The Elephant Nature Park. An ethical Sanctuary just outside Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Steve and crew head out to The Elephant Nature Park in Northern Thailand and learn how ethical sanctuaries center animal needs, not tourist schedules. Between river rituals, calf chaos, and quiet kitchen work, they find a better way to travel as a family and a deeper respect for elephant lives.

• why they chose an ethical sanctuary in Chiang Mai
• first encounters with Granny and her world
• baby elephants, caretakers and safe distance
• river swims, mud as sunscreen and comfort
• rescue histories, trauma recovery and trust
• vegan meals, rainy nights and family pacing
• kitchen duty, food prep and safe feeding
• the gatekeeper’s landmine story and resilience
• off‑script elephant drama and calm reroutes
• fruit “cakes” for Big Sister and shared joy

If you want to see pictures of the family on their adventures follow the show on Instagram @wwggwithstevewebb

If Where We’re Gonna Go has been fun and informative for you, please subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform

Elephant Nature Park:

https://www.elephantnaturepark.org/

If you like the theme music check out Steve's album, National Treasure by the Most Famous Steve Webb anywhere you stream music:

https://themostfamousstevewebb.bandcamp.com/album/national-treasure

https://open.spotify.com/album/0boqNyhBk1U1sww21uEWaD?si=RRG2ZItGSImrpIN14t_c2g

Some of the drum tracks on the interstitial music were originally derived from The Pocket Queen's New Breaks Vol 1

https://www.thepocketqueen.com/

Contact Steve: stevewebb0201@gmail.com

Transcript

Why We Travel As A Family

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Here we are to talk about travel. Specifically, how my wife Christy and I lead our three teenagers and an old guy, her dad, through all kinds of adventures. I'm gonna tell you where we went, what we did, and show you how we paced ourselves to avoid meltdowns and mutiny. If you're trying to plan a trip anywhere with your family or alone, this show will be helpful. If you're looking to stay at home and let us do the traveling for you, that works too. Basically, travel is good and we do it well, and I want to share that with you.

Arriving At Elephant Nature Park

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This episode takes us to the Elephant Nature Park. The ENP is an elephant rescue and rehabilitation center in Northern Thailand. We spent about two days there getting to know some elephants and understanding their community. And I tell you right now, for me, two days wasn't enough. My name is Steve Webb, and this is where we're gonna go.

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We wondered where we're gonna go. We wonder where we're gonna go.

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We wonder where we're gonna go. We wonder where we're gonna go.

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We wonder where we're gonna go.

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We wondered where we're gonna go.

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Tuesday, July 30th. I bought a bag of pork buns at the rest stop on the way back out to the jungle. We were heading to the Elephant Nature Park, the ENP, which is the same park we floated through the day prior. There are a lot of elephant sanctuaries in the general area, so we didn't immediately realize that it was the same park until we were a few hours into our tubing day. If we had realized it ahead of time, we may have arranged to rent one of the cabins at the tubing camp and saved ourselves some driving time. However, if that was the case, I would have missed out on those pork buns. We didn't do anything special to find the ENP. It was just a lot of Google searches, reviews, and checking out mission statements. All we really knew is that we wanted to visit happy, well-treated elephants, and the ENP consistently rose to the top of our searches. They have a main office in Chiang Mai and did offer to come pick us up, but the office was just a few blocks from our place, so we elected to walk over there. Bebe greeted us at the office when we arrived. She said she'd be our go-to girl for the entirety of the next two days. She gave us a run through of what to expect and invited us to relax. Our driver was on the way. The office doubled as a cafe with coffee proceeds going directly to the elephants. We sipped some coffee while waiting for our van to pull up. After some Chang Mai traffic, some highway time, and some pork buns, we arrived at the ENP. The long, open-aired room seemed like the center of quite a large operation. For being in the middle of nowhere, there was a broad spectrum of people around, all seemingly doing their own thing. From the fresh arrivals like us, new and shiny, their clothes matching and relatively clean, all the way to the people dressed like farmers, mismatched and muddy and in the zone of whatever they were doing. There were dogs everywhere. BB told us that the no-collar dogs were the friendly ones, and that the red-collar dogs should be left alone. A big, white, collarless shepherd laid curled in a cushy chair made for people. Others scanned the floors for food, while others curled up in old tires with blankets that made perfect dog nests. Out in open wall we could see water buffalo grazing and elephants dotted across the horizon. Again, I wondered if this was even real. We pointed around saying, look at that and look at that. Bebe explained a few more things to us and encouraged us to have some complimentary coffee, water, or tea that was available from giant silver bats. After a few minutes, we dropped our bags and she took us out to meet our first elephant.

