We’ve been following and supporting the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand for a long time. So when it turned out our route through Thailand and Malaysia would bring us close to the foundation’s base of operations and that it was possible to stay at their I Love Phants Lodge and do a full-day tour, we didn’t hesitate. Well, maybe a little bit if I’m completely honest. We’re budget travelers and staying at the I Love Phants Lodge was a bit pricier than our usual accommodations. But we didn’t have to think about it for very long. This was something we really wanted to share with our little world traveler. 

Quick overview

The full-day tour includes a guided walking tour and a guided driving tour. The walking tour takes you past the elephant enclosures, the bear area, and into the nocturnal forest and past some of the gibbons. It’s followed by a quick visit to the gift shop and a tasty buffet lunch. After lunch, it’s time for the driving tour, where you see more elephants and many other animals in wildlife open enclosures. This is followed by a visit to the tiger rescue center and a meet and greet with an elephant.

It’s important to note that the WFFT promotes responsible eco-tourism and follows a complete hands-off protocol for anyone but the vets and the handlers. You do get to feed some of the elephants, but no touching or petting. At all other times, you are to stay at least 1 meter away from the animal enclosures, for your own safety and that of the animals. Please be aware that the stories and information shared on the tour can be quite gruesome but for educational purposes, there’s no use in romanticizing the truth. 

Walking tour

Elephants

Our tour started at the enclosure of Pai Lin, one of the oldest elephant residents at the sanctuary. She’s now around 71 years old, which is incredible as in captivity elephants often don’t live past 40. And in the wild elephants only live to about 60. When she came to live at the WFFT sanctuary back in 2007 she was malnourished and generally in poor physical condition. Her back was deformed from carrying a heavy seat with up to 6 tourists at a time and she had spent a long time begging on the streets. Now this amazing lady is physically healthy again, due to the excellent care of the WFFT’s vets. Her dietary needs are met, with grounded food and nutritional supplements. 

Our tour guide Nathalie explains how elephants are domesticated, through the grueling process of Phajaan (which means ‘crushing’ in Thai). We talked about this before in our 2016 post Why you should never ride an elephant, but I’ll explain again. Phajaan is the process of breaking the elephant’s spirit and crushing it until it submits to humans. Elephants would never voluntarily work for people, they’re wild animals. 

So how does this terrible process of elephant crushing work? Baby elephants are taken away from their mothers, who are often killed. If the baby elephant is taken from the wild, it’s not uncommon for the whole herd to be slaughtered as they are very protective of their young. The baby then gets put in a tiny crush cage where its fragile legs are bound by ropes. Then it’s relentlessly beaten with metal tools and bull hooks and deprived of food and water. After weeks and weeks of extremely traumatizing mental and physical torture, a new mahout comes to the scene. He’s the ‘savior’, offering the poor abused baby elephant food and water to gain its trust. Obviously this is just another form of manipulation. All this is done so the elephant can either be used for logging (which was banned in Thailand in 1989) or as a tourist attraction, carrying people around on its back. 

All 23 elephants at WFFT were domesticated through this process when they were babies. And afterward, they were forced to work for humans, often in terrible circumstances. Now these elephants get to live out their lives in peace, in large enclosures of up to 44 acres with natural trees, lakes and grazing areas.

Bears

Next we visit the bears. There are two species of bears native to Thailand, Asian Black Bears and Malayan Sun Bears. The rescue center is home to both. There are a total of 43 bears at the sanctuary. Sun Bears are sometimes also known as dog bears. They’re often poached from the wild and see their mother slaughtered before their eyes. They’re very cute when they are young so people want them as pets. But after a while the cute little bear gets bigger and more aggressive and the owners can’t handle it anymore. In the most positive scenario they get brought to WFFT or another rescue center directly, but many of them suffer terrible abuse in small cages before the owners give them up.

