This past week end we drove with another family from North America, to the Elephant Sanctuary about an hour and a half from KL. It was a Malaysian experience. Apparently the website and the guidebooks forget to mention that to interact with the elephants you actually have to make a reservation. It was just as well we didn't have one - it was a million degree, crowded somewhat and the elephants were a sad site.
Note the text at the very bottom of the sticker
Avery and friend
The poor elephant on the end reminded me a lot of the polar bears the NC Zoo rescued from a circus - they had such mental problems and swayed back and forth all day that there were signs at the Zoo explaining what was up with the rescued polar bears. Apparently they 'use' most of these elephants to rescue other elephants that are out in the wilds of Malaysia or Southern Thailand - they often get into palm farms and cause havoc, so the Elephant Sanctuary goes out with a couple of trained elephants and gets them to help get them on a truck. The movie showed a few touching scenes of the trained elephants stroking and clearly comforting the 'wild' elephants. I guess they do good work, but it is sort of hard to tell...plus their website has a huge rant on how bad North Americans are and how a certain North American country feels they are the worlds policeman....hmm, I wonder who they could mean?!
