Elephant Sanctuary, Bamboo Rafting & Pad Thai Cooking Experience

This full day program from Living Green Elephant Sanctuary combines the elephants with two things that are easy to enjoy at any age: a bamboo raft ride on the Wang River and a pad thai cooking workshop that doubles as your lunch. It suits families and anyone who wants a full day out with variety rather than a single activity. Living Green says it never offers rides or shows, that all activities are based on animal welfare and that the elephants are never forced. River bathing depends on the weather and on whether the elephants want to go in.

Pickup is between 08:00 and 08:30, followed by about an hour and a half through the countryside. At the sanctuary you are briefed, change into traditional northern clothing and spend a little over an hour feeding and interacting with the elephants in their forest setting. At midday you cook your own vegetarian pad thai in the workshop and eat it for lunch. After lunch you spend an hour on a bamboo raft drifting along the Wang River. Back at the sanctuary you walk with the elephants to the river and bathe them, if the weather and the elephants allow, then change and head back to Chiang Mai, arriving around 17:00.

Transfers, an English speaking guide, the cooking workshop and lunch, drinking water, elephant food, the rafting ticket, the traditional clothing and insurance are included. You will get wet on the raft and with the elephants, so bring swimwear, a towel and a full change of clothes.