Bali Day 7

(Elephant Safari Park Lodge, Taro)

Day 7

We travelled from Ubud to Taro early to go to the Elephant Safari Park and Lodge. This place is owned and run by an Aussie ex-pat and his Balinese family. The elephants have been rescued from a sort of pound in Sumatra from where they are native but are in conflict with the local farmers. 

This park is absolutely amazing. Well, it's as good as you can have animals like this in captivity I think. The one-on-one relationship with the elephants and their individual mahouts is remarkable. 

In the photo above is one of the elephants in her "bedroom". They are chained during the night so they don't roam around everywhere and are left with plenty of food at night and then again in the morning for breakfast before their day starts. Elephants eat an astonishing 250kg of food a day! And are vegetarian!

Each elephant has individual skills. Some do the treks, some do tricks like soccer, and some paint! I had my t-shirt painted by a very talented elephant named Ramona. We also got to wash Ramona with a hose and scrubbing brush which was such a memorable experience.

I'd recommend this place to anyone.

We stayed in the budget room which was about $250 per night. You can simply visit the park but I would recommend staying there as the trekking and entrance fee etc sets you back about $75 per person anyway, and you get breakfast included with the room. The more expensive rooms overlook the park, although ours still had a lovely view over rice paddies.

We caught our elephant "chauffeur" from pre-dinner drinks to dinner. The more expensive rooms have a chauffeur service from the rooms to dinner.