Vegan Voyage Thailand

Check out our overview blog on our 21 country vegan voyage to catch up to understand what this is all about. Country number 5 was our Vegan Voyage Thailand! Specifically we went to Chiang Mai and two retreats while we were there.

Check out our Instagram highlights on our Vegan Voyage Thailand!

Vegan Voyage Thailand Travel Notes:

• You cannot drink the water in Thailand. I recommend getting a filtering water bottle. We have two we love:
  • The Grayl Purifier bottle. This push bottle lets you filter water that you can then use for something else. Like you can filter the water and then pour a glass of water to mix with Emergen-C or pour the filtered water into your Camelback for a hike.
  • The Lifestraw Go bottle. This sip bottle means you can fill and drink without thinking, pushing, or anything else. The water filters through the straw.
  • Check out our packing travel guide to see what else we packed!
• Many people speak English so it is not too hard to get around.
• When going into temples:
  • Your shoulders and knees must be covered. They have wraps you can rent to cover up if you need them. Because it can be so hot in Thailand I recommend getting light weight cloth dresses that have short sleeves and cover knees, or getting lightweight polos and long pants that won’t weigh you down too much.
    • I got most of my dresses at Lulus and am very pleased with them. Shop Lulus here.
  • No kissing in temples.
  • No eating or drinking in temples.
  • No Buddha themed tattoos or shirts or paraphernalia.
  • Do not point your toes at Buddha statues.
• Get a massage!
  • You can find massages for $9 USD for an hour and a half of a good massage. You can also find more expensive massages at fancier places. Tipping is not required, but it makes a big difference to these people working so hard, so we always tipped well.

Vegan Voyage Thailand Restaurants

We only had one and a half days in Chiang Mai before going to our retreats so we stopped at two vegan restaurants:

• Asa Vegan Kitchen & Studio
  • Brian took me on a special date night to Asa so we only did a LIVE video on Instagram for you guys – mostly leaving the mind-consuming work that we do at other restaurants at home so we could focus on each other. Sorry! 😊 However this restaurant and yoga studio is LOVELY. It is completely vegan, they have a focus on sustainability, causing no harm, organics, and well being. This is a MUST when visiting Chiang Mai. We wish we had gone back for a breakfast bowl!
• Munchies Vegan Fast Food
  • Munchies has fast food comfort food. Most of it is fried, dipped, and dunked. It isn’t a health restaurant, but if you are craving some fast food and want to contribute to a good cause, this is a good spot to try.

Retreats

We went to Elephant Nature Park and Amayen Sanctuary Vegan Yoga Retreat. These were both profound and transformative experiences that we enjoyed deeply. Scroll down to see more about our Vegan Voyage Thailand and the transformations that took place.

Elephant Nature Park Ethical Animal Retreat

I have said over and over again that vegans are trapped in a conundrum. For many of us, our great love of animals has brought us to be animal activists. We love animals, so we want to see them, but once we do some research we realize we can’t support zoos with our money. Grrr! That is why finding programs that truly put the wellbeing of the animal before the profit of humans is so vital. Ethical travel isn’t easy to do, but once you find some programs worth supporting, it is so exciting to dive into them fully.

Elephant Nature Park is a life changing experience. Let me explain:

It starts with you hopping on a nice Elephant Nature Park shuttle in Chiang Mai. They play some videos for you while you are on the hour and a half drive to the retreat. The videos include an instructional video about how to interact with the elephants, and a documentary about Elephant Nature Park that was recorded years ago.

Once you get to the retreat you set your bags near your “team table” with the other people you shuttled in with. They are now your team. You feed the elephants from a raised, gated walkway where you can hand them food but not be amidst their feet. You can go to their coffee stand which has exclusively non-cow dairy options, to their gift shop to get goodies, or their mini-mart to pick up drinks or vegan snacks.

After a short break your guide takes you around a full tour of the park. You walk down amidst the elephants, water buffalo, cows, and dogs who are all on their own missions around the park. Each elephant has a mahout who sticks with it for years. The mahouts understand their elephant well because they are with them all day every day.

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No words can describe this feeling. They are so enormous, so powerful, so able. They express their love clearly. Being in the same small space (and snuggling elephants with) a true hero @lek_chailert was so many dreams come true. • • We will face tough challenges on this path, but it is worth every struggle to save the animals. • • You’ll see they have no chains. No one on this property has hooks or painful devices to scare them into submission. They treat them with love, with bananas, with care taking, with honor, with dignity. #compassion is a funny thing – the more you practice it towards being who cannot speak your language and who cannot do anything to further your personal benefit, the more compassion you feel growing for other beings and the more empowered you feel to protect beings who cannot fight for themselves. • • Check out our new blogs in Japan, Taipei, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, and packing. Also check out our YouTube channel and subscribe! • • • • • • • • • #veganvoyage #animalactivists⁣⠀ #chasingessence #exploretocreate #lifeofadventure #discovervacations #theprotraveler #adventureglobe #travelgram #roundtheworld⁣⠀ #worldtrip #vegancouple #worldtourists #heavenonearth #honeymooners #hiketheglobe #travelcouple ⁣⠀ #wonderfulplaces #optoutside #holiday ⁣⠀ #epicexperiences #thailandtemple #elephantnatureparkchiangmai #thailand #chiangmai #savetheanimals #savetheelephants

