Kings Cup Polo 2011

September 4 – September 11

The Kings Cup Polo tournament will be celebrating it’s tenth anniversary this year and returning to where it all began, Hua Hin, from September 4th through the 11th. Teams from around the world will be manning their elephants and trunking it out to win the coveted Kings Cup.

In true Thailand tradition the Kings Cup Polo tournament not only honors the King but also honors the same gentle beasts they will be riding because the Kings Cup polo tournament is a charity event to benefit Elephant conservation in Thailand.

Started in 2001 by Anantara Resorts, the first Kings Cup Polo tournament was a small affair of few people and only 6 teams but by 2010 the tournament had become wildly popular hosting 12 teams with players from 15 countries and thousands of spectators.

To date the Kings Cup tournament has raised over $300,000 for Thailand elephants,  the bulk of which has gone to the National Elephant Institute, which provides medical care, Mahout training and care for Thailand elephant population. Other funds have been used to buy elephants freedom from the streets of Bangkok and Chaing Mai as well as build and run a custom elephant ambulance. Proceeds have also been used to maintain the Institutes elephant hospital where they house and care for sick elephants.

Thailand’s elephant population has decreased over the years and it’s now believed that only 1500 wild elephants still roam free in Thailand and there are only 3600 domesticated elephants left. Unfortunate street accidents and abuse have taken the lives of many of Thailand’s elephants through the years.

What started out as a whimsical conversation between two quirky sport lovers, evolved itself to be known as the 6th largest annual event in the Thai tourism calendar. The event in question of being polo with an adventurous twist thus was the birth of polo played on the back of elephants.

The World Elephant Polo Association established the governing rules for Elephant Polo in 1982; the association has its headquarters at the Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge in the Royal Chitwan Park in Nepal, which is where the World Elephant Polo Tournament played every year on a grassy airfield in Megauly. This tournament is played within a relatively small circuit, including the countries Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Kings Cup Polo 2001 Program Schedule

Monday, September 5th  

11am – 2pm: Monk & Elephant Blessing Ceremonies, Grand Parade &  Elephant Buffet

2pm – 3pm: Exhibition Games All Afternoon

7pm: Tournament Draw & Cocktail Party at Anantara Hua Hin

Tuesday, September 6th     

10am – 12pm: Matches All Morning

1pm: EFG Jim Edwards Memorial Game

2pm – 6pm: Matches All afternoon

7pm: Dinner Event

Wednesday, September 7th

10am – 12pm: Matches All Morning

12.30pm – 1.30pm: Hoteliers Cup

2pm – 6pm: Matches All Afternoon

7.45pm: TEPA Players’ Night

Thursday, September 8th

10am – 12pm: Matches All Morning

12.30pm – 1 .30pm: Mahout Game

2pm – 6pm: Matches All Afternoon

7pm: Dinner Event

Friday, September 9th

10am – 12pm: Matches All Morning

12. 30pm – 1.30pm: Ladies Cup

2pm: Quarter Final One

3pm: Quarter Final Two

4pm: Quarter Final Three

5pm: Quarter Final Four

7pm: Dinner Event

Saturday, September 10th

8am: Semi-final playoff match

9am: “Escape The Wooden Spoon” Match

10am: “Fight Your Way To Mid-Table” Match

11am: “Punch Above Your Weight” Match

12.30pm – 1. 30pm: Celebrity Game

2pm: “Last Chance at Glory” Match

3pm:  “Best Of The Rest” Match

4pm:  Semi Final One

5pm:  Semi Final Two

7pm:  Blanc et Noir Auction Soiree at Anantara Hua Hin

Sunday, September 11th     

8am: “Wooden Spoon” Match

9am: “Springboard From The Bottom” Match – 13th Place Decider

10am: “Knocking On The Door” Match – 11th Place Decider

11am: “Relegation Worries Over” Match – 9th Place Decider

1pm: “Look How Far We’ve Come” Match – 7th Place Decider

2pm: “Mid-Table Heroes” Match – 5th Place Decider

3pm: “Best Of The Rest, We’ll Get It Next Year” Match – 3rd Place Decider

4pm: Arrival of Royal Representative

5pm: King’s Cup Elephant Polo Grand Finale 2011

5.30pm: Prize Giving Ceremony

6.30pm onwards: End of Tournament

Spectators entrance to the Kings Cup Polo tournaments is FREE
For more information on this event you can visit the Kings Cup Polo 2011 web site and for more information on upcoming Events and Festivals in Thailand you can visit the Thailand Events Calender.

