In July, along with my Danish friend I met while on exchange in Italy, I participated in a week-long elephant volunteer programme in the north of Thailand. The programme started in Bangkok with a day of sightseeing as a group of volunteers. The following day we took a bus to Surin where the elephant village was located.
Life at the elephant village was basic but not as much of a shock as I was expecting. There were western style toilets and even showers in the volunteer house. We slept on thin mattresses on the floor but it was more than comfortable. The only surprise surrounding the accommodation were the scorpions and millipedes who crept their way in through the cracks in the walls... but let's not talk about those.
My favourite activity during the week was taking the elephants down to the nearby river for a wash with their mahouts. It was incredible to be swimming with these amazing creatures; I could hardly believe what I was doing! Rather than helping the mahouts with their daily work however, we were only slowing them down so this was much more for our pleasure than an actual act of 'volunteering'. Another day we went kayaking down the river as a group of volunteers (elephantless this time haha) which was another super fun activity, but again not in any way a help to the village. We were also taken to a nearby market where they sold clothes, toys and some quite unique food - I cooled down with a Yam flavoured slushie!
Although this was supposedly a 'volunteer programme' it seemed much more like a touristy, cultural immersion type experience. We had lots of free time to hang around in the hammocks, visit the local shop or go to visit the elephants within the village. We had been told we would be helping to cook and look after the village, but with so many hands we barely cooked or cleaned a thing. The only activity which was in fact tiring was the couple of hours we spent helping local mahouts with their crops. Even then however we could stop, relax and socialise at any point. At the time while melting in the midday heat, relaxing was a desirable option, but I'm now left asking myself if I really got anything out of the experience. It was a great way to see rural Thai life, and get up-close and personal with such amazing creatures but was it a 'volunteer programme'...? I wouldn't say so.
The programme was through Starfish Volunteers and you can check out the exact programme here.
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