A one day trip to National Elephant Conservation Centre, Kuala Gandah, Pahang, Malaysia

A visit to National Elephant Conservation Centre, Kuala Gandah, Pahang, Malaysia.

Of late, I realized that I did little travel inside Malaysia especially out of Kuala Lumpur. I have been doing some research on the places to be visited in Malaysia which might be a great visit to my little toddler. I wanted him to visit the places which might be enjoyable for him like parks, farms and zoos. This would also help him to get to know the different animals in real scenario and enjoy them as much as we did in India. In India, it is much simple to see an elephant in a temple, or see a cattle in the streets, or enjoy the crows feeding the rice near my house! 

I loved this place when I found it in the internet and was pretty much sure that little V would definitely enjoy it as he is fond of elephants! I wanted him to see the elephants in much little proximity - to feel the touch of this gigantic animal, their sound, the way they eat and what not? I have been a lover of elephants myself and adore small elephants! How cute these are? Little elephants which just resemble my little V.

The travel:

We started in our car as we found it comfortable to drive there. After having our morning brunch, we started by 11:30 AM to the sanctuary. We followed our GPS and drove directly to the Sanctuary. We reached there by 1:00 PM which is pretty much a 1.5 hours journey. The weather was just fine although we were expecting rains by the afternoon. The rains visited us as we approached KL on our return journey.

3 Best things about the center:

1. Free admission - Yes, the visit is free to this place and you get to enjoy seeing the elephants and their activities. But you have to pay if you want to have activities with the elephant like feeding them and bathing them. That is RM 10 for adults and RM 5 for children (still less). Considering the number of elephants which is being maintained here - 27 elephants, it is really a great measure to make the admission free just to educate us on the big creatures. However, you are encouraged to give a good donation for the centre for taking care of these elephants.

2. Personal activities with the elephants - You can feed the elephants with some tropical fruits and some peanuts or Sugarcane. There is also an activity in which you bathe the little elephants in the river. It is really the best one because you get to touch and feel them.

3. Kids friendly place with lots of space for relaxing - I found the place to be really kids friendly as in there is lots of benches to sit and relax or to have a bite or two of your food. 

The experience:

As we entered the center, we finished our registration and my husband and son also signed up for the activities (as I chose to be the official photographer!). We went for a video show by 1:30 PM see a documentary on how the elephants are being transferred from their shrunk habitat (like a forest with less food for them or from a plantation they eat) to a new place. There are also scenes on how they react to the change and how the elephants in this sanctuary help them during the process. 

Our next stop was to feed the baby elephants with some sugar cane or peanuts (we need to buy the food from a nearby stall and this is purely optional). The baby elephants were such a darling and they just put out their trunk to get the food from us. I was so excited to feed them. 

The one in this picture is a 2 years old baby elephant. The oldest one in the centre is 76 years old as mentioned by our guide. The oldest one last year was 80+ years old.

Once we finished our feeding, we saw some adult elephants coming down for the activities. They were heading down to be bathed and feed by us. They seemed to have a wonderful bathing in the river for the scorching heat in the afternoon.

After they finished their bathing, they returned back to the main area. 7 adult elephants were standing in a row and were ready to show us some of their gestures. I particularly loved the elephant in the below picture as it seemed to be more handsome than the rest. This was a male elephant (I think must be 27 years old) and reminded me so much of the elephants in the Ice Age movie. So handsome!

The elephant below showing us on how to balance when there is a need to balance in 2 legs (due to some injuries). Although they are huge creatures, they balance very well.

The elephant below demonstrated how it helps the trainer to get on to his back. Seems so simple to him!

This was the best one! My little one can easily tell what this elephant was doing - this is how they sleep!

After the activities, we had another round of feeding the adult elephants. My favourite one just came to us and ate the fresh fruits as we gave it. The centre has kept some papayas for feeding the elephants so you don't have to buy any fruits for feeding. 

There is a good gap between the elephants and yourself. All you have to do is reach your hand out for the elephants to grab the fruit. There was a small elephant nearby, with which you can touch them and feed them some fruits. You have a great opportunity to take photographs with the small elephant and to have a personal touch and feel.

Once we are done with the feeding, the elephants return back to their shelter. We then proceed to enjoy the bathing of the small elephants. Both my hubby and little V enjoyed this the maximum. Little V was very excited as he saw the river and knew this is going to be too fun! He was right!

You have little brushes to clean the elephant and then you will be having a chance to splash water at the elephant and to everyone near the elephants. Every group gets excited at this stage and will be drenched by the time they are out of water. The small elephants seem to enjoy all the splashing and cleaning.  Make sure to take some change clothes and a towel to clean and change yourself after all the splashing.

By this time, you are very much done with the whole trip! You can relax for some time in the benches provided and have a bite or two of your sandwiches. There is a restaurant inside and you can taste some local delicacies. Since we are vegetarians, we got our own snacks and ate it. 

This definitely caters to everyone's needs right from my little toddler to older children to myself and even the elders. This is a must visit if you have children or little ones who enjoy the company of elephants or nature! It was one of the best visits I had in Malaysia. 

Happy travelling and have a great time exploring!