Kings Cup Polo 2011 brought to you by Anatara Hua Hin Resort in conjunction with the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

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From being hit by speeding vehicles to being electrocuted by low hanging electrical wires these gentle giants have to persevere rough city streets and sometimes less than friendly mahouts to help earn their masters money. It’s a sad life and not one any animal should have to endure. Not long ago a baby elephant was being led out into the Bangkok streets to begin his long night of work when he fell through a large storm grate and became trapped. The poor beast remained trapped for over 12 hours while many men worked to free it. The psychological harm done to these animals can be just as severe as the physical harm done to them.

Aside from the elephants that walk the streets of the major tourist cities you will also find elephants at most of the major attractions in Thailand such as animal parks, Zoo’s and gardens. Elephant rides are a huge tourist draw but again these elephants endure the same unnatural working conditions and sometimes cruelty to perform as they do. Most elephants in the tourism industry begin their life in small cages as babies where they are prodded with sharp sticks and metal hooks to train them to perform correctly. These Elephants once trained make it into the tourism industry from street begging to the higher ranks of playing soccer or painting pictures for you.

Fortunately there are people like Sangduen “Lek” Chailert and the Elephant Nature Foundation who have devoted their lives to this cause and are doing wonderful work that you, the tourist or expat, can take part in and feel good about. Lek’s love for the Asian elephant began as a child when her grandfather,  a traditional healer, saved a mans life and was given a baby elephant as payment. That baby elephant, named Tongkum, would change her life. She found that the human relationship with the elephants could easily be forged through love, kindness and rewards rather than cruel training procedures.

After going to college in Chiang Mai and earning her bachelors degree she went to work in the elephant tourism industry helping elephant trekking companies locate and secure available elephants. It was then that she discovered the darker side of the domestic elephant trade through the abuse and neglect she witnessed.  Lek then began her new career as an advocate for the domestic and wild elephants of Thailand to change the traditional ways and help to educate not only the tourists but the elephant owners as well.

Through this passion the Elephant nature Foundation, a non profit charity,  was born. Lek had sold everything she owned and used the profits from her travel agency to rescue elephants and and start the Elephant Nature Park in 1996. In 2003 an American wildlife charity bought and donated a 16 hectare site to the foundation where over 30 elephants live and roam today. The elephant park is a place where you can not only see the Asian elephant in their natural habitat but you can also learn more about these gentle giants and volunteer your time to help preserve this way of life for them.

A visit to the park can be a full day excursion, an over night stay and even a three week stay if you wish, you will not only learn about the Asian elephant but will also be actively helping the park to maintain and promote awareness to the plight of the Asian elephant. The cost of every visit to Elephant Nature Park directly supports the elephants and makes it possible to continue running the park.

Sangduen “Lek” Chailert is an amazing woman and she is helping to change the mindset of the tourism industry one elephant at a time. Please take the time to visit the Elephant Nature Foundation to read more about Lek and her incredible work with Thailand’s elephants and how you can help.

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Thailand’s newest elephant sanctuary is being billed as an old folks home for aging elephants. Located in Lampang province, the Pang-La Nursing Home for Aged Elephants, will join two already established elephant sanctuaries in housing and caring for aging elephants.

The newest sanctuary due to open at the end of November will be situated in the Ngao district of Lampang on roughly 375 acres of land supported by it’s own small river. This newest endeavor will be run by the Forest Industry Organization ( FIO ) which also runs one of the other elephant hospitals in the province. The other sanctuary/hospital in the province is operated by a private charity,  The Friends of Asian Elephants Society.

The new FIO nursing home for Thai elephants already has thirty residents at the facility and plan to house as many as 200 elephants in the future. These elephants are all old and disabled veterans of the now defunct forestry industry that ended with government bans on logging.

This new sanctuary will guarantee that Thailand’s aging elephant population will have a safe and secure home to live out the rest of their lives in peace.

Since the 1950′s Thailand’s domestic elephant population has dropped significantly from just over 13,0000 to today where it stands at roughly 2500. Through the efforts of the FIO , the Friends of the Asian Elephants organization and the Chang Yim project ( Smiling Elephant ) Thailand is slowly but surely trying to take care of and preserve it’s one true national treasure.

While there are still many elephants in the tourist industry and in private hands being touted through city streets for profit one can only hope that every new effort to take care of these gentle beasts sends a ripple through the country that calls the people to action to save this beautiful icon of Thailand.

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The Eyes of Thailand is a documentary that seeks to bring the Asian elephant conservation efforts to the forefront of the international community. The documentary, which is in post production, hopes to motivate the international community to push for protection laws in Thailand that mirror the works of Soraida Salwala and her organization Friends of the Asian Elephant (FAE) .

