Part 1- The Farm - Rural Chiang Mai Farm Volunteer Experience скачать в хорошем качестве

Part 1- The Farm - Rural Chiang Mai Farm Volunteer Experience

This is a three part video series that follows our week-long volunteer program with the highly regarded organization, Elephant Nature Park. Our program, known as “Journey to Freedom,” takes place in the rural mountainous farmlands a couple hours drive outside of Chiang Mai. The emphasis of this program is to educate travelers on the plight of elephants who have been rescued from tourism or logging industries. More on that in a minute… THE FARM The first video in our series focuses on the farm where we spent most of the week. This farm is owned by a Karen Hill Tribe family who transitioned their family business from primarily agriculture to hosting rescued elephants on their large acreage. The family has partnered with Elephant Nature Park to host this particular program (which has been going on for many years now). Their land is perfectly suited to rehabilitating elephants into the jungle. It’s an understatement to say that we fell in love with this farm land. It’s gorgeous. Terraced planting fields, thick jungle, grazing paddies for water buffalo… As we hiked around the property we had daydreams of moving into one of the tiny bamboo houses that dot the landscape. In this video we also introduce you to our fellow travelers and give you a glimpse into some of the actual “work” we undertake one afternoon (this program does not ask much in terms of labor from its participants). THE VILLAGE In the second video we introduce you to the nearby Karen Hill Tribe village and elementary school. For me there was a sense of being thrown into the deep end of the pool. We didn’t get much prep before we got dropped off in the bustling school to teach a classroom full of first graders. Luckily we partnered with another participant who is an elementary teacher--she had actually done some lesson planning before we arrived. It was intimidating to have the teachers give their class completely over to us for about 45 minutes. But guess what? We all survived. And it was definitely one of our favorite travel experiences ever. Our group of 13 participants also gets a couple of afternoons to wander the tiny village where we meet more children. On the dirt roads leading through this village we passed many chickens, a goat and a very large pig. The local children were curious about us and eventually engaged us with games and they even tried out their English. It felt like a special occasion to be allowed to witness a brief moment in this village. We were absolutely outsiders, but because of this program’s community-building relationship with the village, we were granted access that would be difficult otherwise. THE ELEPHANTS Our exceptional guide throughout the program, Ek, was also our educator and provided a wealth of knowledge about the organization’s work with elephants. You may already know that in most cases, elephants that are trained for the tourism industry endure terrible suffering. Their training consists of some horrific practices and they may spend a lifetime with a chain tied to their leg. Elephant Nature Park has rescued (ie. purchased) many elephants from such living conditions and six of their elephants now reside on this farmland. As participants in the program we got to observe these beauties in their natural setting. There is no riding of the elephants (this practice should be a red flag for visitors who want to avoid interacting with elephants in a harmful way). Instead we get to simply be present with their day to day activities. Pulling down banana plants, rubbing against tree trunks, digging for medicinal roots… Observing from a very close distance, often close enough to touch, was one of the great gifts of our lives. Often the human members of our group would just sit down in the jungle undergrowth. Our chattering would die down and the sounds of the elephants would come to the forefront. There was nothing to do except watch and feel in awe of meeting these gigantic creatures. We cannot recommend this program highly enough. Here’s a link to the Elephant Nature Park website (https://www.elephantnaturepark.org/en.... You can find all the details about price (it’s not free, but it felt very reasonably priced to us), dates, accommodations and also about the mission of the organization. We’re also happy to try to answer questions about the program. For us this was a once in a lifetime experience that held a balance between adventure and vacation. Between being an observer and a participant. Between elements of comfort and rustic. And ultimately it gave us an intimate experience with local humans and elephants that felt genuine and symbiotic. Gratefully, Tyler and Bobby Follow us on Instagram http://bit.ly/2maP0Ff Join us on Facebook http://bit.ly/2nIwSms