Elephant Hills Safari experience in Khao Sok National Park

Elephant Hills credit Pete McGee (12 of 13)Elephant Hills Safari Tours, recently highly commended in the recent Thailand Green Excellence Awards, provide a unique Thai experience for visitors to Thailand looking for looking to get up close and personal with Thai wildlife.According to Elephant Hills CEO Chris; “Our approach at Elephant Hills is not to ride elephants and to abstain from elephant shows in order to offer a more responsible, unique and rewarding experience for both elephants and humans.

“We also aim at maintaining the highest level of animal welfare; guests get to feed, wash and interact with Asia’s largest land animal. This is an excellent opportunity to get up really close and personal with these gentle giants in a responsible way and at the same time learn about their status and situation in Thailand.”

Elephant Hills

Your typical Elephant Hills Safari Tour takes two to three days, staying in either one or both of their tented sites in the Khao Sok National Park.

The Safari starts with an early pickup from your hotel in Phuket or Krabi and you’re provided with water and peanuts to sustain on the 2.5 hour journey to our first camp, at Elephant Hills.

On arrival you’re greeted with a slap up buffet lunch and shown to your glamping accommodation, before embarking on a kayak tour down the Sok river. After this you’re taken to the elephant camp a few minutes away.

Feeding Elephants, Elephant Hills Safari

Here you meet the elephants and are given a comprehensive lesson on everything from their behaviour in the wild, their use in the now defunct logging industry and what has eventually brought these beasts here, to a sanctuary in the far south of Thailand, a long way from home.

There is little natural environment left for Asian elephants to survive in, a legacy of the logging industry which has left disconnected pockets of rainforest throughout Thailand. So it’s hard for elephants to survive as they normally would, but also, some of these beasts have been domesticated for so long they’ve forgotten how.

Elephants bathing, Elephant Hills Safari

There are now many national parks in Thailand, the result of a grass roots-led environmental movement that started back in the 1980s. A movement that ended the logging industry, stopped the construction of a dam in central Thailand that would have had a devastating impact on the environment, and which has now created a generation of conservationists.

Limestone peaks, Khao Sok National park

Thais visit their own national parks more than any other nationality – the parks are not there purely for the benefit of international tourists like me. Looking after the natural Environment is a value that fits well with Buddhist philosophy, so after success of the grass roots environmental movement back in the 80s, it became something taught to the younger generation of Thais in schools by Buddhist monks.

And then there’s places like this, educational centres that introduce tourists to these magnificent creatures. These elephants have travelled from North and Central Thailand, and brought with them their Karen Mahouts who, dressed in colourful traditional garb, click, cluck and slap their cheeky charges into line as guests learn how to give them a scrub, before preparing a lunch of pineapple, bananas, sugarcane and elephant grass. In the evening, guests are treated to a dance recital by some local school kids and given a Thai cooking demonstration.

Limestone peaks, Khao Sok National park

The next day guests are taking to Camp Two: a floating camp on Cheaw Lan Lake. Here you can take part in a 3-hour trek through the jungle, climbing one of the tall limestone pinnacles to reach a large cave.

Kayaking Khao Sok National Park

Back lakeside, the rest of the day and the following morning can be spent swimming and kayaking in the lake, or simply relaxing while listening to the surrounding creatures, cicadas, hornbills and gibbons having fun in the jungle.

For more information, visit the Elephant Hills website.

Thailand’s Top 7 for kids

Thailand is one of the most family-friendly destinations in the world so picking a Top 7 for kids is a hard call. Travel writer Deborah Dickson-Smith shares her favourites.

Washing Elephants, Elephant Hills Safari

1. Elephant Hills, Khao Sok

About two hours’ drive from Phuket, at this safari-style luxury camping resort, you’ll learn how to feed and bathe elephants, as well as learn all about their connection with Thai people and the environmental challenges they face. As well as this, kids get to explore the great outdoors, with a raft ride down river, and at the nearby Floating Rainforest Camp, jump off your floating accommodation for a swim in the lake, take a guided trek through the jungle and look out for gibbons and hornbills in the tree tops.

flying-gibbon-chiang-mai

2. Flying Gibbon Zipline, Chiang Mai

One of the original tree tops course in Thailand, this mega-Zipline takes about three hours to complete as you make your way through a combination of Ziplines, abseiling, sky bridges and forest walks suspended high up above the valley floor. There are now also Flying Gibbons at Pattaya, Koh Pha Ngan and Siem Rep.

bai-pai-cooking-school-bangkok

3. Bai Pai Cooking School, Bangkok

There are cooking classes all over Thailand of course, in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket and Krabi. Bai Pai Cooking Class takes you first to the markets to show you how to choose your ingredients and then it’s back to school how to cook them. Teaching kids how to cooks is a great way to get them to try new foods. My daughter has kept her Bai Pai cook book for a few years now, and every time we have a barbecue, she insists on making ‘her’ satay chicken with peanut sauce.

Bangkok Flower Market orchids

4. Bangkok’s Markets

Best visited after dark, the colourful and fragrant Bangkok Flower Markets is actually my favourite, but all of Bangkok’s markets are great fun to explore with kids. The sights and sounds, smells and tastes area festival for the senses. Take a trip to the outskirts of the city to visit the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market and nearby Maeklong Railway Market – with market stalls set within centimetres of the passing trains.

Krabi Eco Tours - The Tree Top Adventure Park

5. Tree Top Adventure Park, Krabi

Located in Krabi, Koh Chang, Pattaya and Kanchanaburi, these high ropes courses are a bit out of the ordinary, with obstacle to master that include a ‘flying’ broomstick and a push bike you have to navigate across a rope bridge. I know I’ve already mentioned a treetops course above (Flying Gibbon) but this one is a completely different experience – challenging coordination as well as fear of heights! Also my kids never ever tire of tree tops course – the more the merrier. Nearby the park there are also some great walking trails though the rainforest and mangroves.

koh-yao-home-stay

6. Sample village life in a Home Stay

There are plenty of home stays dotted around Thailand, usually in the more undiscovered regions, or, like the one pictured above, actually quite close to bustling tourist hubs such as Phuket. The quiet island of Koh Lao is only a 30-minute boat ride from Phuket, but it’s like stepping into a completely different world – simple village life, where you can eat sleep and play with your host family. They’re a great way to meet the locals and learn a bit more about Thai culture – or ‘Discover Thainess’ as they call it.

bangkok-floating-market

7. Explore Bangkok’s Waterways and Canals.

Visit one of Thailand’s colourful floating markets (Damnoen Saduak Floating Market is not far from Bangkok) or take a combination canal and bike tour of the city’s waterways where you can explore the rivers and canals that have connected this city for hundreds of years, on two wheels and long-tail boat.

What are your favourite experiences with kids in Thailand? We’d love you to share them here!

Four of the best: Family Friendly Hotels in Phuket

Phuket has many beaches, and even more hotels and resorts so it can be a tricky thing to pick the right area and the right hotel for you. Some areas are best for young party animals, some for romance, but if it’s family friendly you’re after, here are four of the best, hand-picked by family travel blogger Deborah Dickson-Smith (Where To Next?). Continue reading “Four of the best: Family Friendly Hotels in Phuket”