Meeting Granny And First Encounters

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Granny was 97 years old, and none of us could believe it. And just like a human granny, she liked to hang out close to home and stay near her friend, another old gal in her 60s. None of us were sure how to act around our first elephant. I'll probably overuse the word mesmerizing because it's the best word I can think of for this creature. It was hard not to just stare. Z, DJ, and LL fell into a permigrine. Me and Christy just smiled in a holy shit kind of way. Roe, wanting to play it cool, was having a hard time playing it cool. We got some great picks. Granny actually appeared to be posing for the camera. She seemed to be loving the attention. Over Bibi's shoulder, I could see a water buffalo making its way straight toward us, and I wondered if it was okay. I was about to say, um, Bebe? Then Granny turned and charged the beast, showing some good agility for an old girl. The buffalo put his head low, horns back, and scooted out of there with what appeared to be an expression of shame. Bebe laughed, yelling, naughty boy! And when Bebe laughed, we all laughed. Apparently, Granny ran him off because he was a real food stealer. Our group consisted of the six of us, two men in their 30s that seemed like the type of couple where one of them was living their dream, and the other was being a supportive partner, but found all the mud kind of icky. There was another younger couple that was celebrating their honeymoon in that glowy way that you might expect. And a family of four from the UK with two nine-ish-year-old daughters that reminded me of some of the children from Willy Wonka that didn't finish the tour. We all moved together across the field to meet Granny's friend. I was feeling a bit awestruck and a little like a child in a big new world. Of the 14 of us, Granny's friend just gravitated to Christy. She moved in close, smelling her with her trunk and looking her over with those big, warm eyes. And Christy lit up in the purest way, the child in her radiating through shining eyes and laughter. In seeing this connection firsthand, it was hard for me to fathom all the things that I do not know. We spent a little time with her and she was enjoying our company, but suddenly she seemed distracted, like she had somewhere else to be. Now each elephant at the ENP has her own handler that knows her well, and they all have a schedule that they stick with. Granny's friend's man was late. He was supposed to be taking her down to the river. With barely a goodbye, she set out on her own. Trunk pointed straight ahead, both sniffing them out and blowing little trumpet hits with a demanding tone. It was the kind of exit that might have you say, Well then. We made our way to the next spot where two friends hung out together under one big elephant umbrella. These structures are all over the property. They provide shade and a table so their handlers can feed them and keep the food up out of the mud. It was easy to see from a distance that one of the elephants had been badly injured. She carried her back end way lower than normal, and both rear legs operated in disconcerting directions. These were permanent injuries sustained from force breeding in a previous life. What wasn't easy to see from a distance was that her friend was completely blind. A closer look revealed cloudy eyes, but her movements didn't reveal any limitations. The man watching over her tossed them tiny bananas, and the pair used their dexterous trunks to grab them up. Not racing and not competing, just eating. Watching the seemingly happy girl move with her bad hip and legs made my eyes water. I could feel it coming up, and I was happy that BB ushered us onward. Apparently, the baby elephants are the toughest to wrangle.

