After I got back to the centre of town I asked about going to the Elephant Valley Project for that night a volunteering the next day. The guy I was talking to said sure so I thought great I will go and get changed and be off. I turned around and he was sitting on motorbike waiting for me. So I guess I was leaving right then and there.
The Elephant Valley Project is an NGO that does a whole bunch of things involving the elephants and the local people in villages around Sen Monorom and all over the province.
I went there and hung out with the elephants half the day and then volunteered the other half.
After breakfast in the morning we did a short walk into the valley where we waited for the elephants to take their morning bath. In that part of the valley there were 5 elephants they the NGO either rent from the local families to be there or they buy them.
Basically the whole point is to take over worked elephants and retire them in a natural environment. Some of the elephants had been badly abused and others had just been way overworked. They only buy the elephants if they are in critical condition otherwise they just pay the local families in rice and other things that they would have gotten by working the elephants.
After hearing all about the NGO the elephants came over to the river to take their morning bath and we threw buckets of water on them and helped them get the mud off them from the previous days.
I learned a while lot about elephants like how weak their spines are in comparison to their body size and how they are damaged by having tourists riding on them. I also saw many scars from poorly fitting seats that they used to have to wear. One of the elephants had simply given up from being overworked and wouldnt move so its owners made a hole in its forehead and used a metal hook to pull and steer it. Another one of the many things that the NGO does is teach the local people who still use the elephants to work how to properly take care of them because they simply dont know as a whole generation was wiped out during the Khmer Rouge and the civil war the knowlege may not have been passed donw. One story I heard of was they went to check on a sick elephant and they boy who was taking care of them said that he was a magic elephant and he didnt need to drink water. And he truly believed it cause thats all he knew.
it was really cool just hanging around with them watching what they would do in the wild because you dont really ever get a chance to see them so relaxed anywhere else.
After we got them all nice and clean they went over to some mud pits and got them selves all covered up again, Also very cool to watch.
Then after another hour or two watching them we headed back to the lodge where we had lunch. After a nice siesta we went and worked on the backpacker house they they were building so that they could have more people do overnight trips. Me and one of the other guys ended up scrubbing and painting the walls around the outside so not too hard work.
At the lodge after we watched the amazing sun set i went to bed in one of the same hammocks that we used on the jungle trek, Just as i was climbing in the rope that had been holding it up decided to wear through so i ended up on the ground and then sleeping on the couch.
Super cool 2 days and a really great cause. If you get a chance to do something like this take it!
Remember to comment and pass on!
more photos in the Sen Monorom album on the left.
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