The Asian Black Bears suffer an even worse fate. They’re poached and sold on the black market for their bile or paws. Bear bile is extracted from live bears. It is known to have medicinal properties, but as there are now herbal and synthetic alternatives there’s absolutely no need for the cruelty of bear bile extraction. In the wild Asian Black Bears can live up to 25-30 years, in captivity they’re ‘lucky’ if they reach the age of 10. In a truly horrible way, the bile is extracted from the gall bladder. In the 1980s bear bile farms shot up all around Asia. The bile is ‘harvested’ either through a free drip method, where a hole in the bear’s gall bladder is continuously reopened, through a needle that’s inserted in its gall bladder or through the insertion of a permanent catheter. 

Another terrible practice is bear paw soup. Despite it being illegal all over the world, except in China, it’s also known to be popular in other Asian countries. It’s a truly vile practice, but very profitable. Consuming the paw of the bear supposedly gives the consumer the power and strength of a bear. But especially barbaric is the way it is ‘harvested’. In order to be the most potent, the poor bear’s paw is hacked off while it’s still alive, in front of the consumer. All over Asia raids are done and bear paws are discovered in freezers, among other illegal animal parts that are often used in Chinese medicine. 

Slow lorises

We continue on to the nocturnal forest where we get to see slow lorises. Well, see is a big word. As they are nocturnal they are mostly sleeping during the day but we spotted a few safely tucked away in hiding spots in their enclosures. They appear very cute. This is exactly why they are often kept by humans, either as pets or to be used as photo props. But don’t be fooled by their cuteness. The slow loris is the only primate species with a toxic bite… that can be lethal. For this reason, when they are captured the loris’ teeth are removed and they are kept drugged. Because they are nocturnal they don’t tolerate the light very well and many captive lorises develop eye problems or even blindness. The slow lorises at WFFT get a special diet because they can’t chew anymore. 

Gibbons

The forest is also used to rehabilitate the gibbons. There currently are about 80 gibbons at the center. Gibbons brought to the wildlife rescue center or those rescued by the foundation go through three stages. First, there’s the quarantine stage that all animals at the center go through. Then they go to the rehabilitation forest, where they live in large enclosures, to relearn their natural instinct to stay off the ground and in trees. In order to survive their natural enemy the monitor lizard, they need to be able to stay up high. They’re also introduced to others of their species in the hopes of finding them a partner so they can form a family group (gibbons are monogamous). Once that happens they get their own gibbon island to live on. Gibbons, like all monkeys, can’t swim, so an island is a perfect way to contain them naturally. 

The aim of the WFFT is always to release the animals back into the wild, but unfortunately, it’s been 10 years since a gibbon could successfully be released. Gibbons are often poached illegally. The mothers get shot from the trees and don’t survive and the babies get taken and sold on the black market as pets or photo props. They get treated like humans and either lose or don’t develop their natural instincts. Which is why it’s so hard to release them back into the wild. 

Gift shop and lunch

After about two hours of walking, it’s time to head to the gift shop, where there’s also a shop to buy some cold drinks. Unfortunately, the stop at the gift shop was a bit rushed and we would have liked a bit more time to look around. Now we barely had time to pick some shirts and we didn’t get to fit our little world travelers shirt and it turns out to be too small. Hopefully, the WFFT will get their webshop up and running soon and we can get another shirt for him. 

The included lunch is buffet style and delicious. There were various spicy and non-spicy Thai dishes to choose from and a choice of chicken or vegetarian. With fresh fruit for dessert. We really liked the variety. 

Driving tour

Appreciating the magnitude of WFFT

After lunch, we got on the open tour bus for the driving part of the tour. We drove past Project 1, the very first animal enclosures and then along some of the newer enclosures. You get to appreciate the magnitude of this massive operation. The 80 hectares (almost 2000 acres) of land are home to over 700 animals of 63 different species. Around 100 staff members, mostly volunteers, take care of the animals and the property (which includes the I Love Phants Lodge where we stayed). WFFT has an animal rescue center, an elephant sanctuary, a wildlife hospital and has recently reopened their dog and cat spay clinic located between Hua Hin and Cha Am. 

On the tour, we saw different types of macaques, otters, turtles, lizards, more elephants, bears and gibbons. Our guide Nathalie was very knowledgeable and told us a lot about all the various animals. She was also great at answering all our questions. At some of the enclosures, we got off the bus to get a closer look and more information. Like at the tiger rescue center.

