Spending only a couple of days in Ko Samui, I didn’t get a good feel of the place and despite a good day out on a Jungle Safari, I did mention in my Ko Samui post that I didn’t like the Safari Park.

The main reason was how the Elephants were forced into doing tricks and circus activities. There’s something about Elephants that I feel an affinity with and the best pleasure I got from them was seeing them roam in the wild in Uganda without any human interference. Ok, I do admit I was awestruck seeing them and I do admit I shed a tear in happiness as they basked in the River Nile throwing water over their backs with their trunks.

This was a stark contrast to what I saw at the Safari Park. I think This picture says a thousand words.

How awful is this. Elephants shouldn’t be made to handstand. It’s unnatural.

I was already saying no to Elephant trekking which was an option with the Jungle Safari as I don’t believe that contraptions for seats for humans should be put on the elephant’s back. It must be uncomfortable for them.

However, the Elephant Show was included in the safari. Hoping it would be an educational show about the elephants and how they are treated at the park, I was sickened to see the elephants being made to do circus tricks and told to stand on just their back 2 legs, play football and being forced to stand next to speakers that was proving too loud for me. I just couldn’t believe it. There wasn’t anything said about education.

The Australian couple who Matt and I hung around with for the day told me they wished they never did the trekking beforehand. They felt sick watching the show and it certainly showed between all of us as we became more and more subdued throughout the show.

What a circus and by all means, I would never stand for elephants being made to do something unnatural to them.

I felt really uncomfortable during my time at the park and more so taking pictures of them. But I wanted to highlight how wrong it is.

Elephants never forget…