I booked the Thai Elephant Home full day Mahout Training course the guesthouse in Chiang Mai only because I was absolutely sure that they treat their animals well (Note from 2020: I now know that it’s almost impossible to book an experience like this where they treat the animals well. Knowing what I know today, I would never ride an elephant again.

Thai Elephant Home

The full day tour was in Mahout Style, which means that you ride the elephant without any aids; so no basket on his back or anything else that might annoy the elephant. It also means you have to wear the “Mahout Outfit”, which as you can see in the photos is quite funny (especially the straw hat).

There’s not much to say about the trip apart from the fact that it was once in a lifetime experience for me. It was exhilarating and incredibly scary to sit on the back of such a majestic animal knowing that if he doesn’t like it, he could just run off or drag you off with his trunk. The elephant guides were only part time committed to keeping the animals in track which meant that while we were walking through the beautiful rainforest of Mae Taeng Mountains some of the elephants would stroll off into the shrubbery and others would decide to take a break and start eating the grass (this usually happened when you didn’t consistently fed them bananas from your bag). The guides would hop on the backs of the elephants to guide them in the right direction and then they would hop off again to start chatting with their colleagues.

The scenery was amazing. The forest and the mountains were gorgeous and green and we would stroll through rivers and up and down hills with the elephants. We did not use regular paths so this provided an even better experience.

We had lunch wrapped in a banana leaf. If you didn’t feel like eating more you could feed your elephant the rest. After lunch the elephants had their mud baths. We were allowed to throw mud on them but with my leg issues I decided to keep far away from this.

After the mud bath we could not ride the elephants, so we continued on foot to the river where we would “swim” with the elephants. This was so scary and fun at the same time. You had to continuously find your footing while all the elephants were rolling around in the water and spraying the water from their trunk. I don’t know how I managed not to get crushed. This was such a crazy and fun day; one which I will never forget.

Baby Elephant

I also have to mention that one of the guys in our group was riding a mother elephant, so her little baby was following us around the jungle as well. It was so cute to see him jumping around and following the big elephants. I was actually riding a smaller elephant as well (not a baby of course) because I was daunted by the size of the big ones. In retrospect I think riding on the neck of a big one would’ve been more comfortable than the position I was sitting in, but you should see how massive these animals are when you get on!

At one point during the ride, the elephants started to huddle together, surrounding the baby and they started trumpeting really loudly. My friends and I were getting a bit scared because our legs were pressed together with the elephants and our only hold was either the ears or a rope around the back for the smaller ones. Then we saw a big group of other elephants crossing our paths; badly-treated exploited elephants. It seems our elephants heard or smelled this other herd coming and they were protecting the baby!

Bapoon (Morning Glory) and I