Lanna Kingdom Elephant Sanctuary in Chiang Mai became an important stop in our family’s journey toward understanding more responsible animal tourism.
But to understand why this experience meant so much to us, I have to go back two years.
During our first trip to Thailand, the kids were younger, and there was one thing they desperately wanted to do: Ride an elephant.
At the time, we hadn’t really questioned elephant tourism. Then we visited a zoo in Thailand.
It was one of the first times we’d seen animals being kept in conditions that really upset us. Elephants were chained, gibbons and other animals were in dirty cages, and instead of enjoying our visit, I found myself questioning what we were supporting simply by being there.
Until then, I don’t think I’d really stopped to ask myself the bigger question: Just because we can interact with a wild animal as tourists, does that mean we should?
Returning to Thailand With a Different Perspective
In 2018, we believed choosing an elephant sanctuary instead of an elephant-riding camp was the better choice. We wanted somewhere where the elephants weren’t giving rides or performing tricks.
After researching different options around Chiang Mai, we chose Lanna Kingdom Elephant Sanctuary, located about an hour outside the busy center of Chiang Mai.
At the time of our visit, we were told the sanctuary had recently moved to a much larger property, going from around 15 acres to 40 acres and giving the elephants more space.
The sanctuary arranged transportation from our hotel, and when we arrived, they provided us with clothes and shoes to change into.
Then it was time to meet the elephants. And apparently, the easiest way to make an elephant interested in you was… Bananas. Lots of bananas.
Meeting Mr. Pop from Lanna Kingdom Elephant Sanctuary
One of the things that made our experience feel so personal was meeting the owner, Witthaya Phongsiri, whom everyone called Mr. Pop.
He welcomed us and explained what they were doing at the sanctuary.
We learned about the individual elephants living there, where some of them had come from and just how much food and care such enormous animals require.
He also taught us a few of the words they used around the elephants:
Bon: open your mouth, used when offering food
Didi: good boy/girl after feeding them
Haw: stop
And then there was his nickname.
Mr. Pop, like popcorn!
Much easier for us to remember than his Thai name!
Elephants Eat…A LOT!
One thing became very clear very quickly: Elephants spend a huge amount of time eating.
No surprise when you look at their size!
Elephants are herbivores and eat grasses, leaves, bark, twigs and other vegetation. An adult elephant can consume an enormous amount of food every day.
During our visit, bananas were definitely a favorite. We each received a basket, which suddenly made us extremely popular.
After the first feeding, we helped prepare another mixture for the elephants using ingredients including tamarind, sugar cane and banana. We mashed everything together, formed it into large balls and fed them. The kids loved it.
At that point in our travels, we’d never been that close to elephants before without sitting on one. And it felt completely different.
Mud, Water and a Very Naughty Elephant
After eating came one of the activities offered during our visit in 2018: The mud bath.
We were told that mud helps elephants protect their skin and regulate their body temperature, and visitors were invited to get into the mud with them.
Of course… Mass and Cosimo went straight in.
When else were they going to have an excuse to cover themselves, and an elephant, in mud?
Afterward, everyone moved into the water to wash off.
One of the elephants, Lanna, clearly had her own ideas about how bath time should go. She started spraying everyone! She rolled around in the water and seemed determined to make sure nobody stayed dry.
Mass and Cosimo didn’t want to get out. They were having way too much fun.
At the time, we saw bathing the elephants as a much kinder alternative to riding them. Today, I would make a different choice.
What We’ve Learned Since Our Visit to Lanna Kingdom Elephant Sanctuary
This is one of the reasons I don’t want to rewrite our old travel stories as though we knew then what we know now.
We didn’t.
On our first trip to Thailand, we thought riding an elephant sounded like an exciting experience for the kids.
We did it.
We saw things that made us uncomfortable. And we decided we wouldn’t do it again.
When we returned in 2018, we believed visiting a sanctuary where we could feed, touch and bathe elephants was the responsible alternative.
Our thinking had moved forward. But our learning wasn’t finished.
Since then, elephant-welfare guidance has increasingly moved toward hands-off, observation-based experiences, where elephants have more choice over their movements and interactions with people.
Today, if we were choosing an elephant experience, we would look for one where we could observe elephants behaving naturally from a respectful distance rather than physically interacting with them.
That’s part of traveling too. You learn. You question. And sometimes you look back at something you once recommended and realize you’d do it differently today.
I’m okay with admitting that.
Who Were the Elephants at Lanna Kingdom Elephant Sanctuary?
When we visited in 2018, there were five rescued female elephants living at Lanna Kingdom Elephant Sanctuary: four adults and one youngster.
And just like people, each seemed to have her own personality.
Mae Tong
Mae Tong was 42 years old when we met her. We were told she was the quiet, thoughtful one of the group and loved spending time peacefully on her own.
Mae Dao
Mae Dao was 37 years old and apparently loved her food! She and Mae Tong were buddies, and we could recognize Mae Dao because of the marking on her back.
Lanna
Lanna was only three years old and definitely the mischievous one. They called her “Spicy Lanna.” She loved playing in the water and had absolutely no problem stealing a banana if you weren’t paying attention. She was also responsible for spraying everyone during bath time!
