There's a park in Bali where you can swim and play basketball with elephants

Imagine waking up and seeing an elephant outside your window. Or swimming with an elephant in a lake. 

Bali's Elephant Safari Park & Lodge, located just outside Ubud, is an 8-acre park that's home to 30 Sumatran elephants who have learned to paint, play basketball and soccer, swim, and interact with humans. 

The park was created to provide a refuge for the creatures who are often killed due to illegal hunting. Proceeds from every visit goes towards continued conservation work.

Guests who visit can stay in the property's safari-style lodge, which has 25 rooms and a swimming pool where guests can interact with, feed, ride, observe, play with, and bathe the elephants. Rooms for the lodge typically start around $450. 

However, you don't need to stay at the lodge to visit the park. Rates start at $65 per person to visit the park and encounter elephants.

The park's owner, Nigel Mason, has been fighting for animal rights in Bali since 1980. For this reason, he ensures the elephants are well attended to and treated with love.

You can touch and hand-feed the gentle giants who will approach you.

Guests who stay at the lodge will wake up to elephants right outside their window. The rooms are built with a balcony landing so that you easily jump on board the elephants that approach and wait to take you to breakfast.