Thailand Volunteering

Thailand Elephants

Elephant Mahout

Surin Elephant Festival

Price per Person	GBP 1080 (no single supplement)
Cost includes	All rail, land and water transport listed on the itinerary All accommodation as listed on the itinerary All meals as listed on the itinerary All entrance fees Services of an English Speaking guide throughout the tour All services as listed in the itinerary Government Tax, VAT
Cost does not include	Personal drinks with meals Meals other than those mentioned in the program Personal hotel extras bills and personal incidental charges International and domestic airport departure tax International flights to Thailand
Minimum group size	Guaranteed small group departure
Starting Point	Bangkok
Start Date	16th to 30th November
Duration	15 days, 14 nights
Suitable For
Trip Style	Gentle Adventure
Comfort Level	Range from 2/3 star local hotels and volunteer accommodation at the elephant project
Notes	ALL our trips can be tailormade to suit your specific requirements - please contact us to discuss.

What others have said about this trip...

What a fantastic holiday - I must say we were treated like royalty. The two of us with Jane and Apple (our guides and Richit) our personal Chauffeur) in a 11 seater minbus. What more could you want? From day one Jane and Poppy were there for us. We went out by ourselves as soon as we got to Bangkok - rode on a tuk-tuk and went on a boat ride on the river plus more.

Jane and Poppy arrived at 1 o'clock to have lunch with us and show us the Thai way of buying food of the hundreds of stalls in the streets. The first week was fantastic and we were shown as much as you could cram into a day. The accommodation was super, hotels great, the National Park accommodation was basic (cold showers) but we are not complaining. Everything was clean.

The Surin Elephant festival is a show not to be missed. We had front row seats in the arena. Little elephants as young as 8 weeks old were there.

Week two was truly unforgettable. We arrived at tea-time on Sunday 4.45 and by 5.30 we were meeting our Mahouts and elephant. Mine was called Rungrueng (46) and Cecile's Sancome (80). On the Monday we had a two hour thunder storm but other than that we saw no rain at all. We fell into our daily routine pretty quickly and all of us were so eager to get over to the elephants.My Mahout was called Bua and said he was 49. We hit it off immediately and I had two attempts to climb up on her in the morning but failed. After lunch I was determined to get up and I did and after that I managed every time with a push and shove from Bua. Nerves or being afraid never came into it. It was love at first sight. Feeding, walking, bathing at the big water tank, cleaning up all day every day was wonderful. None of us there that week wanted to leave and we all said we would go back if it was possible.

We met the families every day, they were always pleased to see us. One day Bua's wife made me a ring out of Elephant hair. Bua took off my two rings I was wearing and placed this ring on my finger and then put my rings back. It's not coming off my finger. We were made Grasshoppers, and birds out of Palm leaves and little spiders and elephants out of wife and wool, to attach to key rings.

We went to the local market to get pineapples (4 great big pineapples for 100 Bt) Rungrueng loved them. Ahnon said each morning we should all take a carrier bag full of little finger bananas over for our elephants. They cost 40Bt a bagful. All the elephants expected them when we went over at 9.00 o'clock after breakfast.

Saturday again alarms set at 5.30 to walk to the lakes where all the elephants had their weekly bath. Magic. There wasn't a highlight of the holiday. The whole holiday was Awesome.

It's only now we realise how tired we are. Every day of the holiday our alarm clock was set to get us up. I can't remember how many mornings we got up at 5.30.

Every minute of every day was special and I congratulate you all on your achievements setting up this wonderful holiday of a lifetime for us; we will never forget it.

Maureen and Cecile, November 2006