Calves, Caretakers, And Cute Danger

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Just like toddlers, they don't listen well and they don't stop running around. Visitors like us are fascinating, so naturally they want to come say hello. Now the problem with that, as Bebe explained, is that they might weigh 800 pounds. And a baby elephant's way of saying hello involves rolling around on the ground and pushing up against you and maybe knocking you over for fun and maybe smushing you into a pancake. This was Bebe's way of giving us a heads up before our next stop. Up ahead were two calves, two moms and a nanny. Each calf has three caretakers because they require so much chasing. And to add to the trouble, one of the moms stopped running after her baby because she knew the caretakers would do it. All the humans at the park called her lazy mom, but I don't think she took offense. To me, she looked really relaxed. The caretaker, on the other hand, was working hard to keep the baby occupied and away from us. Occasionally, Bibi would say, We gotta move now, and we'd scurry one way or the other while the man dribbled a giant soccer ball in front of the baby, distracting him just enough for us to make our getaway. I'd never experienced such cute danger like this before. Jungle Boy himself was responsible for four calves that currently roam the property. The ENP was doing their best to prevent overcrowding so all the elephants could be as comfortable as possible. By the sound of that horn, though, Jungle Boy thought this was a dumb system. His brassy trills echoed off the mountains, soaring over the base of nearby females. A sound they admitted from their being, almost too low to hear, but all around present as it rumbled through the earth and up to my feet. I wondered what they could hear with those big ears and perceive with those big brains. A music so broad that it went below what we were capable of feeling and higher than we could reach. None of us talked too much during this whole morning walk. We were all somewhat entranced. The elephant heart beats only 30 times per minute. Perhaps there was some type of alignment happening. An energy that caused us to slow down and just stare, mesmerized by these giant dinosaurs. We met the elephant that Bibi held as a baby on her first day. Now 16 and nearly full grown, she still called her little sister. For Bibi, the elephants were family members. The more she spoke, the more she revealed about the nuanced behavior of each individual. She knew everyone's mood and tendencies, who got along with who, and who had no friends. She knew who had seen despair and who had found their way back. We stopped by to see a baby boy, his mom, and his nanny. The nanny had a permanently swollen sack under her left eye from sustained beatings in the past. She was a logging elephant, beaten into submission daily and

River, Mud Baths, And Elephant Comfort

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worked rigorously. One day, she finally reached her limit and stomped her man to death. She came to the park after the incident. She was despondent and down, distrustful of humans, and without any elephant friends. Around the same time, this mother had lost her baby, became depressed, and refused to work. Her owner gave her up to the park because she no longer had any value to him. Not too long after her arrival, she became pregnant again, and two years later, she had the baby boy that stood in front of us. In a way, he'd saved his mom's life, but he wasn't done. The beaten-down elephant met this baby and came to life. According to Bibi, she was a new woman. She'd adopted the young mother and the baby as their nanny, and now the three were never apart. Mom leads, baby follows, and nanny brings up the rear. And you can believe nothing is gonna harm that child. As Bebe told us this story, the little elephant flung plants onto his own head. He was a clown, showing off and easing any worries we may have had about standing so close to an elephant that had killed a man. With no barriers between us, he was a bridge. And if he was happy, everyone was happy. We walked on, down to the river to watch them swim and spray and trumpet. At first, I thought elephants were brownish red in Thailand. But no, they're gray under there for at least three minutes a day. The moment they get clean in the river, they climb out, find a mud hole, and proceed to ball the mud with their trunk and fling it onto their back, sides, and belly. They don't stop until they're completely cinnamon chocolate from tail to trunk. Apparently it makes a great sunscreen and insect deterrent. Next, we met Big Sister. Not to be confused with Little Sister. She was a double-chinned sweetheart that everyone loved. All the people and all the elephants. We learned that elephants often have sensitive stomachs, and that Big Sister wasn't feeling well. She'd had a stomachache for days. She spotted Bibi from a distance and began to head in our direction to say hello when a family of five intercepted her on the way. The family surrounded her. The big elephants reached their trunks up around, and the little ones hugged her legs and rubbed her belly. Trunks moved like hands across a loved one's back. There was a swaying motion and a deep, comforting song. The damn humidity in Thailand is so persistent. My eyes just kept sweating.

