Our time at Elephant Nature Park
Here at Elephant Nature Park we have had the pleasure to interact and spend time with some of the most incredible animals on the planet. We’ve helped to care for a new born baby elephant and took a 14 hour ride to the border of Thailand and Laos to care for over 2000 dogs that were rescued from the illegal dog meat trade. We made a big change in the way we look at the world and the way animals are treated, and decided that compassion, life, and animal rights is what is right for us.
And for the last 3 months we have been working with over 380 dogs at the Elephant Nature Park dog clinic. We helped with treatments, vaccinations, cleaning, dog catching, and really really loving dogs. We have met some incredible people who care for and love animals as much as we do, that have made us feel so very much at home here in the jungles of Thailand.
Our mornings here have been wonderful waking up to elephants trumpeting and dogs barking, watching animals walk in freedom. From pigs, to elephants, to water buffalo, to chickens, they all have a safe place to live out their natural lives free from harm.
We have been welcomed into peoples homes and invited over for amazing burmese home cooking, gotten tattoos commemorating our time here, enjoyed more than one Mango vodka cranberry soda cocktail, and have truly enjoyed living in the jungle. We know how fortunate we are to have been asked to live here and be a part of such an amazing community.
This has been the last 6 months of our lives……..
It is time to move on.
Our plan is to volunteer at more shelters around Thailand, and to hopefully make a difference in more animals lives. Thank you to everyone who has made every day fun and full of laughter.
Oh … just reading this brought tears to my eyes. You both have such beautiful hearts and my world is a more gorgeous place because you are in it. I love you.
Awww Diana, we love you as well sooooo much. We are so happy and grateful to have met you while we were in Chiang Mai.
You are such a beautiful person and we are happy to have you in our lives. <3
That’s a beautiful blog and story of your journey. Those are some beautiful pictures too! Look forward to reading about your next chapter. xoxoxo
Thanks Auntie!!
<3
Great read guys! Awesome shots too, keep the posts and updates coming, brighten my days up and keep me inspired!
Hopefully see you in Canada in the summer!
George
We are glad that we are inspiring you George!!! It was a pleasure to meet you while at the park and to keep in touch with you. It would be pretty awesome to run into each other while we are both in Canada. Maybe we will see each other on the road somewhere….who knows
A trip to the Elephant Nature Park will not be the same without you. We think it’s wonderful that if you have to move on, that you move on to help other animals in the world. What a great way to spend your lives. Imagine what the world would be like if we all did that.
Mindy and Ligeia, we will miss the two of you and the laughs we shared.
It’s great to know that we can move on to other places and that there are so many places in the world that want to help out animals.
Hopefully we will see the two of you in August when we make a little trip back up to Chiang Mai.
Fun blog Cory. Sounds like you are having an amazing time. We were at Anantara in November and spend a couple of days working with the elephants there but sure envy your long-stay! Thailand is so wonderful and her people so gentle. I’d love to go back. Enjoy the rest of your journey!
You guys are awesome. Sounds like a blast and a really rewarding thing to be doing. I wanna do something like that. Sammi and I love animals and miss ours. Very cool stuff.
Cody, if you and Sammi get a chance you two should head up to Chiang Mai and volunteer to help out with the dogs. They are always looking for help to take care of all the beautiful dogs. Hopefully we will see you two soon!!!!
I love the life you are living! Time in service of others is never wasted. I will be in Bangkok in a few days and would love to meet up and see the work you are doing there…
Alex, we are on the Sukumvit line. Sukumvit 93 soi 40.
How long are you in Bangkok for? and where are you off to next
I have heard such good things about the place, I am sure it was difficult to leave.
We had an amazing time. We still have videos to edit and we took over 4000 photos during the time that we were there.
It was surreal to walk to lunch and have an elephant traffic jam
If you get a chance we highly recommend it!!!
Hi,
I’m Jodi’s mom! Please when you get a chance to do the video of Raki’s magic show please tag me!
Jodi and Raki loved the time they had with you!
Safe Travels,
Betty Thomas
Great to meet you Betty Ann! We had such a great time getting to know Jodi and Raki and spending time with them. If we are ever in Michigan we will look you up!
Yes it was very difficult to leave and some tears were shed. But we are now caring for a lot of cats and having a great time in Bangkok!
I love that first photo!
Thank you
It must have been very hard to say goodbye, but like all things you need to keep moving forward. You take with you some amazing memories and your photos say it all. Beautiful.
Thanks so much Pete. Who says we can’t go back either, right?
This is just wonderful. where do you get the money to do this? I don’t even have the money to go 300 miles!
Hey Danielle, thanks so much for reading the blog. We worked really hard and saved up for a year. We have been very fortunate to come across organizations who could always use volunteers. We will continue to travel around the world helping out wherever we can.
Please email me when you find a moment. I found you via the baby elephant story and I am interested in learning more about who you are and what you are doing for animal rights around the world.
huffingtonpost.com/zoe-helene
Email sent Zoe