My Bangkok Life – The Elephant Parade

Words and images by Alex Bannard

Alex Bannard,Frost Magazines’ Bangkok correspondent, explored Lumpini Park to see the Elephant Parade. She found that this uplifting and colourful morning provided an insight into a worth cause.

We moved to Bangkok at the beginning of August 2015, following in the footsteps of the hubby, Mr P who had arrived at the beginning of March to start his new job. We loved it immediately: the food, the culture, the people, the weather. We’ve made some really wonderful friends, settled in & it feels like home already. Now it’s time to start exploring.

The Elephant Parade has been visiting Bangkok during December & January so we headed off to Lumpini Park keen to see it. I had suggested we take the water taxi, quicker, more fun for the kids but Mr P said the traffic would be fine on a Sunday. An hour later & much whining & pressing of each other’s & my buttons from the back seat & we finally arrived.

We put the lead on the puppy & headed off to find the parade. Only to be stopped by security, no dogs allowed in the park. Seriously? For a moment my love affair with this amazing city faltered. But being a selfless character, I handed the lead to Mr P & said, ‘Well I’m going, you can stay here with the dog.’ He went for a snooze in the a/c’d car, win win all round.

Aside from passing lots of Soi (street) dogs as we walked through the park & the sweltering heat, the parade was delightful. My daughter bumped into one of her ballet-class-cohorts & posed mercilessly by almost every elephant, having recently been taught the art my one of her friend’s mothers whilst my son was chief photographer.

The Elephant Parade is the brain-child of Marc Spits who visited The Friends of Asian Elephant Hospital in Thailand with his son, Mike & meet Mosha a baby elephant who had lost a foot at 7 months old thanks to a landmine accident. She has a new prosthetic leg fitted every year & every year has to learn to re-walk again.  The Parade was set up to raise awareness & money for the plight of Asian elephants, many of which no longer have work & are forced to beg for food with their mahouts thorough the busy Thai streets.

The Parade, which started in 2006 has visited many European & Asian cities including Milan, Copenhagen, London, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Singapore & California. It is the largest exhibition of decorated life-sized elephant statues painted by celebrities & artists including Katy Perry, Sir Richard Branson, Paul Smith, Goldie Hawn, & here in Bangkok people like Nancy Chandler who makes wonderful maps & cards of Bangkok & local actors & artists.

The elephants are auctioned afterwards to raise money – I went on line desperate to obtain my favourite Elephant but rather staggered at the average bid being around 250,000bht, more then £4,500. It is an auction only for the hi-so of Bangkok, not your average expat. But miniature replicas are available on line & you can buy packs to paint your own if you are a budding artist.

The charity pledges to provide at least £50,000 in donations each year to support 25 elephants rescued from domestication or the streets, supporting the mahouts & their families with English lessons, education & even a livelihood for the wives in building their own silk worm farms. A great cause, some fabulous designs, definitely worth checking out.