Dinner, Cards, And Night At ENP

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For lunch, they had a hell of a Thai food buffet. Christy and I decided not to tell the kids that it was all vegan. And we carefully instructed LL not to mention it because if you say the word vegan to most Western humans, especially kids, they'll automatically think it's an edible. And sure enough, the kids were enjoying lunch and probably wouldn't have noticed, but LL was really enjoying lunch. And he's the king of conversation. So when the food tastes that good and it's vegan, he's going to need to make a comment. Me and Christy gave him that look, as Ro and Z pushed their plates away slowly to protest the betrayal. After lunch, BB showed us to our rooms. They were nicer than I expected for an elephant camp, but had a slightly industrial feel. They were set up to get muddy, then be hosed out thoroughly and returned to a shiny white. It had been raining steady all afternoon, and I could see that mud was a constant consideration. The kids had started to reach their limit on elephant talk for the day, and LL was due for an afternoon nap, so they hung back in the rooms. Christy and I were completely content to watch elephants for long stretches, so we grabbed a bottle of wine from the concession stand and went out to the overlook platform. It was the perfect vantage point. Covered from the rain, with some tables and chairs, we sipped, while Big Sister and the Big Boss Lady did their mudball treatment down below, and smaller elephants came to them as if to pay their respects. We walked back to our rooms to gather the gaggle for dinner. With a view of the river, we could see ten or so elephants walking upstream, crossing it, and heading up the mountain for their night resting spot. Watching such a big group walk up the river against the misty mountain backdrop was so majestic. Yes, I referred to a Tesaurus to try to find a better word, but stately, fab, or grandiose don't cut it. Although it did have a ceremonious vibe. We had another great meal. Then we got into some card games in the big open dining area. LL told the story about breaking away from a big insurance company to start his own agency. A real David and Goliath tale that we've all heard, but it still makes us feel good. Christy cried instead of me for once. We carried on lively into the night. We laughed, we cried, and we probably kept some elephants awake. Wednesday, July 31st.

Kitchen Duty And Feeding Rounds

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We were at breakfast by 8 a.m. and set to meet Bibi by 9. She led us to an industrial-sized food storage area slash elephant kitchen and started assigning jobs. My job was to find the mini yellow bananas that dotted the mounds of mini green bananas. Others bagged up green bananas, melons, corn, and pineapple. In the background, long-term volunteers cooked large vats of rice, cut up melons, and moved about the kitchen with the ease of familiarity that our group obviously lacked. With big sacks of food, we walked out the back side of the kitchen and crossed the river on a long suspension bridge. The rain, light but steady, had been falling continuously from the day prior. Some of the elephants at the ENP still felt traumatized by the treatment they endured before their arrival. Recovery was often a long process, years in some cases. She used the word unstable, which is not a word anyone wants to hear about a 6,000-pound creature in the proximity. Quickly, under his breath, Z shared with me his escape route. The elephant in question didn't look agitated, but was definitely checking us out in an uncertain, seeming way, and completely blocking our path, which would turn out to be the theme of the day for us. It wasn't long though before her man came and nudged her out of the way so we could safely pass. We proceeded along a trail, high up on the riverbank, and arrived at the gatekeeper. Bebe said the password was banana, and she laughed, and we all laughed. The gatekeeper was about 39 years old and so friendly and sweet. Her eyes were the most alive of any elephant I'd seen yet. She looked at me with both of them, head on, and I felt like her big brain was scanning mine.

