---
type: Video
title: "We met Elephants in Sri Lanka 🇱🇰"
description: A $15 ticket at the Pinnawala elephant orphanage — the herd walking back through the town from its bath, chains explained as a safety measure, and Harry unable to decide whether the place is what he was told it was.
tags: [sri-lanka, pinnawala, elephants, animal-welfare, kandy, tickets]
timestamp: 2026-08-06T13:50:00Z
resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9fzTuhp2DY
video_id: R9fzTuhp2DY
upload_date: 2022-02-18
duration: 1282
---

# We met Elephants in Sri Lanka 🇱🇰

An hour and a half by Uber from [Kandy](/places/kandy.md) to
[Pinnawala](/places/pinnawala.md) with [Mac](/people/mac.md) and
[Ali](/people/ali.md), to an elephant orphanage the hotel recommended
specifically on the grounds that the animals are well treated.

**The interesting part of the video is that he doesn't come away sure.** He picked
the place on a recommendation, says on camera that these things are hard to
verify and often covered up, finds the elephants chained, reads the sign saying
the chains are a safety measure, and decides he has no reason to disbelieve it —
while noting that when he did this in Thailand there were no chains at all. He
ends where he starts: this looks like a good life, and ideally they would be
wild.

*Obs: this page is based on auto-generated subtitles. The video and description
call it a sanctuary; the on-site signage Harry reads calls it an orphanage.*

## What it costs and how it runs

- **3,000 rupees a ticket — about $15**, which he thinks is reasonable.
- **About 1,000 rupees for a couple of bananas** to feed them with.
- **The bathing time is the thing to get right.** They understood the river
  bathing to start at four; it *finishes* at four, and they arrive to find the
  herd already walking back.
- **There are almost no instructions.** No guidance on where to go, what to do, or
  how close you may get — he remarks on it twice and works it out by following
  everyone else.
- **The visitors are mostly Sri Lankan**, which he had not expected.

## What they see

- **The herd walking back from the river through the town**, past the shops, which
  is free to watch and which he rates as good as the paid part.
- **A pen where they eat**, working through whole branches — he hadn't realised
  they eat the wood as well as the leaves.
- **A 36-year-old elephant** he is allowed to hand a banana to, and a long
  admiring passage about the trunk and how much control they have over it.
- **Babies**, five minutes' walk further on.
- **A display of the traditional tools** once used to handle them, which he
  handles carefully in commentary: this is how animals used to be treated, it is
  history, and pretending it didn't happen is not the answer.

The sign he reads says the elephants are semi-wild and weigh up to 4.5 tons.

## The stop opposite

A small café over the road, which supplies the video's other numbers: **three
pineapple juices and a water for 1,150 rupees — about $6** — pressed from local
fruit, and seven rabbits that the group ends up playing with. On the drive out
they also stop for a local energy drink he compares to Red Bull and a packet of
chocolate biscuits.

## Key moments

- `[00:30]` An hour and a half by Uber, and the assurance about the treatment.
- `[04:39]` Arrival, and why they chose this one.
- `[05:53]` Running to catch the herd coming back from the river.
- `[06:57]` The chains, first seen.
- `[08:55]` The bathing was 3–4, not from 4.
- `[09:25]` 3,000 rupees a ticket.
- `[10:58]` The sign: semi-wild, 4.5 tons, chains for safety.
- `[12:30]` No instructions, and the comparison with Thailand.
- `[13:02]` Feeding a 36-year-old.
- `[14:42]` The old handling tools, and what he says about them.
- `[15:13]` His verdict: a good life, but ideally wild — and 1,000 rupees for the
  bananas.
- `[20:21]` 1,150 rupees for three juices and a water.

## Extracted pages

- [Sri Lanka](/countries/sri-lanka.md)
- [Pinnawala](/places/pinnawala.md)
- [Kandy](/places/kandy.md)
- [Mac](/people/mac.md)
- [Ali](/people/ali.md)
- [Check animal welfare before booking](/tips/check-animal-welfare-before-booking.md)