Soraida Salwala founded the first Asian elephant hospital in Lampang, Thailand. The hospital has treated over 2000 elephants since it’s opening in 1993 and the treatments have included everything from eye infections to land mine accidents. The hospital was in the news recently when it fitted an Asian elephant named Motola with a new prosthetic leg. The 48 year old elephant lost most of it’s left front leg ten years ago to a landmine while working at a logging camp along the Myanmar-Thailand border.

Since the 1950′s Thailand’s domesticated elephant population has dropped from just over 13,000 to today where it stands at 2, 500. The wild elephant population in Thailand has seen it’s numbers decline just as dramatically. Recently the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration set up the Chang Yim ( Smiling Elephant ) project to begin buying and removing these gentle beasts from Bangkok streets and from Mahouts that often neglect and abuse them. These elephants  will end up at the National Elephant Institute in Lampang where they will live out the rest of their days in peaceful surroundings.

The Eyes of Thailand documentary will take the viewer inside the daily workings of the elephant hospital and show you the plight of these injured and neglected animals as well as the people such as Soraida Salwala who have made it their life’s work to treat and protect these beautiful animals. D.V.A. Productions, the makers of this film, have been working along side Soraida Salwala to bring the plight of the Asian elephant to the world through this documentary and through The Eyes of Thailand Updates a weekly blog  by Soraida  on the FAE’s progress.

Currently D.V.A. Productions is seeking donations to complete post production on the film and distribute it to film festivals, television and educational markets.

I think this is a very worthwhile project to donate to. With more exposure  projects like Bangkok’s Chang Yim and Soraida Salwala’s Friends of the Asian Elephant (FAE) will see donations rise and the ultimate winner in all of this is the Asian elephant.

For more information on how you can become involved please visit their website The Eyes of Thailand.

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Photo Courtesy of AP

The Chang Yim ( Smiling Elephant ) project was set up by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to remove roaming elephants from Bangkok’s city streets and get them back to their natural enviroment or a close proximity thereof.  The BMA is taking aim at Bangkok’s mahout’s who drive these gentle beasts throughout the city to beg for coins and perform tricks for tourist dollars.

As you can see by the picture above city streets are no place for an elephant of any size. The baby elephant above was being walked through the city of Rayong when it stepped into an open manhole. fortunately the baby elephant was rescued,  without harm,  after a few hours and with the help of a bulldozer to dig a pit big enough for him to walk out of.  Unfortunately the Baby elephant gets to go back to it’s life of slavery begging for money.

The Chang Yim project in Bangkok aims to remove all elephants from Bangkok within one year. They made their first big step yesterday with the purchase of Pang Bua Kham, a 30 year old elephant that is blind in one eye. Pang Bua Kham’s owner, a Bangkok mahout, was paid 300,000 baht ( roughly $8000.00 ) for the elephant who will be transported to the National Elephant Institute in Lampang where it will live out the rest of it’s days in peaceful surroundings. The hope is that some elephants, at least the younger ones, can be re-introduced to their natural habitats while the older elephants will be found suitable homes at places like the National Elephant Institute.

The BMA believes that most of Bangkok’s roaming elephants can be purchased from their owners for 300,000 baht each and to this end they have set up a bank account with Krungthai bank to accept donations for this cause. In a little over a week the bank account has already received 800,000 baht ( roughly $24000.00 ). Donations can be made to Krungthai Bank account No.088-0-03418-1.

This of course is a small solution to a very large problem. Elephants are used in every major city by their owners to make a living through tourist dollars. Hopefully the BMA efforts in Bangkok will be successful and catch on in other cities so this problem can finally be one of the past. Until that day there will be more stories like the Baby elephant story above and sadder ones like the elephant that died last week in Chonburi province when it walked into a low hanging live electric line and was electrocuted.

If you plan on visiting Thailand and run into these gentle giants on the streets of Bangkok or any other city please resist the urge to pay for the experience of feeding them or taking a picture with them. They are beautiful creatures but there are much more humane and suitable places where you can get to know the elephants of Thailand better.

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As seen posted on the front wall of the Dynasty Inn Hotel in Bangkok.  Signs like this always make me chuckle. Any other travel destination in the world you might see signs like ” no shoes, no shirt, no service” or ” no smoking”. It’s always nice to know the hotel’s stand on pachyderms! More hotels around the world should weigh in on the subject because you never know when you might have the urge to feed an elephant.

Although the sign looks funny there is a very real problem of Thai’s walking around Bangkok with their elephants hawking them to the tourists by selling them food to feed to the elephants. It’s very sad to see the elphants in the big city like that when they belong in their natural habitat.

If you find yourself in Bangkok try to resist the urge and maybe these elephants will find their way back to where they belong when the owners realize they aren’t making money anymore. I know, wishful thinking…but if more people understand the problem maybe things will change one day.

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