Elephant In Wild Sanctuary - Half Day Afternoon

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. The afternoon half day is for people who want the elephants without giving up a whole day, or who have a morning flight in or a lazy start planned. It has no trek and no rafting, just the elephants.

After the drive out through farmland you change into a mahout style shirt and get a short introduction to the herd 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 elephants roam and forage. Later they head for the mud spa, which protects their skin from insects, and then to the river, and you go in with them to wash them. A Thai meal is included.

The whole trip takes about six hours door to door, with roughly an hour and a half of driving each way. Children aged 5 to 8 pay a child rate, and the afternoon is a good fit for families because there is no walking beyond the sanctuary itself. Bring a full change of clothes; the mud spa is not a spectator sport.