Elephant Trekking near Chaloklum Village on the Island of Koh Phangan
Are you looking for a little adventure during your holiday? If you are, then how about a ride on an elephant? Where else will you have the opportunity to enjoy a relaxed ride on mountain paths through the palm forests on the back of a gentle elephant?
To the Thai people, elephants symbolize strength an therefore, they are worshiped in a special way. A lot of artwork, temples and souvenirs are often decorated with elephants. Moreover, in Thailand, anyone who murders or even beats an elephant may face imprisonment for up to thirty years.
Right now, eight elephants live at our trekking facility which is approximately ten thousand square meters with a small lake where the where the elephants bathe daily. Our facility was designed to meet the special needs of our precious pachyderms. They even receive a yearly check-up from a government appointed veterinarian. He checks their health, immunizes them and makes sure that they are being properly cared for. And so, life for the elephants here in southern Thailand is much easier than in the logging camps of the north. There, elephants had to work very hard dragging and moving huge hardwood trees and only had life expectancies of fifty or sixty years. In contrast carrying tourists is an easy walk in the park and here they can live for eighty or even one hundred years!
Come and have a look at our facility. If you are driving east from Thong Sala, the trekking entrance is located approximately two kilometers before Chaloklum. If you come in the early morning or late afternoon you may have the opportunity to meet our elephants while they are having their daily bath. While there you can play with our friendly monkeys or feed “Champion”, our baby elephant. He loves bananas.
Trekkings are booked daily from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm including Sundays. To ride the elephants you sit in a type of saddle or gondola that is mounted on their backs. The mahout rides on the elephant’s neck and uses leg pressure and a thotti, a special implement to guide the elephant. The half hour trek winds up the mountain through the palms and once on top of the mountain there is a wonderful view of Chaloklum bay, the Chinese temple and the mountains and valleys of Koh Phangan; a great photo opportunity.
Trekking fees are usually 500 baht per person. Trekking is quite popular during the high season so in order to plan the tours more efficiently and minimize waiting times, we are happy to arrange advance bookings. If you book online in advance we guarantee a 10 % discount. Trekking per person is then only 450 Baht. If you wish, our team can pick you up at your resort. We look forward to your visit.
For more details about Koh Phangan Elephant Trekking please visit their web site at http://kohphanganelephanttrekking.com – thank you!
It may not be as cruel as them working in logging but its still not right these animals should be in the wild where they belong in my opinion!
If you had driven by every day and seen that poor baby elephant tied up by a short metal chain – rocking back and forth in that distressed motion we all know and associate with cruelty, you wouldn’t be visiting, paying and promoting the elephant trecking.
they use this association technique when the animal is young to program into its mind that it can not escape even when its only tied up by a thin rope when its an adult.
I’m sure they love the animals and feed them well, but when you witness this type of distress on the face of a beautiful baby elephant, ( and its mother) you realise that really it should be free like us to live the life it chooses.
Oh to live in an ideal world hey !
if you visit and here someone pass by shouting “Free the elephants” – thats me 🙂
plus think about the environmental damage done to the area
Couldn’t agree more!! I’ve been passing by these elephants daily for months and even thou it seems like their caretakers seems to treat them good, been tied up is no life for an elephant.
I also happen to know that about a month ago my friends did this trekking and the guy who walked with them hit the elephant so badly that he was bleeding. My friends are NOT recommending this place at all. They felt really bad and asked the guy to stop the trekk but he didn’t understand or pretended not to understand what they were saying. They wanted to report the abuse but it’s not like there’s an animals rights organisation or likewise here.
I’m with you guys. The only elephant that looks like the proper weight is the baby. The rest look very skinny.
Yeah… fuckers! I nearly came off my bike due to a big dump of elephant shit on the main road to Chaloklum – I hit the shit hard and nearly lost the front end – the shit flew up off my front wheel into my face. Elephant Faeces do not taste good I can tell you! Had to jet wash the shit off my bike which cost nearly 200baht! Elephnat shit is big … very big! …. maybe they should collect it and sell it to all the garden centres and make thier money that way rather than the poor animals being used for fun rides. Or maybe when they got loads of tourists I should drop my pants and ‘curl out a smelly one’ in front of them when the baby is performing his tricks .. ‘hey here’s a trick from me …. eat shit!!!!’ As they say … shit happens!
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