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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The Buddhist temple is officially named Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Yanasampanno, but is better known as the Thai Tiger Temple. After many years of protest from wildlife activists and temple critics from around the world, they finally gave in.

The effort, led by the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, is supposedly no longer obstructed by the tiger temple and its staff. For years the temple is being accused of abuse and trafficking of big cats for the Chinese market. Tourists from all over the world visited the temple to take pictures with these magnificent animals. The temple has been accused of drugging the tigers to keep them quiet. Anyone can imagine that otherwise these wild animals would never sit for tourists to take their pictures. There are many movies on YouTube where the tigers can be seen almost falling over because of the drugs. For every animal lover around the world these are heartbreaking movies to watch.

Edwin Wiek, the founder of Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, has been calling for the tigers removal for many years. He was on the scene for yesterday’s operation to take away the tigers. He covered the events via Twitter updates. The updates have been given the hashtag: #TigerTempleCloseDown. More updates at #TigerTempleTakeDown and #TigerTemple

We are happy that the tigers from the Tiger Temple will finally be free. And we applaud the Thai Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation for their effort to bring a halt to the mistreating of these beautiful animals. Hopefully there will be more of these actions for other wildlife in Thailand. The elephants and many other animals in Thailand are still being mistreated for the tourism industry.

Unbelievably tourists were still entering the Tiger Temple while animal rescuers were taking away some of the tigers. This goes to show how ignorant some people are. It’s important to better educate people worldwide about what happens to animals in these kinds of tourist traps. It all starts with teaching our kids to respect nature and all its beautiful animals.

We support all efforts in stopping these cruelties against any wildlife anywhere in the world.

UPDATE: 40 Tiger cubs bodies found in freezer of Tiger Temple

Today, June 1, 2016, is a sad day for the tigers. Rescue workers have found dead 40 tiger cubs in a freezer in the temple grounds. Why they were kept there nobody knows. Most likely they were meant for the Chinees ‘medicine’ market. There were also other body parts found, said Tom Taylor from Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, who was apparently there when they made the discovery.

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For parents with young kids, the big question for New Year’s Eve is always ‘Do we let the little ones sleep, or do we wake them?’ For a second we considered letting our little world traveler sleep, but we decided to be a little bit selfish this year and wake him up so the three of us could find out what New Year’s Eve in Bangkok was like. Our little world traveler’s first New Year we spend with friends in Holland, his second New Year we were with friends in Egypt and this year it was just the three of us in Bangkok.

Would you rather celebrate New Year’s Eve in Thailand on one of the beaches in the south or surrounded by the amazing green hills in the north? Check out this family-friendly beach in Phuket and this post about spending three days in Pai. Or, if you’ve already experienced New Year’s Eve in Thailand, why not try any of these other amazing places to celebrate New Year’s Eve?

Why did we choose Bangkok?

Well, that’s an easy question. We love Thailand and Bangkok is a fantastic city! We love traveling in Thailand and Bangkok always feels a bit like coming home. Busy as it is, family-friendly may not be the first word that comes to mind when thinking about Thailand’s capital. But you’d be surprised about the sheer amount of things to do with kids in Bangkok. There’s also a number of great day trips you can do from Bangkok with kids.

Where to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Bangkok?

It’s easy to find info about celebrating New Year’s Eve in Bangkok. Lots of information online about all kinds of parties in the coolest rooftop bars and big clubs. But absolutely nothing about where to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Thailand’s capital with a child. Not too much info about fireworks either. Then we discovered that there was supposed to be a fireworks show over Wat Arun. So we decided to go to the riverfront near Wat Pho with our fingers crossed that we’d be able to see it.

Like any other day

The last day of the year we really didn’t do anything special. There are a lot of fun things to do in Bangkok, but we decided to take it slow this day. We knew we’d be waking him to go outside later in the evening. Therefore our priority was to make sure our little world traveler did an early nap and we had an early dinner so he could get some sleep before we woke him.

Nice vibe during the day and early evening

The day went remarkably well. It was nice and busy in the streets when we went outside after his nap. We felt really happy to be in our favorite city and our little world traveler was very happy and cheerful as well. After our early dinner, we walked to Khaosan Road to see what was happening there. It was already really crowded, with a DJ spinning tunes (the Thai way, so quite loud) and a big clock counting down the hours until 2016.

Fairytale lights in the streets of Bangkok

We walked around a little bit before returning to our guesthouse. We specifically chose Erewan House on Soi Rhambuttri because of the location near Khaosan (click here for more ideas of where to stay in Bangkok). The whole area around the democracy monument was lit up with thousands of little lights. It was really pretty. Of course, we had to take some pictures! We went home early and were lucky that our little world traveler decided to cooperate that night and went to sleep without a fight around 20:00. He was a bit grumpy when we woke him up at 22:30 but quickly became his cheerful self again once we were outside.