A post shared by Seyka Mejeur | Vegan Voyage (@forgoodnessseyks) on May 9, 2019 at 9:32pm PDT

Elephant Stories

Some of the elephants are very old and slow, some are injured, some wander around in packs that they are very committed to.

Of the many stories we heard some stood out to us in remarkable ways. For example, there are blind elephants who are adopted by “nannies”. Nannies are often injured but not blind elephants who bond with blind elephants and stay near them so they can navigate the world together.

Here is an article about how incredibly intelligent elephants are which outlines that they can 1) “distinguish human gender, age, and ethnicity by the human’s voice”, 2) they use tools, 3) they can read human body language, 4) they show empathy within their social groups, 5) they mourn their dead, 6) they mimic human speech, 7) they have incredible memory.

This PetMD article describes how well elephants smell. They can smell 5 x more powerfully than human noses, twice as well as dogs, and better than rats who were previously thought to be the best sniffers in our planet. So, we have established that elephants can understand much more information through their noses than we are able to sense.

We heard one story of an elephant who was a nanny to a blind older elephant. She started to bring her blind friend over to hang out with a strong, able-bodied elephant who she had previously not gotten along with. The mahouts were confused as to why she was creating this new friendship. They found out months later that the nanny elephant was sick and dying. Of course the nannying elephant knew that about herself because she could smell it long before her smelling-impaired human friends. So she began to help the blind elephant she was caring for bond with a stronger nanny who could replace her when she passed. Heart warming.

Some other anecdotal stories of impressive elephant abilities occurred when we were feeding the elephants bananas. When we were first feeding the girls bananas, one of the mahouts explained that this specific elephant didn’t like eating banana peels. We handed her a bunch of bananas and she was able to hold them in her trunk and peel them in one swift movement before tossing them into her mouth!

Another amazing banana story came up when I was feeding a blind older elephant bananas. I peeled them for her, but as I went to hand them to her trunk I dropped them on the ground in the dirt. I was worried she would eat the rocks that stuck to the banana, but wasn’t sure how to take the banana away from her nicely to clean it. She picked up the dirty banana, either smelled or felt that it was dirty, wrapped it in her trunk and gave a forceful blow from her nose and blasted it clean before popping it in her mouth!

Tough Stuff

Elephant Nature Park is full of amazing stories, but it also is a place that is based on necessity because there is such cruelty happening to these incredible creatures. There are only 30,000 Asian elephants left and they are victims of horrible abuse, poachers, and more.

You can learn more about the plight of the Asian Elephant by watching Love & Bananas the Documentary and you can even host a showing of this documentary in your community. My mom hosted a showing of this in our city, San Jose CA. Our friends and I got to help throw this amazing event which made it even more special to meet Lek in person.

Elephant Nature Park Noah’s Arc

Lek says “yes, we are called Elephant Nature Park, but look around, this is more like Noah’s Arc”. Elephants are incredible creatures. They are social, emotional, careful, intelligent, dexterous, beautiful, powerful beings. They deserve to be protected. They, like other creatures, deserve lives free of torture, rape and murder. Elephant Nature Park has elephants, monkeys, water buffalo (I’m totally in love with water buffalo), dogs, cats, cows, chickens, and more. Elephant Nature Park is a place where animals are saved, where people are saved, where peace reigns.

Elephant Nature Park Food

You may have noticed that some of the animals I mentioned in the rescued animals are creatures that make up parts of many traditional diets. And no, Elephant Nature Park doesn’t feed volunteers the animals that they rescue. Elephant Nature Park is a vegan sanctuary. The meals they serve are huge delicious buffets of plant-based foods.

Animals are not excluded from protection from rape, torture or murder because it is socially acceptable to have them endure that treatment. At Elephant Nature Park sentient beings are honored.

Lodging

We had beautiful accommodations. Simple but nice. No air conditioning, a mosquito net over the bed. Big room overlooking elephants and creatures below.

They have a market, full delicious food, massages on site, a coffee shop, and all the animal entertainment you could want.

Get in Touch

To stay appraised of the heroics that Lek and her team are taking on connect with them:

ENP Facebook

ENP Instagram

Lek Chailert Instagram

ENP Website

Important note: Other “sanctuaries” that employ pain and cruelty toward the elephants have been seen to pretend to be Elephant Nature Park because they know that people want to do the right thing. Please be sure to only go directly through Elephant Nature Park to ensure you’re supporting a program that is good for the animals!