Tiger rescue center

It’s absolutely mind-blowing to realize that there are an estimated 2000 tigers in captivity in Thailand alone, while there are only about 150 left in the wild. The number of captive tigers has rapidly increased in the past years. There’s an active trade in illegal animals, both alive and dead. And sadly, tigers are worth more dead than alive. All parts of the tiger can get sold on the black market for good money. Baby tigers get taken away from their mothers way too soon and used as photo props. Severely sedated of course. The mothers are often used for speed breeding because little tigers grow up and aren’t nearly as cute as the babies. 

Phuket Zoo had been on WFFT’s radar for a while. With the decline in tourism since Covid the zoo couldn’t take care of their tigers and bears anymore. So WFFT launched the biggest tiger rescue in Thailand’s history at the start of 2022. All 11 tigers (and two bears) were brought from Phuket to WFFT in Petchaburi. Over the course of 5 months, from January to June, the foundation managed to both raise the funds and create all the enclosures so the animals could be housed comfortably. 

After the tigers, we got back on the bus to finish up the tour. 

Conclusion

We would recommend the tour at the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand to everyone interested in wildlife rescue and ethical wildlife sanctuaries, in particular ethical elephant sanctuaries in Thailand. Suited for families, couples and single travelers alike. The tour is very informative and educational and great value for money. We already knew quite a bit of the background info, but still learned a lot and it was great to see the extent of WFFT’s facilities. 

For guests at the I Love Phants Lodge on WFFT’s grounds there’s a discounted tour price. Staying at the Lodge is definitely a great experience. Read our full review of our stay at the I Love Phants Lodge. 

If you’d like to know more, check out these links:

https://www.wfft.org

https://www.ilovephants.org

https://www.wildlifevolunteer.org 

*please note that we weren’t compensated for this post. We paid for our own tour and it was worth every penny*

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The I Love Phants Lodge is a luxury eco-lodge located on the extensive grounds of the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand. Not only do you get to stay in a very nice room or bungalow, but you also get to see and experience the work of this wonderful foundation up close. Which is exactly why we chose to stay here! How cool to have elephants as your neighbors! You can see them from your room’s balcony and while eating in the restaurant.

We’re budget travelers so such a luxury stay is not something we would normally do. However, since we admire the work WFFT does we felt this was something we could splurge on and support the foundation at the same time. There are plenty of elephant sanctuaries in Thailand that claim to be ethical but really aren’t. Be aware that anyone can claim to have a ‘sanctuary’ as this isn’t a protected name. If you want to visit a truly ethical animal sanctuary in Thailand that also has an elephant hospital and a wild animal rescue center, this is the place to go.

Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand

We’ve been following the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand for several years. They’re an NGO doing amazing work rescuing both captive wild animals and domestic animals in need. Like many other countries, Thailand has its fair share of animal abuse and exploitation. There is a thriving illegal trade in wild animals for pets and medicine, as well as a lot of animal abuse in the tourist industry. We’ve supported this foundation in the past with donations and we were very fortunate that we got to see it for ourselves and even meet the founder, Edwin Wiek.

Location

The I Love Phants Lodge is located on the terrain of the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand in the town of Tha Mai Ruak in Petchaburi province. When you make a booking, the personnel at the lodge can arrange a transfer for you from Hua Hin or Cha Am. It takes about 30-40 minutes to get there. We stayed in Cha Am the night before and arranged our own transfer with Grab. I’m not sure if I’d recommend this option, as it wasn’t easy to find a driver. But it did save us a bit of money.

Our room

We chose to stay in a triple mountain view room and got room number 11. It has a king-size bed and a single bed, perfect for our little family. The room offered plenty of space to put our stuff and there was even a little fridge. I’m not sure about the mountain view, but room 11 is right above the restaurant, overlooking the elephant enclosure. The view is fantastic! Sitting on our balcony we could see the elephants wandering around. A wonderful way to start and end your day. When we arrived the fridge was stocked with free water and sodas, which we felt was a very nice touch.