Aoi Jai
Aoi Jai was 35 years old when we visited. We were told that she’d been pregnant but had lost her baby and had formed a particularly close bond with young Lanna. We often saw them together.
Chaba
Chaba’s name meant beautiful flower. She was 39 years old and enormous, but incredibly gentle during our visit. She tended to stay more to herself. We had quite a bit of interaction with her because of her calm nature, and Emma especially felt very comfortable around her. I loved watching that connection.
Where Had the Elephants Come From?
During our visit, we were told that the elephants at Lanna Kingdom Elephant Sanctuary had come from different forms of captive work and entertainment, including riding camps, logging-related work and performances.
Mr. Pop explained to us how expensive it could be to acquire an elephant from a previous owner and then continue paying for food, veterinary care, land and staff.
At the time, he told us that some elephants could cost around 1.5 million baht to acquire.
Tourist visits, donations and products sold by the sanctuary, including paper made using elephant dung, helped cover the expenses involved in caring for the elephants and, according to what we were told during our visit, potentially bringing additional elephants into their care.
It gave us another glimpse into how complicated Thailand’s captive-elephant situation really was. Simply removing tourists from the equation wasn’t as straightforward as we’d once imagined.
There were already captive elephants needing food and care, along with people and communities whose livelihoods had become connected to them. We were beginning to understand that responsible elephant tourism was much more complicated than simply changing the word “camp” to “sanctuary.”
Who Is Mr. Pop?
One reason this experience stayed with us was because Mr. Pop took the time to talk to us personally.
He didn’t simply introduce us to “the elephants.” He introduced us to individual elephants. During our visit, he shared the story of how his work with elephants had begun. He told us that he’d spent years working in tourism and had seen elephants used in shows, dancing, painting, playing football and performing for visitors.
Then he met a young female elephant named King Kaew.
According to the story he shared with us, seeing her performing changed something for him. He became upset thinking about her growing up performing for tourists and wanted to give her a different life. He told us that he used his own money to acquire King Kaew and move her to a new home surrounded by nature.
That decision eventually led to the creation of Lanna Kingdom Elephant Sanctuary.
Hearing the story directly from him made the experience much more personal.This wasn’t simply another attraction we were visiting. We were meeting the person behind it and hearing why he’d decided to change direction.
Lunch With a View at Lanna Kingdom Elephant Sanctuary
At the end of our visit, we sat down for a meal while the elephants wandered around the property. Every once in a while, one would come closer to investigate. Probably checking whether we’d left anything edible behind.
After spending the day learning their names and hearing their individual stories, it was impossible to look at them simply as “the elephants” anymore.
There was Lanna, the mischievous one. Chaba, whom Emma had become so comfortable around. Mae Tong and Mae Dao. Aoi Jai. Each had a story. And each had somehow ended up here.
Our Family’s Changing Relationship With Animal Tourism
Looking back, this visit at Lanna Kingdom Elephant Sanctuary represents an important point in our family’s journey.
Our first trip to Thailand taught us to question elephant riding.
Our second trip taught us to start looking more carefully at where animals in tourism come from and how they’re treated.
And the years since have taught us to question even more.
That’s something I’ve noticed throughout our travels. Our idea of responsible travel keeps evolving.
The more we see, the more questions we ask. Experiences we might have accepted without hesitation years ago are experiences we’d research very differently today.
That’s especially true when animals are involved.
Today, I wouldn’t tell another family: “Don’t ride elephants. Go bathe them instead.”
I would say: Don’t ride them. Don’t choose performances. And if you want to visit captive elephants, research the facility carefully and look for an experience that lets you observe the elephants without requiring them to interact with you.
The word “sanctuary” alone doesn’t guarantee that a place follows current best practices.
That’s something we didn’t fully understand in 2018.
Looking Back at Our Day at Lanna Kingdom Elephant Sanctuary
Would I erase this experience at Lanna Kingdom Elephant Sanctuary from our travels? Absolutely not.
It was part of our learning.
I still remember Emma’s connection with Chaba.
Cosimo and Mass covered from head to toe in mud.
Lanna spraying everyone with water.
The endless bananas.
And sitting with Mr. Pop and learning the individual stories of the elephants we’d spent the day around.
But I also look at the experience differently today.
And I think that’s important to share.
Travel isn’t only about learning facts about other countries. Sometimes it’s about discovering that something you believed needs to change.
When our kids first asked to ride an elephant in Thailand, we said yes. Then we learned more. We stopped riding elephants. We chose what we believed was a better experience.
Then we learned more again. And we changed again.
I hope we never stop doing that.
Because responsible travel isn’t about pretending we’ve always made the perfect choices.
It’s about being willing to learn from the choices we’ve made—and making better ones the next time.
Check out the lovely hotel we stayed at Feel Nimman Boutique!!
Continue the journey with:
If you are planning a trip to Asia, these unique destinations should definitely be on your radar:
- Brunei: The Family Trip That Became a Girls’ Adventure
- 5 Days in Hong Kong: What We Did, What We Missed, and Why That’s Perfectly Okay
- A Family Journey Through India
- Discovering Cambodia: From Phnom Penh to the Magic of Siem Reap with Kids
- Visiting Bhutan with Kids: Inside the Magical Kingdom of Bhutan
I hope our experience helps you plan an unforgettable Asia adventure of your own!
