day. And yes, we did all wear matching elephant vests!

Now onto the best part of the day, the mud bath! The elephants were clearly loving this one, rolling around in the mud while we rubbed it in for them and got pretty messy. Most people just wore old clothes and some were in bathing suits ready for the next part… a dip in the lake. The elephants were then walked across into their own private lake (Checked everyday for unwanted visitors so we were all safe) and then we followed with our sponges, brushes and buckets, as well as some balls to play some games with the Elephants. Again, the elephants seemed to be having even more fun than us and soaking in every second.

To finish the day off we walked the elephants back to their homes and said goodbye before we had our own showers. We were provided with a Thai buffet whilst they put together a short video of our day and then presented it to everyone, which was a great end to a perfect day. I seriously enjoyed every second and would do this a million times over, an incredible experience from start to finish. I cannot recommend the Phuket Elephant sanctuary enough!

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