The ensuite bathroom is good sized. It has a shower stall with both a handheld and rain shower, a sink with mirror and a western style toilet. Toilet paper is provided and housekeeping keeps you stocked. In the bathroom you’ll find toiletries such as soap, shower gel, shampoo and even conditioner. The water pressure was quite low, but we’re finding this in many places in Thailand. We had an issue with the water heater the first day (it was either completely cold or really hot), but we mentioned it to the staff and they went to fix it right away. It was a bit better after that.

Family rooms and bungalows

I Love Phants Lodge offers a number of different accommodation options, ranging from a double forest view room to a luxury three-bedroom villa with private pool. For families they have family rooms for 2 adults and 2 kids. The family rooms are quite spacious with a king-size bed and a bunk bed. These rooms also have a couch, a dining table and coffee/tea making facilities. Other options for families are a luxury two or three-bedroom villa that each has its own private pool.

Breakfast included

Included in the room price is a wonderful buffet breakfast with plenty of options. This is served in the restaurant at the main lodge. A full English breakfast with fried and scrambled eggs, bacon and sausages, mushrooms and potatoes, but also little fluffy pancakes, different types of bread, cereals, milk, yoghurt and fresh fruit. And a choice of 3 different juices, or coffee/tea. It’s a great start of the day!

I Love Phants Lodge restaurant

The restaurant has quite an extensive menu and offers both Thai and western dishes for lunch and dinner. Fresh fruit shakes are offered until 17:00. Like everywhere in Thailand the western dishes are more expensive. Ranging from about 120-250 THB the Thai dishes were quite affordable and very tasty. As I don’t like spicy food, I normally always ask. But this one time I forgot and ordered the stirfried mushrooms with Thai Basil… It was very well made, but let’s just say that was a spicy lesson I won’t soon forget.

Swimming pool

Apart from having the elephants as our neighbors, the swimming pool was our son’s favorite place. And to be quite honest ours too as it was HOT when we were there mid-February. Apparently, summer started early this year. After doing the full-day tour seeing some of the work of the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, it was an absolute pleasure to be able to jump in the pool to cool off. From the pool you have an awesome view of the elephant enclosure. How cool to see the elephants wandering around while you’re swimming.

Discount on tours

You don’t have to stay at the Lodge to visit the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand. You can do a half or a full-day tour as a day trip. But one of the perks of staying at the lodge, apart from the lovely accommodations, the great breakfast, the swimming pool and sleeping next to the elephant enclosure, is a considerable discount on the tours. We were really looking forward to learning more about WFFT and our tour guide Nathalie didn’t disappoint. It was a great experience. We’ve learned a lot and our little world traveler is more determined than ever to support the amazing work the foundation is doing.

Our verdict

For us this definitely was a once-in-a-lifetime experience (although we hope to be back someday and possibly even volunteer). Teaching the next generation about wildlife rescue, wildlife conservation and ethical animal encounters is vital if we want to make sure there will be any wildlife left by the time they grow up, or by the time they themselves have kids. Every donation counts for an NGO like WFFT and staying at the lodge and doing a tour is one way to support them. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at the lodge and would recommend it to anyone.

If you’d like to know more, check out these links:

https://www.wfft.org
https://www.ilovephants.org
https://www.wildlifevolunteer.org

*please note that we weren’t sponsored for this post. We paid for our own stay and it was worth every penny*

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As some of you may have noticed I don’t post a lot on the blog because Lisa is a way better writer than I am. We are both interested in nature and wildlife, which is one of the big reasons we love traveling so much. When I read important wildlife news online or see something on the news that gets my attention, I do want to share this with our readers though.

Big deal: Tripadvisor no longer selling tickets for animal shows!

Is it a big deal TripAdvisor is halting its sales of animal shows you might wonder? I think it is! As one of the largest travel advisory platforms,TripAdvisor has a moral obligation to show travelers the best way they can travel around our beautiful planet without destroying it. Taking animals from the wild to perform for people is something from the last century. It has no place in our world anymore. There still are some loose ends because TripAdvisor will only stop selling tickets for shows “they” think are bad for the animals. At the time of writing this, I don’t know if they will also take the ‘bad’ tours/shows of the site completely. It would be great if they stopped advertising this kind of business. Also, I hope TripAdvisor will put a spotlight on the rehabilitation centers and rescue centers, which are doing great work to help the animals that are victims of the wildlife trade.

