Day 28

Well, I let another female kiss the Gander today, and she might actually be cuter than me.

Adorable, right? :)

We spent the whole day at the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It was incredible. It was started by one woman (shown here on the left) who has a dream for all elephants to be free in the wild again someday. Most of these beautiful creatures were domesticated long ago to work in the logging industry, something that destroyed much of Thailand's forests. When logging was banned in 1989, thousands of elephants were out of work and abandoned by their owners.

At this sanctuary, visitors pay to come spend a day or overnight trip learning about these animal's stories. Each one of the 33 (including 2 babies) was rescued from some situation that involved awful abuse. There's no riding here, no painting, no circus-like shows. Just pure interaction and love between people and elephants. There are no fences. The mahouts don't use the hook for training. Just their hands, and loving words. We got to feed them, bathe them in the river and just spend time touching them and learning. We watched the owner/founder lay partly on top of a sleeping baby elephant, singing softly.

An incredible, life-changing day. Save the elephants.

~The Goose