Amayen Sanctuary Vegan Yoga Retreat

Amayen faces a beautiful rice paddy field and backs up to a creek that babbles by while you grow. Each detail of the sanctuary is put into place thoughtfully. You are welcomed with a fresh organic fruit juice as you walk past their organic vegetable garden.

Amayen serves creative, healthy, nutritious, plant-based, vegan meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I felt light, fresh, nourished, and energized after enjoying the food they lovingly prepare. (NOTE: Go to https://amayen.com/ and sign up for their newsletter to get their free cookbook!).

Every morning you start the day by setting your intention for the day and manifesting big things. You ring a gong, light incense, and connect to your group that you move through the day with. Next you move on to the meditation room where you have morning tea and participate in guided breathing meditation.

Feeling energized and empowered from the breathing ritual, you head together up to the yoga platform where you see the rising sun, the beautiful green rice paddy fields, and a playful yoga teacher who guides you through a mind-body-spirit yoga class.

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This retreat @amayen_sanctuary gave me some serious self care opportunities that I dove into. I feel so blessed to have these moments of depth and stillness. • • Where do you find self care? • • • While you wait for our awesome Thailand blog coming soon, check out our new blogs in Japan, Taipei, Hong Kong, Macau, and packing (link in bio). Also check out our YouTube channel and subscribe! • • • • • • • • • #veganvoyage #animalactivists⁣⠀ #chasingessence #exploretocreate #lifeofadventure #createandcultivate #adventureglobe #manifestation #roundtheworld⁣⠀ #worldtrip #vegancouple #transcendentalmeditation #meditation #ad #thailand #travelcouple ⁣⠀ #miracles #yogaretreat #makemagic #thailandyoga ⁣⠀ #veganretreat #thailandvegan #linkinbio #thailand #chiangmai #youtuber #intentionsetting #veganrevolution

A post shared by Seyka Mejeur | Vegan Voyage (@forgoodnessseyks) on May 20, 2019 at 7:42am PDT

Following the first yoga class of the day you can gather your journal, book, or deep-life-questions-prompt-booklet and relax near the creek while your refreshing organic breakfast and coffee are brought to you.

After breakfast you go to another meditation room which has a place for you to lie down and put on headphones to listen to a recorded guided meditation. This meditation takes you through a visualization that helps you relax and get into a deep meditative state.

After meditating you have free time before lunch. You can spend that time on an outing to sight see, taking the sanctuary bikes on a bike ride around the local area, relaxing on your own, swimming in the sanctuary pool, getting a massage, reading one of the many books that the sanctuary provides, take an Amayen cooking class, or whatever strikes your fancy.

Right around noon you have a refreshing and fulfilling lunch. Just before your second yoga session of the day you are served your fresh organic juice – no sugar added, not from concentrate. The second class of the day tends to be a bit more vigorous.

You have another break to enjoy the space or dive deep into yourself before dinner time which is usually full of fun conversation and bonding with the other attendees. Then you have a peaceful night time to enjoy the afterglow of all the work you’ve put in.

Amayen is an incredible sanctuary where you have the space and support to truly have transformations. We loved our time there and recommend it to everyone.

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Nurture your inner growth in a way that empowers and enlivens you. As a celebration of our hard personal work and growth we wrote out our goals and manifestations on notes and connected them to these Chinese lanterns. • • These are eco-friendly and animal friendly Chinese lanterns. Please don’t participate in sending these up if they aren’t! • • • While you wait for our awesome Thailand blog coming soon, check out our new blogs in Japan, Taipei, Hong Kong, Macau, and packing (link in bio). Also check out our YouTube channel and subscribe! • • • • • • • • • #veganvoyage #animalactivists⁣⠀ #chasingessence #exploretocreate #lifeofadventure #createandcultivate #adventureglobe #manifestation #roundtheworld⁣⠀ #worldtrip #vegancouple #transcendentalmeditation #meditation #ad #thailand #travelcouple ⁣⠀ #miracles #yogaretreat #makemagic #thailandyoga ⁣⠀ #veganretreat #thailandvegan #linkinbio #thailand #chiangmai #youtuber #intentionsetting #veganrevolution

A post shared by Seyka Mejeur | Vegan Voyage (@forgoodnessseyks) on May 22, 2019 at 6:51am PDT

Get in Touch with Amayen:

Amayen Sanctuary Website

Amayen Instagram

Amayen Facebook

Other notes:

We ran out of days to spend at all of these amazing places but also considered spending some time at a Vegetarian Resort called Away Chiang Mai Thapae in Chiang Mai city.

Thank you for journeying with us for our Vegan Voyage Thailand and on this remarkable trip! Next up: Vegan Voyage Vietnam.

For the sake of goodness,

Seyka & Brain