I f you were thinking about renting a car to go on your own safari or to drive through a national park containing wild animals which roam freely, you may want to re-think that plan after watching the video included with this article written by Leon Siciliano for The Telegraph, which shows an elephant trashing the front bumper of a car in Khao Yai National Park, which covers four provinces and is located in in Nakhon Ratchasima in northeast Thailand; as well as this video from CBC News, which is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Photographs of elephants crushing the hoods of cars and stomping on a grocery store are included in this article from RTE News, which suggests that the “aggressive behaviour were results of the mating season.”
Khao Yai National Park is one of the largest national parks in Thailand; and it is home to approximately 300 elephants. The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation is considering restricting the hours vehicles are allowed to enter the park to avoid new confrontations between cars and elephants, according to this article from the Bangkok Post. Temporarily closing the roads was under consideration after there have been at least four attacks reported in the park recently.
I am scheduled to be in Kenya next month — which, of course, is nowhere near Thailand; and I intend to provide trip reports — but damage by elephants is not the reason I do not plan to rent a car. Rather, it is because the rental car companies in Nairobi want approximately $100.00 per day with a total limit of 1,250 complimentary kilometers, with a charge of as much as 30 cents per additional kilometer…
