Elephant Sanctuary Chiang MaiA Day Tour including lunch - bamboo river raft - Orchid Farm!
We spent the first hour at the Chiang Mai Elephant Sanctuary watching the elephants as they wallowed, played, and sprayed in the river. Their mahouts have them entertaining the crowd with many tricks and water skills.
Everyone then moves to the seating to see a show.The blue clad mahouts have an amazing rapport with their elephants and have trained them in many other skills. Everything from lifting huge logs........ some as big as power poles, to painting pictures, which the public can buy. It was very entertaining. They really are amazing animals. With 58 elephants of all ages and sizes, we did need to watch out for the football sized elephant dung piles!You can buy paper and paper products made from elephant dung.The proceeds going toward the running of the Elephant Sanctuary.
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We then rode a cart pulled by a pair of white oxen, up to see the Hill people selling traditional beautifully handcrafted hats, bags, shawls, and bedcovers. Dressed in their colourful traditional costumes with intriguing head gear - you can see they are of Burmese origin. 
Shopping finished, we walked to the elephant ride platforms nearby...........our elephant is Hammah — a smaller elephant than some................. with freckled, pleated ears. As he lumbered up and down the dusty tracks we enjoyed aerial views of the rice fields...a stop to see the temple....... and the village. After giving him a break at a stream, to spray himself with water, and have a drink, we bought a bunch of bananas at one of the stalls. Hammah was putting his trunk back to get his gifts and at first we couldn’t find a baht to buy some fruit, and felt awful with nothing to give him. Fortunately we came across a coin and were able to give him his tip! We were struck by what great mates, he and his mahout were.
Reluctantly we left Hammah and his mahout after an hour, and enjoyed a huge buffet lunch. From here we lined up at the Mae Taeng River's edge, donning coolie hats to shade us from the searing sun.
Unfortunately our tour did not go on to the Orchid farm........but others who did said it was well worth visiting, so I suggest ensuring it is included in your trip. I can highly recommend this Elephant Sanctuary Day tour - it was one of the highlights of our stay in Chiang Mai. CLICK THESE LINKS for MORE FASCINATING THAILAND TOURISM INFORMATIONCLICK HERE to go to THAILAND TOURISM CLICK HERE to go to CHIANG MAI TRAVEL GUIDE CLICK HERE to go to WAT PHRA THART DOI SUTHEP CLICK HERE to go to DAMNOEN SADUAK FLOATING MARKETS CLICK HERE to go to THAILAND COOKING CLASS CLICK HERE to go to KANCNANABURI -RIVER KWAI CLICK HERE to go to PHUKET TRAVEL CLICK HERE to go to TIGER TEMPLE KANCHANABURI CLICK HERE to Return to Home Page and leave ELEPHANT SANCTUARY CHIANG MAI  Have you enjoyed this site? Sign up for the RSS feed so you are updated when new pages are published. You can share this page with friends by clicking the grey box below.
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We were mustered onto simple bamboo rafts, and floated down the river, getting a close up view of more Thai people about their every day lives. It was a very serene, restful way to depart the Elephant Sanctuary and reach our transport.
