Thai Elephant Conservation Center
We spent a great morning in Lampang at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center. It’s operated by the Thai government (and is home to the royal elephant stable and a non-profit elephant hospital). We understand that it is one of the more reputable and humane elephant camps in Thailand. We saw elephants bathing, pulling logs, painting pictures that were more aesthetically pleasing and intellectually honest than many pieces in MoMA, and best of all: we got to feed them and take a ride on one! What made the day really special, though, was the hundreds of Thai school kids there on a field trip. They screamed when the elephants trumpeted, queued up to feed bananas to the beasts, oohed and ahhed at elephants playing basketball, and respectfully wai’d to Jordan and I. They honestly made a good morning great. Jordan asked, “Think I can fit one in my backpack?” Skyler: “Probably, but I bet they count them before they get back on the bus.”
We arranged transport and admission to the Center through our hotel, the Riverside Guesthouse. For 600 baht per person ($20) a driver picked us up in a songthaew (literally “two-row”, a pick up truck with two benches and a roof welded on), and drove us to the elephant center with stops at a local market and wat as well.
