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PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do your research before visiting an elephant sanctuary in Thailand, or any animal sanctuary for that matter. ---- Working with elephants in Thailand has always been something I was skeptical of. Luckily, I had the opportunity to go see for myself thanks to an invitation to the "Thai Fit Challenge," recently put on by the Thai tourism board, GoPro and Adidas. From the Anantara Resort in Chiang, our first challenge was to go beyond a simple selfie and riding an elephant, to learn about the process of actually caring for elephants in Thailand. At the Patara Elephant Farm just outside Chiang Mai, we were each introduced to our own elephant to work with as well as a caretaker who looked after them. I was paired with Boon Gin, a 21 year-old male rescued from a circus, who enjoyed a good back massage and long walks through the forest. Throughout our time together I learned about how to identify an unhealthy elephant as well the specific practices of Rescue, Recovery, Reproduction and Reintroduction to ensure the elephants well being. Once our work was done and Boon Gin retired to the mountains for the evening, we were allowed to join in on a little play time. A baby elephant, otherwise known as "lap elephants" on the internet, greeted us as with playful cuddling and wrestling. It was the perfect ending to a great day with these beautiful creatures. — PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do your research before visiting an elephant sanctuary in Thailand, or any animal sanctuary for that matter. Elephant Tourism in Thailand is a major problem and many of these places do not treat the animals well. PLEASE DO NOT go to places that use hooks to control the elephants or saddles to allow multiple people to ride elephants. ELEPHANT FARMS I WOULD RECOMMEND: PATARA ELEPHANT FARM - http://www.pataraelephantfarm.com/ ELEPHANT NATURE PARK - http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/ - Read more about it at http://www.tourist2townie.com/ Special thanks to the Anantara Resort in Chiang Mai for hosting our stay. http://chiang-mai.anantara.com/ And be sure to follow the other members of our awesome team: Kristen - https://www.youtube.com/hopscotchtheglobe Raya - https://www.youtube.com/rayawashere Andrew - https://www.youtube.com/shibbystylee ----