Pwong Thong

Pwong Thong (‘Bundles of Gold’) is a quiet girl who follows the lead of her best friend, Ploy.

The BLES Team was alerted to the case of Pwong Thong by a member of the public, who had seen her tied up beside a busy road, begging for food. Pwong Thong, who worked at the same camp as Ploy on the island of Koh Chang, would give rides to tourists and then pose for photos with them.

However, due to a drop in foot flow and fewer tourists wanting this experience, Pwong Thong was going to be sold to another camp, elsewhere in Thailand.

We knew we couldn’t let this happen and so set about negotiating for Pwong Thong’s retirement to BLES.

The owner shared with us that Pwong Thong had a close friend (Ploy) at the camp and that originally, they had wanted to sell them both and keep them together. However, due to Ploy’s obvious and extreme health issues, nobody wanted her.

Pwong Thong, on the other hand, was in high demand. Despite being slightly underweight and showing signs of stiffness in her back legs, she was considered strong enough to continue working in the tourism industry.

What the owner shared next, broke us. She told The BLES Team that she was worried how Ploy would survive without her best friend. The owner feared that Ploy would die from a broken heart, if Pwong Thong was sold and they were separated.

Immediately, Katherine told the owner that BLES would take them both. Overcome with gratitude, the owner agreed to lower the price for Pwong Thong and agreed to not work either of the girls from that day on.

Katherine and her team started their journey back to BLES and together with US non profit - Planting Peace, a fundraising campaign was launched.

The funds for Pwong Thong and Ploy flooded in and four days later we were back on the road, making our way to Koh Chang.

The journey from BLES, to the camp, took a total of 18 hours. We drove through the night, undeterred by the threat of immanent war between Thailand and Cambodia, as well as flood warnings and fears of a torrential storm. We had been told that ferries leaving the mainland had been cancelled and were advised not to travel under any circumstances.

We urgently needed to get to Pwong Thong and Ploy - their health was fragile and we were concerned that if we delayed relocating them, that they would be too weak for the journey.

We arrived to the camp a day early and were pleased to see that the owner had kept her word and had not worked Pwong Thong or Ploy. We administered vitamin booster shots to both of them and fed them up with nutritious food.

Loading Pwong Thong and Ploy on to the truck was fairly easy and in no time at all, we were leaving the camp behind us and heading towards the pier.

The truck with our precious cargo was carefully loaded on to the ferry and 30 minutes later, we were on mainland Thailand!!

It was unbelievable how Pwong Thong and Ploy took everything in their stride. They were amazingly calm and remained perfectly still throughout the ferry ride. It had been almost twenty years since they had last been transported anywhere and so we had no idea how they would react to being in the truck and on the ferry.

We drove steadily and made frequent stops to hose the girls down and keep them hydrated. Ploy ate well during the drive, but Pwong Thong was reluctant to eat.
As the day turned to night and the temperature dropped, we wrapped both Pwong Thong and Ploy up in our specially made elephant coats to protect them from the wind and rain.

And at 4am, utterly exhausted, we finally arrived, safe and sound, at BLES.

Understanbily, they were eager to get off the truck! Pwong Thong marched into the Quarantine Area and started tugging at the enrichment that was waiting for them. Ploy, on the other hand, was visibly worn out and was struggling to walk. Once she had made it into the Quarantine Area, Ploy stood for a long time, looking at all the fruit laid out for her. When she finally felt able to, she reached up and pulled down a banana tree and started to tear off the leaves and eat.

Pwong Thong has made a steady recovery and is now unrecognizable! She marches out into the forest every day to join our other rescued elephants on our daily forest walks and it is so great to see her with a pep in her step!

She is a quiet, but social girl and has made friends with Thong Poon, Poon Sab and Grandma Metta.

Thank you, a thousand times over, to everyone who stood by BLES throughout this rescue mission - this was an epic rescue and we couldnt have done it without you.

Adopt Pwong Thong

Meet Pwong Thong’s Mahout - Boo Bwon