By Ben Law (1 week volunteer) – 24/06/16

During my stay in Thailand I spent a week at Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary and honestly had one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Seeing elephants in their natural habitat was the highlight of my whole trip. We started off each morning by hiking into the forest to find the elephants, the hikes were hard work at times but totally worth it once you finally come across the group of four elephants foraging in the forest like they naturally would in the wild.

Once we found the elephants I got the opportunity to feed them pumpkins and banana and complete a health check. This health check was to make sure the elephants were healthy and provided me with the chance to get up close to these gentle giants. After I collect some elephant data for 90 minutes and had lunch in the forest overlooking the most beautiful forest views and elephants roaming in their natural habitat.

In the afternoon I took part in various activity’s including uploading data, learning the local language and culture, planting vegetables and teaching English to the mahouts and at the local school. Out of all these activities I found teaching at the local school the most enjoyable. I had never tried or even thought about teaching before but I’m so glad I had the chance to do so as its definitely something I would consider doing again in the future.

I would advise anyone thinking about doing this project to go ahead and do it. The project is a brilliant chance to see and interact with one of nature’s magnificent animals and I will never forget my time here. The staff, co-volunteers and the locals were all friendly and helpful, they welcome me onto the project and into the village so well. I will definitely be visiting again in the future