elephantes

we visited the elephant nature park in chiang mai this week, where lek (the elephant whisperer) saves working elephants who have been injured or abused.
hope's mother was killed by poachers.
joika is blind from having her handlers in the logging industry slingshot rocks into her eyes to get her to keep working throughout the night.
one stepped on a landmine.
another's back was broken when she was forced to breed at a young age.
their stories are sad, but they live happily in what lek calls "elephant heaven" these days.

we had the chance to roam the fields with them, feed them and give the elephants a bath in the river.

i never know that elephants:
LOVED watermelon.
like to be sung to sleep.
had such amazing dexterity with their trunks.
were so intelligent.