Sukothai, Thailand

We were on the road early today making our way to Sukothai. After a few hours drive we stopped at The Elephant Conservation Center.

The Thai Elephant Conservation Center (TECC), is Thailand’s only government-owned Elephant camp. It is located in a beautiful forest area between Chiang Mai and Sukothai. More than just a tourist experience, the TECC is also known for its work in conservation and science. They proudly house six of HM King Bhumibol’s ten white elephants in the Royal Elephant Stables, and care for more than 50 Asian elephants.

The TECC has a popular program called the homestay program, offering one to four day options putting tourists on the neck of an elephant and teaching them the basics of riding an elephant: control techniques, command words, mounting and dismounting, steering, and more. Upon our arrival we watched members of the program ride the elephants to the water to bath and later bought some corn to feed them.

Later we watched an elephant show featuring traditional logging techniques and also showing elephants painting pictures. Yes, for real. I watched an Elephant paint the following picture.

It was amazing to think of how smart they must be to be able to do this. All the trainer did was help apply the paint to the brush, the elephant did all the rest while holding the paintbrush in its trunk. The TECC was the first place in Thailand where elephants learned painting. It is also the home of the internationally famous Thai Elephant Orchestra. Although we missed the Orchestra, I’m sure it was just as awesome as the picture painting.

Next we visited The FAE hospital (Friend of Asian Elephant). An Elephant hospital not far from the conservation area.

Soraida Salwala opened the world’s first Asian Elephant Hospital to treat elephants that are ill or injured as a result of work, abuse or neglect or other injuries. To date, she and her staff have treated over 3,000 elephants for everything from eye infections to knife wounds, gunshot wounds, broken bones and landmine accidents. When Soraida was very young she saw an elephant get put down after being hit by a truck because there was no place to take him. This experience stuck with her and she has made it her life’s mission to save every elephant in Thailand through her work at the hospital. There is an award winning documentary titled “The Eyes of Thailand” which features the elephants of FAE. You can check it out here. http://www.eyesofthailand.com

As it is not as much a tourist place as the conservation center we saw earlier, we were not allowed to get close to any of the elephants, however I was able to get a few pictures of the hospital’s most famous patient, Motala, who stepped on a landmine while working in logging across the border in Burma in 1999. She was successfully fitted with a prosthetic device (designed at the hospital) which you can see in the photo.

Later that afternoon we continued on to Sukothai. That night we stayed at Sukothai heritage hotel. Very nice hotel, there were only a few guests so we practically had the place to ourselves. It is surrounded by traditional organic rice farms, with ancient Sukhothai architecture, the restaurant had a cool setting overlooking elephants in the water spraying water through their trunk with fish swimming throughout. It had 2 pools that were refreshing to be in after a long hot day on the road.

The next day we rented some bicycles and rode to the Sukothai historical park.

Sukhothai was capital of the first kingdom of Siam established some 800 years ago. Sukhothai literally means “Dawn of Happiness.” It is located in a beautiful setting of lawns, lakes and trees, divided into five areas and covers about 27 square miles. The central area alone contains 21 temples enclosed by a moat (representing the edge of the universe), the greatest of which has 200 pagodas.

Eight kings would rule from the royal capital, the most important of whom was King Ramkhamhaeng the Great (c.1278–99), the youngest son of the founding king. He established Theraveda Buddhism as the national religion and introduced an early form of the Thai alphabet. He thought it would be necessary to have a national language since this would help unify the nation and give it an identity of its own. The language he created is the same as the official Thai language used today.

The monument to King Ramkhamhaeng the Great-

The temples in the park were nothing short of extraordinary. There were so many to see, having a bicycle was definitely an asset. There were Buddha statues of all sizes here, and the biggest I’ve yet seen was at Wat Sri Chum, made of brick and stucco, the seated Buddha measures more than 36 ft (11m) wide and almost 49 ft (15m) high. Draped over one leg is the Buddha’s giant right hand, his fingers styled with gold nail polish.