Gatekeeper Stories And Landmine Survival

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But I felt calm and I knew she did too. She worked as a logger up until she stepped on a landmine. The doctors at the park operated and fixed her foot. It looks pretty good considering. Her life had gone from a labor camp to hanging out high on the riverbank with happy people bringing her her favorite foods. This change was not lost on her. It's hard to describe how you can feel goodness and happiness from an animal, but everyone knows when they see it. I wanted to hug her big old head, and I probably could have. We all took turns passing her every type of food except the yellow bananas. They were the softest and had to be saved for a toothless granny that we were going to meet up the hill. Her trunk wrapped around bunches of mini bananas, exhibiting, up close, some supreme dexterity and strength. She crushed melons in her mouth like they were grapes, and whole corn cobs were no more than baby carrots to her. One of the Wonka twins tried to hand her one mini banana. The Agent Elephant's trunk alone has up to 40,000 muscles, all working together. The whole human body only has 700. My girl wasn't about to activate that whole process for one mini banana. She paused and stared at the Wonka, possibly wondering how she'd made it this far, and waited for the little human to make it worth her while. With that, Wonka too gave her a bunch of five or six bananas, and the eating resumed. She was already my favorite elephant, but that interaction put her over the top. She was also polite enough to stop eating and not get pushy and try to steal the rest of our food that we needed for the others, which I hadn't yet realized was rare behavior. We said goodbye and headed down the trail. We were walking along the river looking down and across to the main part of the park. The wide grassland populated with many of the elephants we'd met the day prior, and some more. The water buffalo herd was crossing the river behind us and spreading out over the grounds like giant roombawn mowers. Up in front of us, and a little off script, the family with the two babies was crossing the river. Their men were nowhere in sight, and Bebe looked concerned. We paused on the trail, the family crossed the path up ahead and went into the jungle. Bebe said that we needed to be quiet like the air and we could hurry past. But 14 tourists clumping through the mud are louder than the wind, so inevitably one of the babies spotted us. She told us to turn and go the other way, and we did, backing up a hundred yards and pausing. A man came down and talked to Bibi and Ty. What I gathered was that he was not their man, but he could try to convince the family to head back across the river. Our group, our families, were quiet throughout these events.

Detours, Drama, And Jungle Routes

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Everyone was paying a little more attention. Not necessarily scared, but with heightened alertness. We were all on point. The man and another man across the river coaxed the five elephants down into the water while we made a quick pass through the kind of mud that might steal your shoes if you're not careful. After the stretch of mud, we resumed at a nice pace, around the curve and out of sight of the elephants and the river. I was bringing up the rear and I noticed the deep bass roar coming from behind. It was the sound of every dinosaur you've ever heard in the movies. They caught the scent of our food and had returned to our trail, but the man was standing his ground, and we were far enough away that it wasn't a real threat. Just some everyday elephant drama here in the jungle. We cut upward, climbing one of the misty mountains through some thicker jungle. We came to another hut, where a man stood with his two elephants waiting behind two horizontal logs resembling a fence. It wasn't actually a fence though. There's no fences in the park. It was more like a station. The logs were there to keep the animals from getting too pushy. Our banana girl at the bottom of the hill was a unique one. The rest didn't have her manners and needed the station so we wouldn't accidentally get smushed. At this station, there was the old toothless girl in her seventies who was to get the soft yellow bananas. Next to her was the biggest elephant we'd seen yet, a healthy girl in her thirties. She had been trained to be an actor in her past, and she was literally dancing at the gate, knowing that we had the goods. I could see the personality and excitement coming from her, and she was instantly my second favorite elephant, and Christie's first. Big and beautiful with a young, magnetic spirit. I could see why she'd made it on the big screen before returning to the jungle. The old gal begrudgingly ate the soft yellows while her partner sucked down everything. She kept begging even though we had to save some of our food for the next pair we were gonna visit. Her man told us to show her one of the empty bags to prove that we were out. She sniffed the bag, looked at us, and paused for a second. Then she walked away from the gate, and I thought we tricked her. But she was no dummy. She knew we were holding, so she started to head around the gate, because remember, it only resembled a fence. It was not a fence. With that, BB said, She's coming around! We have to move quickly. We were getting used to this routine by now, so all of us said a quick goodbye while her man said a pick and we rolled out. We stopped off at another old young pear. The young elephant had only been there for six months but had adapted quickly. There were tears streaming down as she ate. Bibi said she cried every time people

