Hands down, playing with elephants at the Phuket Elephant Retirement Center will go down in the books for one of THEE most unforgettable, surreal experiences in my life. We were able to feed, play, walk, give mud bathes and swim with these gentle creatures for about 4 hours and I will always treasure these memories! There were about 10 elephants at this center who had either been mistreated in the past or have been rescued from abusive environments. They ranged from a HUGE pregnant elephant mama to a baby elephant named Adele. They ate whole bunches of bananas out of our hands and loved to cuddle us with their trunks. They were so friendly and eager for love and attention. We gave baby Adele a mud bath and to say we got covered in red mud was an understatement. Afterwords we washed her off and splashed around in the water. Baby Adele would squirt water at us with her trunk and it was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen! These asian elephants are officially my favorite animal and I can’t wait to tell my kids about this one day! It was a dream come true!
