In Elephant School, Golden Triangle:
There are no rear lights, no windscreen wipers and you won't get much in the trunk except water, but at the Anantara Resort Golden Triangle you can pass your driving test - from the back of an elephant!
Description
The 3-day mahout (elephant 'driver') training course takes place in Anantara's own elephant camp, which was set up in conjunction with Thailand's National Elephant Institute and its Elephant Conservation Centre in Lampang. The resorts' 160 acres of bamboo forest, nature trails and riverbanks, provide an ideal habitat for the elephants, all of which have been rescued from a life on the streets or in illegal logging camps, and are now involved in the centre's ecotourism programmes.
The course includes learning basic commands, how to drive an elephant, river bathing, daily care of an elephant, feeding requirements and mahout lifestyle, whilst working with a qualified Thai mahout and an English-speaking guide. You will also spend time looking after, and playing with, the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation's rescued baby elephants.
The course is certainly not for late risers. Elephants and their mahouts get up with the sun and the course starts each morning at 7.00am. The trainee's first task is to collect their elephant from the forest and, together with the mahout, drive her back to the camp. On passing their test, trainees receive a certificate of competence, a new mahout shirt and a mahout hook as a souvenir of their time at the Anantara elephant camp.
The package price includes return Thai Airways flights from Bangkok to Chiang Rai, 4 nights accommodation at the Anantara Resort Golden Triangle, transfers and a 3-day 'Learn to be a Mahout' course.
Tour notes
Take soft shoes and clothes that you don't mind getting wet or dirty!
Rating: Taste of Adventure; Min age: 12 years