Twelve years after “Ning Nong” the baby elephant saved an 8-year-old tourist’s life during the 2004 tsunami in Phuket, she has been located in an elephant camp in Kanchanaburi on Wednesday.
Amber Owen, from the UK, was staying at a Phuket hotel with her family at the time of the tsunami and, that morning, she was visiting Ning Nong and riding the elephant when the tsunami began.
Ning Nong sensed the danger and headed inland with the little girl on his back before the huge waves struck. The survivors have not seen each other since.
Ning Nong’s heroic move was brought to attention recently after children’s author Michael Morpurgo has used it as inspiration for a London stage production called “Running Wild,” according to The Telegraph.
He first produced the play in 2009, but it recently opened again in London.
After the tsunami, Ning Nong was sent to Somnuk Elephant Camp in Kanchanaburi where she has been renamed “Bai Tong.”
Somnuk, the camp’s owner, said Baitong was sent to his camp because the hotel’s owner could no longer take care of her. Bai Tong is very smart and friendly. She always wins the hearts of tourists who visit the camp, according to MCOT.
Amber is now 20 and works in fashion and lives Milton Keynes, England.
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