I Rode on an Elephant in Thailand!!!

This was another high point of my trip!! I always wanted to ride an elephant, but never got the chance. A few years ago I wanted to go ride an elephant at the Victoria Falls, but we didn't have time. But finally I got the opportunity to do this in Thailand, and I took it!! And boy-o-boy was it fun!!!!


After about 3 hours drive from our Hotel, we finally arrived at the Saiyok Elephant park in Kanchanaburi, just a short drive from the River Kwai Bridge.



All the elephants were already saddled-up and ready to take us through the forest and river.




One by one the elephants came to pick us up.



We all got on to our elephants, and started making our slow journey to the forest.




Once we were in the forest, the Elephant 'drivers' got off, and those who wanted to, got onto the elephant's neck. The 'drivers' are actually the owner and trainer of an elephant, and each elephant obeys the voice of only their trainer.



So I took the opportunity and got onto my elephant!! The drivers also took our cameras and took a bunch of photos for us! And I must say, it didn't come out bad.




We then made our way to the river, where the elephants went for a little dip. I am not absolutely sure, but I thing it was the Kwai River. My little elephant was REAL hot, so he thought he would go a bit deeper than the rest of the group...



My shoes got a bit wet, but that didn't bother me too much. Its when he thought he should cool me down too by spraying me with water that bothered me, so I got back up onto the bench.



After he cooled down enough, we headed back to the camp with the rest of the group.



It was one of the most amazing and spectacular thing I have ever did. It was beyond Awesome!!!

I'm sorry but I just find this sad. Elephants deserve to be free in the wild (and protected). Seeing them with a park bench strapped to their backs being forced to take people for rides is just shameful. Not to mention the fact that they are very likely abused in many ways; their families torn apart, held captive in leg chains, etc. Sickening to me

a reply to: FalafelBallz

You can say the exact same for Horses being ridden, or used to pull carriages, or even Donkeys used for the same thing.

But the fact is you can get a lot of use our of animals, and not all of them go through abuse.

a reply to: IndependentOpinion
Those elephants look much happier than the poor creatures I saw pulling truck trailers full of chinese tourists through the horrible polluted streets of downtown Surat Thani when I was there.

Those poor elephants I saw and could not help,the look in their eyes haunts me to this day,20 years later.

At least your elephants had some nature in their life.

Glad you made it home safe from Thailand IO.

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

I can say that there is no indication that those elephants are being abused, no marks or cuts. They were not chained to the flood, but standing around freely. Also when the elephant decided he wanted to stop and eat some grass or even leaves, he did that, and all that the trainer or owner did was talk to him, but most of the time the elephant ignored him and continued eating unit he thought he should obey his master.

That camp is a huge camp, and you can see by the surrounding plant life that the elephants walk there on a daily bases.

The only indication I could see that the elephant's masters will not tolerate any kind of attack or something by the elephants was the fact that each elephant-master had some kind of self made weapon with them. My elephant-master had something that resembled an ice-pick, and another had a short-sword. This is most probably to kill the elephant instantly when something horribly goes wrong and the elephant put the lives of tourists in danger. This is a very humane way of doing it in my view, and nothing wrong with it.

a reply to: IndependentOpinion

Did you eat any different food in Thailand?
Anything weird?

I had some sweet bugs on a stick in thailand,locusts I think.
Flying land prawns,with spices and garlic chilli lemon.

Probably should be another thread,sorry for the off topic.

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

Nope, no bugs! No problem, but his actually gives me the idea to sometime later open a thread about the food I had there!

Thanks for mentioning it!!

You look like you had a great time, well played.

Regarding elephants and their treatment.... Those buggers could decide if they wanted to leave or throw off the tourists. There are indeed elephants in Thailand mistreated but I dare say these ones which carry around tourists are pretty happy, well fed, they stop whenever they want and have handlers who are pretty good at communicating with them (as far as possible elephant to man!).

a reply to: and14263

I know animals, have been around them all my life. Some actually still say to me today that I should become a park ranger or something. LOL. These elephants do seem happy. I would appear that they are treated the same as any other animal used for transportation; they walk around freely, and when they are needed, they get saddled up, do their thing, and then afterwards, gets to walk around freely again. As I said before, during the elephant ride, besides walking the planned route, they were free to do as they wished.

NIce! I've allways wanted to do that!

It is in fact unethical to ride or use any animal for fun or any other purpose. But then cows are only born to become food to humans. The world will never understand how ugly it is.

a reply to: DumbMaiden

It is, yes... but you have to weigh it up...

Humans control everything, even the sparsely populated jungle in Thailand. These guys get big money for ivory, big money. The elephant is used for tourism, for people to ride on - bad. But the alternative would be animals roaming free in the jungle - open to hunting.

Plus, I've seen these places a few times. The herders are in control to a certain extent but I've witnessed an elephant tuck into a banana tree for half an hour, with tourists on its back. The owner had no option but to wait for it to finish eating.

So yeah it sucks but humans have ruined the world so much that the alternative is sadly dangerous.

I rode elephant too, their hair were so sticky like needles

What beautiful pictures. That's definitely an experience. How did it feel sitting up high on such a powerful creature?