Unbeknowst to most of us Malaysians, Malaysia has its very own elephant sanctuary. Yawp... an elephant sanctuary! I didn't know it existed. My brother didn't know it existed. My parents didn't know it existed. How did we find out about it? Well, my brother is currently doing business with this German lady and SHE knew about it. Apparantly, her German friends came to Malaysia for a holiday and visited this sanctuary. She was curious about it and the three of us went yesterday.

Now, this sanctuary isn't located very far from Kuala Lumpur, in fact, it should be less than a 2 hour drive from the capital. However, seeing that Kuala Gandah isn't located on any map we found, we naturally got lost!! It took us nearly 3 hours to get there, but it was a pleasant drive. At the time of writing, we are still puzzled as to how the German friends found the place. When we realised that we were infact lost, we started asking the locals and unfortunately, they either didn't know it existed or they would give us the wrong directions. In circles we were going. Road signs were of no help either, neither was the phone number to the park. I think that the people minding the phones at the park rarely go out and have no sense of direction for when we called them, they told us that they didn't know how to get to the sanctuary from where we were (that or we were REALLY lost). For future reference, there are TWO roads leading to Lanchang, the nearest town to the sanctuary... the brand new highway which has a small turn off and the old road, a winding, narrow one. As luck would have it, we didn't know about the two roads and thought that we were on the right track as we were using the spanking new road. However, instructions to the sanctuary are based on the OLD one, which runs somewhat parallel to the new highway. The map in the website was of no help (see above)! The drive there was good... I didn't know that there were SHEEP in Malaysia. One would have thought that due to their thick coats, they'd die from heat exposure or something. Sad looking things they were actually but it's nice to know that there are sheep here, diversity of sorts.

Now, I am not going to tell you about elephants and how they are becoming endangered. You can read all about elephants and the sanctuary at the Malaysian Elephant Appeal Homepage. It is comforting to know that there is a sanctuary of sorts for elephants in Malaysia. Sad to say, I have to admit that I am a little ignorant when it comes to elephants. We take those creatures for granted, unlike those in say Germany. Elephants are a part of life for those living in most parts of South East Asia, particularly those in Thailand. However, for countries which don't have elephants, they are a novelty. I learnt that many tourists, especially those from Europe actually volunteer for months on end at the sanctuary (how they managed to find the place is totally beyond me). When we were there, there were two volunteers, one from Belgium (who arrived two days ago) and another from the UK, who has been living there for 3 months. They don't get paid, they don't even get food and water. All they get is reasonably clean accommodation. I don't think that I could do that, but then again, I am not passionate about elephants. Dolphins perhaps. Sharks, definitely. Whale shark, oh yes, yes, yes!!

The park "rangers" were very nice and rather apologetic as the main office of the sanctuary was closed. You see, yesterday was the first day of the Muslim New Year, hence, a public holiday. We were told that if we were there on a non-designated public holiday, we would be treated to a complete presentation on the plight of elephants in the world today. Oh well, perhaps we'll catch it the next time. The facilities at the sanctuary were not what I expected. The entire compound was relatively clean, very well laid out, the main office building was quite spanky etc. We later learnt that the Sultan of Pahang is a large contributor to the sanctuary and that many other celebrities, politicians and wealthy people also contribute money and time for the elephants. This is so nice to know. The people there were SOOOO friendly and helpful. Even though they were Muslims, they didn't seem to mind the fact that they were working on one of the most important days of the Muslim calender!

When we arrived, we were the only visitors to the sanctuary. However, car loads came in later during the day. FYI, entrance to the sanctuary is free, although we are "encouraged" to donate money. Even though "warning" signs were strategically placed, one is free to roam around the sanctuary, and there is always a worker within ear's reach to answer any questions you might have.

The Elephants

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