Chiant Mai Questions - Elephants and Tribal Villages
 

Thanks so much to everyone for all of your help getting this trip pulled together. We're not going until November, but I'm so excited already!

During the trip, we're flying into CM from BKK on Friday for lunchtime-ish arrival and back out to Phuket Monday. Staying at Yaang Come Village which sounds fantastic.

We're booked for a full day cooking class at A Lot of Thai on Saturday and want to do an Elephant Trek of some sort on Sunday - key is that we go someplace that treats the elephants humanely. Half or full day either is fine, althought we would like to be back into town in time to enjoy some of the Walking Street on Sunday evening.

There have been lots of posts about the Elephant Conservation Area in Lampang area - it sounds wonderful - any thoughts on the one-day Mahout training there? There was also a posting on this site suggesting 3rd Eye Travel, but their full day elephant trek included some things that other postings have indicated might a little too touristy (example - visiting a tribal village in Doi Suthep that sounds like it well could be not so authentic). Those posting did not reference any tour company in particular, just that those particular hill tribe "tours" might seem a little contrived.

Thoughts on that? Any other suggestions for reputable and humane elephant experiences in the Chiang Mai area? Sounds like it might be fun to include a river raft ride as part of the day, too, if possible, but not a must.

If the Mahout training is the way to go, how in the world do you get there? Early morning bus is what they suggest. Driver maybe? Rental car?

Thanks for any help, guidance, suggestions, or re-thinking that you might can offer!

To ensure humane treatment only go to the Elephant Conservation Center or the Elephant Nature Park. Both are excellent. The others are set up basically just for tourists and thus just for commercial reason.

Having been to both I think the Conservancy in Lampang is a bit better. A day trek can be pretty taxing if it's hot. You can get a pretty good idea of the experience with a 4 hour trek. Lampang is 30-45 minutes, based on traffic from CM and to avoid the heat you might want to arrange an 8:30-12:30 trek so you'd leave CM at 7:30. That would get you back to CM by 1:30. You could have lunch and a short rest. It is worth going to Doi Suthep in the late afternoon. It is only 30-35 minutes from CM,by a tour of only 2 1/2-3 hours (1 hour RT travel and 1 hr. +/- at the temple and you could be back by 6:00 or so.
On Sunday you should go to the Sunday Market. It usually gets really going at 4:30-5. It is worth walking for 2 hours and shopping a bit and then it's dinner time. One good place is the Whole Earth but there are 6-7 good places.Have a good time.We did not stay at Taang Come but have heard good things about it. Our recent trip was 4 weeks after the Chedi opened and we stayed there. It was quite nice.If you do the above I'm not sure you can also do the cooking class. My wife and a friend did one 5 years ago and thought it was o.k.

The TECC is about an hour by car from Chiang Mai. It is easy to get to. You can take public bus (cheap) - it drops you off at the entrance and you walk in (about 15 minutes). Or, it's very easyi to get a car and driver to take you there...negotiable prices, but maybe around 800 baht - 1000 baht each way. The one day mahout training program would be better than just a visit, but both ways are fine. You need to reserve in advance for the mahout programs, or you can just show up, look around and get a ride.

The ENP is also about an hour away. Visits there are by reservation only, and they require that you use their transfer service as well. You may not ride elephants here because they are injury/abuse cases and not fit for riding. You can bathe them, feed them, look at them, eat lunch, watch their movie and hear their propaganda speech. The setting is lovely.

The ENP is rather extremist in its beliefs and program...they really focus on elephant abuse, and as a refuge for abused and injured eles, perhaps that makes sense. I wish their presentations were a bit more balanced so that so many tourists didn't come away from there with such a strong view against elephant tourism and riding and tourist exploitation...I won't get into it now, but if you want you can search for other posts about elephants and the ENP.

Of the ENP and the TECC, the TECC is the only place you'll get to ride the elephants. Both places are suppported by tourism. They are good places for what they are and are very different from one another, but don't be misled to believe that they exist for reasons other than tourism...were it not for tourism, they would not be. They are businesses just like all the other places; they are just a bit better.

I would suggest no more than two hours for an elephant trek. This will give you lots of time. The platform on which you will sit is level to the ground. Therefore, when you go up a hill, you're tilted backwards and even more exciting, when you go down, you're tiltied forwards. Two hours is plenty.

Go for a short trip the first time. The closest I've ever been to being seasick is on the back of an elephant.