Our second day in Thailand was spent at Paradise Beach, which was exactly like it sounds, but I’ve grouped that into a later post all about beaches, spa trips, and fried ice cream. Now I’m going to skip ahead to Day 3 of the trip, which was dedicated to touching, feeding, and bathing elephants… and later in the night Muay Thai boxing.

We were picked up around 6:45 a.m. in a tuk tuk, an open-air covered truck, with a British family already sitting in the back. We hopped in, letting the breeze hit us as we got a glimpse of Thailand outside of Patong, tourist central. Not long after leaving Patong, we saw people riding elephants along the side of the road, a little preview of what we would see later in the day. I had never seen an elephant outside of a zoo, so it was jarring to see one plodding along right next to our tuk tuk.

As we got farther away, we passed ramshackle houses, large truck beds crammed with construction workers, untouched forests. Farther still, the roads became more and more twisty and hilly. I was quietly impressed with the incline our tuk tuk was able to climb at such speeds. We went up and down hills, around corners, and eventually off the paved road. We drove up a steep, bumpy hill, then down again, and we were finally on the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary (EJS) compound after over an hour drive. We unloaded in an empty mud lot and walked over to the group of people marveling at the uncaged elephants. A small one was running around rambunctiously. Our guide, Kay, told us that elephant is still a child and he likes to playfully charge people, so they call him “Naughty Boy.” Little does the elephant know, he’s still very large, so a playful charge could still knock someone over. Luckily, a dad from Colorado took it well when Naughty Boy ran over to him. Calm and collected, he just embraced the oncoming elephant. The EJS workers tried their best to contain Naughty Boy, but much like trying to contain a rebellious toddler, they couldn’t always keep track. We continued to stand around looking at the elephants while more people arrived in tuk tuks.

Once everyone had gotten there, we headed over to a pavilion where Kay told us about EJS, elephant stats, and our schedule for the day. He said that most elephants in Thailand have been captured and are being used for rides or labor. According to Kay, the weight of two or three adults riding on the back of an elephant is too heavy for an elephant’s back, often causing damage to their spine. EJS doesn’t allow people to ride their elephants, so their angle is that they’re one of the only groups to own elephants and treat them ethically. He also mentioned that it’s free for Thailand residents to come visit the sanctuary, but they never come, which I found interesting. I guess elephants aren’t such a hot commodity if you grew up around them. He said they currently have 15 elephants at this location, which is new, and they’re working on building a fence so the elephants can walk around freely. Currently, they need to be tied up if unattended because one of their elephants ate a nearby farmer’s entire field of bananas in one night. Once they have the fence that won’t happen.

After a quick demo on how to prep the watermelon, sugar cane, and bananas, he put us to work chopping and peeling. We hacked the watermelon into chucks, split the sugar cane down the middle with an axe, and simple peeled the bananas. One group was assigned to make medicine balls for the “Granny” elephant who couldn’t eat the other foods because she’s old. Kay explained that there’s two ways to feed an elephant: directly to the mouth, or let the elephant pick up the food with its trunk.

Shortly after, we carried all of the heavy baskets of food over the the feeding area, where we split into three groups based on the age of elephant we wanted to feed. Megan and I went to the child elephant group because not only are they adorable, they’re also smaller and less intimidating. Elephants are truly gigantic in person! The EJS staff brought the groupings of elephants over (Granny, adult, and child) and people flocked to feed them. Baby elephants took bananas and watermelon right out of my hand. Honestly there were so many people trying to get in and feed the elephants that I was standing a little bit ostracized from the group. An EJS woman came over and handed me a bottle and showed me how to administer the milk to the smallest elephant there. I was glad to have been standing back a little bit or I don’t think she would’ve come up to me. The baby elephant drank from the bottle, and in that moment I couldn’t believe I was in Thailand feeding a baby elephant. It seemed too cool to be true. Megan also got a chance to bottle feed the baby elephant, and by the time other people realized this awesome opportunity, the elephant didn’t want to drink it anymore. We were so lucky to be picked!

All throughout the feeding time, an EJS man was trolling everyone by grabbing onto people’s legs with a firm grip just when they least expected it, making them think they’d just been bitten by some rabid animal. He literally tricked me five times. Every single time I was surprised.

After that, we changed clothes to go into the muddy pools with the elephants. Megan decided not to go in, opting to take photos, but I changed and got in. Again, it was slightly intimidating with the size of these elephants standing right next to you. The elephants walked in and flopped down, and we splashed their leathery skin with water. It was hot out, so the cool mud felt good on my feet. Soon, the troll was back and he smeared mud all down my back. I splashed him for that. Sometimes an elephant would take water in its trunk and spray it at people, giving them a nice splatter effect of mud down the whole side of their body. It was fun to watch, but I’m glad I didn’t get sprayed.

Then the group migrated to a deeper river to play with the elephants. Finally we all took brushes and scrubbed the elephants under a shower structure with clean water. A nice lady helped me wash off the mud caked on my back. I changed back into my clothes just in time for a nice Thai lunch buffet. We shared great conversation with an American and South African currently teaching in Kuwait, as well as a family of Aussies, two of them on their honeymoon. Megan, being fascinated with Australia, took the opportunity to befriend our Aussie neighbors, who were pretty funny and had done a ton of traveling.

After lunch, we all got Karen shirts and were taken back to our hotels in tuk tuks. We were exhausted from an early day and a long ride, so we napped and showered.

Later the in the evening, we got picked up at our hotel for a night of Muay Thai boxing. We were dropped off, got highlighter yellow t-shirts branded with Patong Boxing Stadium, and took a seat in the rafters. When I say the “rafters,” it was still close because the stadium was fairly small. I bought french fries and popcorn before the first fight. There were seven fights in total, and they were in order by weight class, the lightest being first. When it was time to start, two rail-thin, young boys came out in robes and boxing gloves. They took off the robes and stretched, preparing for the match. A referee chopped the air between them and it was time to start. Arabian-sounding live music came from horn players sitting in the corner of the stadium. They kicked and jabbed at each other, round after round. Finally, one gave out and couldn’t fight any longer. He collapsed on the ring floor, motionless. People cheered for the winner, who couldn’t have been more than 14 years old, as people came to help the loser come to and stand up. Each fight, the boys got progressively older and heavier. The first three match ups were locals from Thailand, and the next four were a Thai fighter against someone from another country. Some of the fighters would do a ceremonial dance to music before the fight. Not every boxer knocked out their opponent; some won based on the scoring after so many rounds. It was clear that some of the younger fighters were friends because they would hug or fist bump after the match.

We saw fighters from Argentina, Costa Rica, England, and Sweden. The heaviest fighters were legitimately scary looking. The heaviest Thai fighter had a mean face and a thick belly. The Swede, Ronnie, was built like a skyscraper and had choppy blonde hair framing his face. In the end, the Swede won.

I had never been to a boxing match before, so to see people this young ready to dedicate their life to boxing was eyeopening to me. I’m sure that Muay Thai boxing is a way for their family to reach money and fame if they’re actually successful. Still, I felt bad for some of the kids, knowing that they were on a path to becoming the fourth or fifth match of seven as they got older. Some of the jabs and kicks we watched were brutal, literally sending opponents to the floor, unconscious. I am so glad we came to see it though, given Muay Thai boxing is a prominent element of Thailand’s culture and history.

I couldn’t believe in the beginning of the day I was feeding elephants bananas and at the end of it I was watching sweat fly off of a man’s jaw as he got punched in Muay Thai boxing. It was another truly incredible day in Thailand.