Attraction - Elephant Nature Park Review
- rebeccastossler
- Dec 23, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: May 29, 2020
Okay but disappointing
3*
We did the 'sunshine for elephants' tour - I booked this tour for my boyfriend's birthday and the day didn't start well.
We were told to wait from 8-8.45am to be picked up from our hotel (Holiday Inn). We were ready outside at 8am and didn't get picked up until 9:20am with no communication from the tour guide or company despite our hotel reception even calling them at 9:05am after they had failed to turn up. When they eventually arrived they did apologise, but then the bus was full so my boyfriend and I had to sit at opposite ends of the bus for the whole journey which was annoying especially as it was for his birthday celebration.
Then, 20 minutes into the journey a hungover passenger threw up in the bus, so we had to pull over and get out to clear the sick up. Granted not necessarily their fault, but still not a pleasant start to the trip.
Once we arrived at the nature park we had a great experience feeding and walking with the elephants, and the guide was very helpful and took loads of photos of us on our own cameras and also their own which was great! They don't try and charge you for the photos as well, they are up on Facebook free of charge shortly after the trip. The elephants are clearly very well looked after and the guides and carers know their stuff.
The main reason I booked this tour was to bathe with elephants and we didn't get to at all!
The reason for this was that the elephants found the river temperature too cold which is fair enough. However, throughout the tour there was an emphasis on "no food, no friends" (elephants will only follow and interact with you if you have food). Yet, when we arrived at the river they were directed with food to a shelter and not the river (so of course they would follow the food). I suspect that they maybe would have gone in otherwise as it was still a reasonably warm day and river temperatures, in this region, do not vary considerably day-to-day, despite the guide telling everyone that the river was "alot colder" that day... I know that doesn't happen over night. River temperature rarely changes by even a few degrees annually, which would imply they would never want to get in the river? They also took the elephants to bathe in a river which was busy with people rafting, so another reason the elephants wouldn't want to go bathing. In all honesty it felt like no effort was made to encourage the elephants to bathe or to provide a nice environment for them to do so, which was really disappointing as the tickets are very expensive and it's what we looked forward too most.
I would have thought given the high price of the tickets and the great care the elephants receive that the company would use/make a watering hole environment which elephants would enjoy bathing in and customers would be pleased that they got to fulfill the itinerary. Instead we were taken to a busy river and just sat there as the elephants ate in their shelter.
I appreciate that the aim of this programme is to provide care for the elephants, but I think they could provide this and make customers happy by changing where they take the elephants to bathe.
Also included was lunch which was decent for a remote location and fills you up. There were a lot of dogs around though which was frightening for those afraid of them, however on the most part they were very friendly and didn't bother anyone.
Overall, a good tour if you want to feed and walk with elephants, but don't book this based on bathing with elephants like I did.
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