Large crowd heading to Chao Phraya riverfront

There were a lot of people in the streets and there was a good vibe. As decided before we headed to the riverfront near the King’s Palace and Wat Pho. We took it easy and stopped for a drink along the way. Our little guy loved all the pretty lights. With maneuvering around all the people also going in that direction it took us about an hour to get there. Big banners shouting ‘Countdown 2016’ told us we were in the right place.

Waiting for the fireworks

Again we were lucky with our little world traveler. In order to see the fireworks, we had to get close to the river bank and wait for about 25 minutes in a huge crowd. Fortunately he didn’t mind. He was happily sitting in the carrier on my back, watching people and pointing things out to us. Finally, the clock on the big screens showed it was time to count down the last 10 seconds of 2015! 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… BANG! Lots of really loud and beautiful fireworks, exactly as we had hoped Our little man was a bit scared and first, but once we started pointing out the colors and the amazing lights in the sky he really liked it.

Crowded Khoasan Road

Since there wasn’t too much going on besides the fireworks, we decided to head back. Our little guy was remarkably cheerful for the late hour. We did a quick detour to Khaosan Road and even entered the street a few meters, but then decided not to go further. It was crazy busy and very loud. Would have been fun if it had been just the two of us, but not with our little man. We didn’t mind though, the evening already went so much better than we could have ever hoped for.

Late night pancakes!

So we walked back to Soi Rambuttri and our guesthouse. On the way we stopped to get a banana pancake. Being up so late makes you hungry! Actually, simply walking around in this area makes you hungry, there are food stalls everywhere! Even though it was already past 1am, our little world traveler wasn’t complaining and had some pancake too.

A night to remember…

Again, our little world traveler proved us proud. By 02:00 he was back in his bed. He went to bed without fussing and slept until 09:00! Lucky us! We didn’t get to party like we would have before our son was born, but we still had a really good night and got to experience the crowds and the cheerfulness of a New Year’s Eve in a big city. For us New Years Eve 2016 is definitely one to remember! Would we do it again? In a heartbeat! Traveling with kids is different from traveling as a couple, but this trip has shown us again and again that so much more is possible than we originally thought.

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When we left Sri Lanka we knew we wanted to go to the Philippines next, but because the flight connection wasn’t very good we decided to make a stopover in Bangkok for a couple of days. We checked the flights online and the price difference wasn’t that much so we booked our flight to Bangkok thinking we would book the flight to Cebu when we arrived in Thailand. What we didn’t realise is that the “high season” prices would start on the first of November. So when we finally came around to booking the flight prices were increasing rapidly and we changed our plan. We wouldn’t fly to Cebu but instead we would go to Bohol, an island next to Cebu. We had to fly via Manila because there are no direct flights. Our flight leaving Bangkok was at 15:00pm and we would arrive in Manila at 18:00pm local time. To continue the trip on the same day would mean we had to take the next flight at 1:00am, which we didn’t want to do with Jace after already skipping a night flying from Sri Lanka to Bangkok.

Manila was CRAZY busy. The seven kilometer drive took us more than an hour and the streets were really packed with cars, bicycle taxi’s, jeepney’s and trucks. When we finally made it to the hotel we were happy to see it was good enough or us to stay. The area we stayed in (we later learned) wasn’t the best of Manila but it was for only one night so who cares. We went looking for an atm that would give us some cash. We found one pretty quickly and also managed to find some diapers for Jace. After a quick bite at one of the street bbq stalls we went back to the hotel to get some sleep.

The next morning we had a simple breakfast and got in a taxi early because of the crazy busy roads in Manila. The hotel called a taxi for us and we agreed on a price of 350 pesos (remember the 800 we paid the day before??) to go to the airport. The taxi driver told us there was the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit coming in the next couple of days which would close off some of the main roads of Manila. We hadn’t realised the APEC was so soon. We were happy with our timing and glad to leave this busy city.

At the airport check-in was easy and we passed the security check in a couple of minutes. The plane boarded on time but because of a delayed plane at the airport of Bohol we had to wait for almost an hour on the runway in Manila. Tagbilaran Airport on Bohol has only one small runway so when a plane is delayed all the flights coming after it feel the pain. When we finally left we had a short comfortable flight and Jace slept most of the way. The good side of being delayed was that I got to finish watching my movie which otherwise wouldn’t have happened (if you’re looking for a nice happy movie watch “Chef” :-))

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