Station Stops And Big Personalities

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came to feed her. In her past life, she worked hard and was fed poorly. I watched her crunch down a whole pineapple. The juice ran down around her chin, sweetening those tears. Some might think that an elephant can't possess a sense of gratitude. But with a head and a heart that big, anything is possible. A man's head and heart are relatively small containers by comparison, especially when they're closed. I'd saved some of my best bananas because we were going to pass back by the gatekeeper again, and I was a little in love with her. I noticed a couple other people in our group did the same thing. We fed her the rest of what we had, which was a lot. The gal and I eye-gazed for a few moments and I had to break it off to not make it awkward for the rest of the people. Zee and I found ourselves competing with the Wonka girls for her attention. And I had to fight my own brain, reminding myself that I'm a full-grown 47-year-old man and they were only nine. But still, they were totally hogging her. On our way back, we were blocked one more time by some off-script elephants, but we made it pass without incident. Back at the main building, we sat around and snacked. We had a little downtime, we made some jokes, we got bored, we watched some more water buffalo graze and rob and steal. Our final event before heading home was to make a big elephant cake for Big Sister, Big Boss Lady, and their friend. Secretly, I didn't want to make an elephant cake. Are we fourth graders now? Fast forward 15 minutes, and I'm having more fun than I should, smashing rice and bananas together as the base of our cake while the others went to fetch a variety of fruits and vegetables. I spread the rice mixture out onto a board in the shape of an elephant head, give or take. Then Roe, DJ, and I became completely engrossed in arranging the fruit and decorating our masterpiece. Christy was distributing vegetables and helping with raw materials. Z had disappeared. It was not a secret that he did not want to make a cake for elephants. His loss. The Wonkas took over LL's cake. He was left chatting with the dad and saying encouraging things to the little blokes because he is a better man than me.

Gratitude, Tears, And Second Chances

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Our cake was really coming together, but our progress was slow because someone kept hogging the knife. Our group made three cakes total. The Wonkas, ours, and the gay couple who teamed up with the honeymoon couple. The gay honeymooners totally came from behind. Their cake started off looking like crap, but now it was exquisite. I had a bad feeling that they might win, but we stayed diligent. By then, Z had reappeared. I could tell he liked our cake even though we had to tell him it was an elephant. I kinda see it. It was as close as we could get to approval, but he said it with a smile. We carried our cakes out to the field and set them on three pedestals. The gals came running. And to our astonishment, they stepped over the other's cake to get to ours. They raced to eat it first. I wanted to scream something like in your face at the Wonka's, but I didn't need to. The elephant said it all. Plus, I'm an adult, remember? A common review about the ENP was that guests didn't want to leave. Whether they'd stayed for days, weeks, or months, the sentiment consistently resurfaced. I know the kids and LL.

Elephant Cakes And Farewell Reflections

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Loved it, but we're also happy to head back to Chiang Mai, especially Ro and Z, who had been conspiring for a stop at Taco Bell ever since they heard that the food was vegan. As for Christy and I, if at some point throughout a stay we find ourselves dreaming of retiring and volunteering at said location for half the year, that's our version of not wanting to leave in our highest possible accolade for any location. Yes, we've said that about enough places now that the math gets tricky. But as we loaded up into the van that day to head back to the city, we were certain that we'd return again for at least six months a year to help with these majestic, mesmerizing beings. Links to most of the places I discussed will be in the show notes. And if you want to see some pictures of the famine I on our adventures, follow me on Instagram at wwwgg with Steve Webb. This show is written, recorded, and produced by me, Steve Webb. With music by me, Steve Webb. If you like the theme song, check out my album National Treasure by the most famous Steve Webb, anywhere extreme music. If where we're gonna go has been fun and informative for you, please leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you've enjoyed the trip.

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We wondered where we're gonna go, we wondered where we're gonna go, we wondered where we're gonna go. We wondered where we're gonna go, wondered where we're gonna go, we wondered where we're gonna go.