Elephant Care + Bamboo Rafting & Sticky Waterfall

Elephant in Wild is a small sanctuary in the Mae Taeng valley, about an hour and a half north of Chiang Mai. There is no riding, and the sanctuary says it uses no chains or hooks because the herd is free to roam. You spend your time with the elephants the way their keepers do: preparing their food, feeding them, watching them roam, and joining them at the mud spa and in the river. This version of the day keeps the pace easy, so it suits families, couples and anyone who wants the elephants without a long trek.

After the drive out through farmland you change into a mahout style shirt and get a short introduction to the elephants and the herbal food balls the keepers make for them. You cut sugar cane, prepare a batch of the vitamin balls yourself and hand them over, then watch the herd roam and forage. Later they head for the mud spa, which protects their skin from insects, and then the river, where you help wash them. A Thai lunch is served at the sanctuary.

The rafting is on a bamboo raft rather than a rubber boat: a slow float down the river with a few small ripples, steered by a raftsman with a pole, and a good way to see the valley from water level. The other stop is Bua Thong, the sticky waterfall, in the same district. Spring water rich in calcium has coated the rock with a rough limestone that bare feet grip, so you walk up the falls hand over hand on the rock and the ropes, with pools to cool off in on the way.

Pickup is from hotels in the city centre between 08:00 and 08:30 and you are back in Chiang Mai around 18:30. Bring a full change of clothes; you will be wet three times over.