What’s wrong with riding an elephant?

A lot of people don’t understand what is so bad about riding an elephant, they are so big and strong and can easily carry us on their backs. But the story doesn’t start with us getting on this big beautiful animal. The story starts by killing the mother of a baby elephant…

A quick rundown on how an elephant gets to be a tour elephant:

1) Poachers find a mother with her baby elephant in the forest.
2) They KILL the mother and take the baby.
3) In order to ride an elephant, you need to break its spirit.
4) They break an elephant’s spirit by torture and starvation.
5) After this and a lot more, the elephant can be transported (or smuggled) to a tourist attraction near your holiday resort, so you can ride it.

Are you still sure you want to ride that elephant?

If this short summary of how an elephant becomes your tour elephant isn’t graphic enough, take a look at this award-winning picture. It’s made by photographer Brent Lewin, who photographed this disturbing practice in Burma. Make sure to read his story about this picture.

What can you do?

If you are interested in seeing wildlife on your next holiday there are alternatives. It only takes a bit more effort. If you want to see an animal show, the absolute minimum you can do is go online and check the reviews. There really aren’t a lot of animal shows that don’t hurt the animals in one way or the other. After all, animals weren’t born to perform for us humans. So why not consider visiting an animal rescue center or rehabilitation center instead? You can still see the animals but won’t be able to ride or touch them. The experience will be different, but very much worth it. After a trip to a rehabilitation center, at least you know your money will be used to help the animals. Beware that there are many ‘rehabilitation’ centers that aren’t legit. Do your homework before you go on a trip! There are many reviews and blog posts about this topic. For instance this one about ethical animal encounters in Bali or this one about the elephants in Bali (did you know elephants aren’t even native to Bali?).

We as travelers must take our responsibility. It’s all about supply and demand.

Are there any alternatives?

If you are traveling to Thailand and you want to see elephants, a great place to visit one of the elephant rescue centers in Chang Mai province, for instance the Save Elephant Foundation. They have been doing a great job rescuing and helping elephants in need. You can find more information on their website where you can also donate or even sponsor an elephant. Also check out the links at the bottom of this article. When our online efforts start generating some income we will be sponsoring an elephant. I need to make up for the elephant ride I did when I was traveling as a teenager for the first time to Asia back in 2000. Also check out this awesome post about ethical wildlife encounters worldwide. So many ideas!

Don’t take that picture!

Throughout our travels we have seen many different ways of animal cruelty. The most common are the locals on busy boulevards urging you to take pictures with exotic animals. Monitor lizards or monkeys (which are heavily drugged and chained) or snakes to put around your neck. The poor animals are completely at the mercy of their captors, with no free will whatsoever. Don’t hold those animals, don’t take that picture! Please check and you will see that the animals are drugged and chained.

It all starts with education!

Now we have our own son we make a big effort in telling and showing him the best way to treat any animal (or human) with respect. We urge people to never forget these animals have been through hell to be in the picture with you! Think about that next time you take a picture with a cute little monkey, a lizard, a parrot or whichever other exotic animal the locals offer for you to hold. Or the next time you want to do an excursion where you can ride an elephant or pet a tiger. And teach your kids it’s not ok to treat animals this way. Hopefully our next generation will help preserve animals, instead of abusing and annihilating them.

If there is no demand there is no need for supply!

Read more

If you want to read more, check out some of these links:
Save Elephant Foundation – http://www.saveelephant.org
Gibbon Rehabilitation Project – http://www.gibbonproject.org
Wildlife Friends Foundations Thailand – https://www.wfft.org
Elephants World Kanchanaburi – http://www.elephantsworld.org
Thai Elephant Refuge – http://www.thaielephantrefuge.org
Wildlife Conservation Society – https://thailand.wcs.org

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