Focusing on elephants’ welfare, Thailand’s latest sanctuary lets guests commune with retired pachyderms.
The Asian elephant has been an icon for tourism, perhaps nowhere more so than Thailand. The country has tourist camps and parks offering rides, treks and opportunities to bathe with the elephants or watch them play football or even paint pictures. I have been to many of these attractions over the past 30-odd years – I even have a ‘mahout driving licence’.
Times move on, however, and in more recent years the concept of what is actually good for the elephants has rightfully gained ground. Some 100 years ago there were roughly 100,000 elephants in Thailand; today that number is about 3,000 wild elephants, and 3,000-4,000 domesticated beasts. Our modern, human-dominated world has taken its toll on the natural wilderness and its inhabitants. In addition, as there has been a new and belated focus on the animals’ wellbeing, many of the less responsible camps have closed.
On the plus side, more socially aware enterprises have emerged. One such is The Bush Camp, which opened in September 2022 in a remote and rarely visited area of the country near the district of Hot to the southwest of Chiang Mai. It offers a two-day Bush Camp Experience blending the African safari camp idea of luxury tented accommodation with the verdant tropical forests of Thailand. Intrigued, we arranged a visit.
Authentic experience
The first morning, we were picked up from our hotel in Chiang Mai and began the 1.5-hour drive from the city on remarkably smooth highway, passing the hulking mountains of Doi Inthanon National Park to the north, and roadside temples glittering gold in the sunlight. Arriving at the compound’s gate we were ushered through by a smiling guard, and met at the open-sided reception area by Jonathan Chell, general manager of both The Bush Camp and its sister enterprise Elephant Hills Camp, located in Khao Sok National Park in Thailand’s far south.
An already well-established property, Elephant Hills has received several international awards for sustainability and animal wellbeing over the years, including the Global Spirit Award for animal welfare standards, and being named Asia’s leading luxury camping company (three years running) at the World Travel Awards. “Ninety-nine per cent of our staff are Thai,” Chell told us, “and we want people to be able to interact with them during their stay, as it’s all about creating as authentic an experience as possible.”
We were then driven down a dirt track that traced the top of a broad ridge through scrub jungle, and dropped one by one at our luxury ‘tents’ to get settled in. These are bungalow frames built in traditional style with a verandah at the front, a bathroom at the rear, wooden flooring and a roof thatched with local leaves. However, under the roof large tents have been erected, so you enter through zipped door flaps and the walls and ‘ceiling’ are heavy-duty tent material, with mosquito-screen windows. The effect is like being in a tent, but with all the ‘glamping’ luxuries of electricity, wifi, a gorgeous tiled bathroom and rainforest shower, and your own spacious balcony.
There are currently ten tents – more are planned – and these are spaced out generously, all with fantastic views from the windows and verandahs over the broad Ping River valley below. They, and all the camp’s other buildings, have been built using traditional Karen building techniques and materials, from sustainably sourced teak wood to the massive leaves and palms used for roofing.
Once settled in, we were collected in a high-sided pickup truck with open-air bench seats, African safari style, and driven the short distance to a huge, open-sided restaurant with far-reaching valley views. There is also an infinity pool with towel-laden loungers that looked like it might have been transported from a Maldives resort. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all taken here on long benches where guests share stories and watch the sun rise and sink behind the mountains on the far side of the valley, beyond which lies the border with Myanmar.
After a splendid lunch of both Western and Thai offerings, it was time to go and meet the elephants. The camp has nine in total so far, and all are female – having no males makes for a calmer, less stressful life both for the elephants and their mahouts (handlers). The mahouts are all from the Karen tribe, which is famed for its skill with elephants.
We drove to another group of buildings next to the ‘free-roaming, chain-free’ elephant park – this is an extensive area of jungle surrounded by unobtrusive electric fencing where the animals can forage, play, commune with each other and live a peaceful, fulfilling life in their natural habitat. As we arrived a couple of the pachyderms squealed and trumpeted. “They’re happy to see us,” said Chell. These are highly intelligent animals, and they know that the arrival of a truck with humans in it usually means snack time.
