The Elephant Experience

Yes, we did it! We visited the Elephant Sanctuary at Kuala Gandah in Lanchang, Pahang. Lanchang is also home to Daddy's grandmother (a.k.a. "Wan Lanchang") so Nenek kindly made some nice fresh nasi lemak to have for lunch with Wan Lanchang before we go see those elephants.

First order of the day - get the boys to nap in the car. After fetching Ant J, the 6 of us (including Wan but excluding Nenek) set off towards Karak and stopped by the big Shelsl petrol station just before the turn off on the MRRII. I knew Abang was already asleep by then because he didn't ask for Dunkin' Donuts. Although I was pleased that he was asleep, in fact I was actually a little disappointed at not having any donuts for the drive, heheh. (Takpa, Ant J, nanti we terkam the J.Co next time we go to Sunway Pyramid.)

Adik was next, only about 10 minutes later. Ahhh ... peace in the car. Luckily traffic was as clear as the skies that day and it only took us slightly over an hour to get there. Wan Lanchang was very pleased to see her cucu-cicit and regaled us with family tales. (She's approaching 90, by the way.)

At about 1:30pm we set off for the sanctuary. It's only about 15-20 minutes drive from Wan Lanchang's house. But I think it felt much longer because as we approached the sanctuary, there were several stretches that were being re-paved and therefore just gravel and hence, very bumpy. Abang, our budak bandar, kept complaining, "Why the road so bum-peeee?"

When we arrived it was b-l-i-s-t-e-r-i-n-g hot and there were scores of visitors there already. We got their hats, water, snacks and off we went. It turns out that there are 2 types of visitors - the ones who are only allowed to watch and those who can participate in feeding and bathing the elephants. We're in the first group. Perhaps it was the heat, as well as the sheer number of visitors but I suspect it was a bit of a letdown for the boys who were extremely excited at the prospect of getting near the elephants. We had to hoist them up high for them to see the elephants and even then not that closely too. Still, I believe it was a good experience for them.

Soon we left but not before stopping by the little shop to get some chilled drinks and ice-cream ("Mmmm, this ice-cream is perfect for a hot sunny day!" said Abang) and of course, some t-shirts!


On the way back to went to the Deerland Park which is just about 5 minutes away from the Elephant Sanctuary. This was definitely much better. It's more shady, there are fewer people and there's more interaction with the animals. It's like a mini petting zoo.


The first thing we saw was, of course, deers. One of the staff immediately asked Daddy if he'd like to feed the deers. He handed a basket of chopped potato and carrots and instructed him to hold the basket high and feed low. Wow, those deers were quite aggressive! They obviously know how to spot tourists with food when they see one! In fact, one of them started chewing on Daddy's t-shirt. "Hmmm ... this cotton ... it tastes different ... not from around here... ni orang KL niiihh ..."


Abang attempted to feed them but he was too scared to go near them so he ended up just flinging the cut potato away from himself. Adik too was a little freaked out so as soon as we were done feeding them we left the pen and went to see other animals.


They have hedgehog, mousedeer, sunbear, rabbits, ostrich ... oh yes, Abang fed the ostrich too! And this time he didn't fling the food away from him, he actually held it out to them albeit with some help from the staff.

The Deerland Park is a little like IKEA in that it has one trail which everyone follows and it then takes you to the exit as well. Back at the car, Daddy had to change his shirt which had deer marks on it!

Back to KL and all the adults were ready to drop. Good experience, but very hot and tiring!