Southern Thailand

We stayed in the ultimate “glamping” spot in southern Thailand (complete with a bathroom in the tent). Wanted a quick stop down here to enjoy the heat, rain and of course what trip to Thailand could be complete without elephants!! We visited some elephants at a nearby sanctuary that were previously working (back in the ‘80s) in the logging industry. The youngest there was a measly 53 years old while the oldest elephant was 79! Riding elephants is bad for them since their backs aren’t built to take any weight but we did get to feed them pineapples and bananas and pet their trunks. Then we watched them take an after snack bath and learned that when elephants are happy they poop and their favorite place to poop is in their bathtub! Today there are around 3000 domestic elephants in Thailand and 2000 wild ones, up from 600 in the late 1980s! Unfortunately that population can’t increase much more because roads have split elephant habitats into much smaller areas and humans keep replacing forest with palm plantations and houses.

In addition to elephants, we took a little rafting trip down a river and saw some mangrove snakes and long tailed macaques (which are monkeys). What a good way to finish up our time in Thailand!