Curious trunks extended towards us and soon we were stroking and scratching cheeks and rough, crinkled skin as the elephants’ prehensile proboscises searched our bags and pockets for tasty treats. Khun Seow, our guide, informed us that the elephants are all ex-logging animals, and between 16 and 40 years in age. “They are fed mainly on napier grass [elephant grass] but they forage and feed in their habitat areas as well,” she said. “However, a variety of supplements is necessary to maintain their health, so we are all going to prepare this for them.”
This gave us the opportunity to feed the eager elephants all sorts of tasty treats. We were shown how to prepare a ball of sticky tamarind (a laxative that helps to keep the elephants ‘regular’) by rolling it in rice seed and salt, then wrapping it in a banana leaf tied with bamboo cord (to mask the bitter flavour). There were also bananas, sugar cane, and pineapples chopped into quarters, stalk and all. With a bucketful of these we were every elephant’s favourite human, and it was a delight to watch their eyes close with pleasure as the juicy morsels were transferred from hand to trunk tip to mouth.
Community support
Some 100m away was a cluster of traditional Karen stilt houses. These are home to two Karen families, and Chell explained their presence. “When we were building The Bush Camp we drove north to the Mae Hong Son region where there are many Karen villages, and asked if any of them would be willing to relocate to our land and become part of our project. Two families accepted, and by word of mouth we are expecting more now they understand our dedication to environmentalism, sustainability and supporting local communities.”
We met a smiling husband, wife and baby daughter, then were given demonstrations of how they pound rice, weave exquisite patterns in their tribal clothing, and prepare a typical northern Thai curry. Everything was done with smiles and laughter, especially when we guests attempted to operate the rice pounder or core a coconut’s flesh from its shell.
A last stop took us to a panoramic valley viewpoint for sunset cocktails and barbecued skewers of meat and vegetables as we watched the golden orb of the sun sink slowly behind forest-clad mountains, then it was back to our tents to freshen up and meet for dinner. At the restaurant we met one of the camp’s co-owners, who had come to stay with his children. Introducing himself simply as Robert, he wanted all the focus to be on the wellbeing of both the elephants and the staff.
“After Covid, travellers are thinking more about the experience than just the destination,” he said. “This part of the country hardly sees any tourism, so we hope to benefit the local communities and economy by being here. The history of this area is as rich as anywhere in Thailand, but everything we do must be in the best interests of the elephants, the people we work with and the communities we live among.”
The next morning I rose with the sun and walked down to the pool for a swim. On my way I looked out for any wildlife, which here includes peafowl, muntjac deer, various snakes and plentiful birds, from hooting coucals (a type of Chinese pheasant) to multicoloured bee-eaters. My swim was idyllic – I floated alone, watching the valley floor emerge from mist and shadow, and whistling at the bee-eaters as they flitted from tree to tree.
After breakfast we drove to the far side of the free-roaming forest area. Here we met the camp’s in-house vet; a dedicated young woman who specialises in elephants and gives each pachyderm a health check each day.
Over a second, mahout-style breakfast of kanom krok – tiny coconut pancakes – and strong kafae boran coffee or Thai tea (very sweet with condensed milk), Khun Seow continued our education of good animal husbandry techniques; for instance, why it is essential to walk the elephants every day – like humans, they can be lazy if left to their own devices, so the mahouts take them on meandering walks. Regular washing is also vital to an elephant’s health, and this is done either with hosepipes or down in the shallows of the river.
We were given a demonstration of how to make elephant-dung paper – the dung first soaked and stirred into a muddy mess, then spread out on rectangular, sieve-like frames where it bonds together before being hung up on washing lines to dry. We had the chance to buy a dung-paper notebook, greeting card or wrapping paper, then it was time for us to say a fond farewell to the elephants and head back to our own, very different, lives.
Take me there
The Bush Camp costs THB16,520 (£408) for a two-day, one-night package. This is inclusive of transfer both to and from Chiang Mai, accommodation, activities, all meals and an English-speaking tour guide (only alcohol and soft drinks are extra). thebushcampchiangmai.com
