Mae Sa Elephant Training Center
- BBDeluca
- First Reviewer
- 4 out of 5
- Avg. Member Rating
- 3
- Reviews
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5
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Editor Pick
Mae Sa Elephant Camp - Elephants Galore
- July 8, 2008
- Rated 3 of 5 by
bettybetty10 from Dallas, Texas
We had originally wanted to go to the Elephant Conservatory Park for a less touristy experience, but it was too far and too expensive. We hired a private taxi – a man named Boonmee who had actually picked us up from the train station – for the entire day for 800 baht. He picked us up at 8:30am and we set off to Mae Sa Elephant Park.
The elephant park is about 40 minutes away from the center square. You can see the elephant show for 250 baht, or you can combine it with an hour long elephant ride. For two people – elephant ride and show – the total bill was 1440 baht.
The show runs every 1.5 hours, approximately, and when we got there, it was 20 minutes before the 2nd show of the day. When you walk in, there is a gaggle of women screaming for your attention to buy souvenirs for yourself, and bananas and sugar cane to feed the elephants. Luckily, they are behind tables, so they don’t run up to you and invade your space, but it is shocking when you first walk in. We bought a bunch of sugar cane and bananas for 20 baht.
The elephant show was about 1 hour long, and it was actually pretty amusing. There are about 20 elephants who walk in and do various tricks, like throwing darts, playing soccer, performing Thai massage, and performing logging duties. The most interesting part was when they started doing art work. About 8 elephants are put in front of easels, and a handler gives them the paintbrush and paint. After 10 minutes, 8 works of art are produced! The artwork is for sale, but it’s not cheap.
After the show, the elephants are led up to the audience (although there is a fence separating the audience and the elephants), and there is an opportunity to feed the elephants, and pet them. They are VERY eager to eat. Some enterprising handlers will drop some bills and ask the elephant to pick them up – which is a signal to drop some bills to tip them!
We then went on our elephant ride and it was typical. Two of us sat on a bench, which rested on top of the elephant’s back. A handler sat in the front and led the elephant. Halfway through the trip, the handler got off and took photos of us on the elephant. It was a nice but pretty slow ride through a path and jungle, but it’s not like you got a lot of contact with the elephant. Our elephant’s name was Poo Banyam, and he was 49 years old.
Afterwards, we took around the premises, since we heard that there was an elephant nursery. The tour groups probably do not take you to the nursery because the path was completely deserted (but the show was completely packed with people). We passed the elephant art gallery and then made it to the nursery. I think there were 2 newborn elephants, but we didn’t see them. We did get to interact with three or four elephants that were there, and the handlers made them do some tricks for us for photo ops. That was probably the best part of the visit.
If you want to see elephants, you won't be disappointed. Is it a tourist trap? Maybe, but it's pretty fun nonetheless.
From journal Chiang Mai - Quaint but Touristy
Mae Sa Elephant Training Center
- January 8, 2007
- Rated 5 of 5 by
ensueno76 from Vancouver, British Columbia
I gotta say, when our trip to Cambodia was cancelled due to lack of people, I was pretty disappointed. So we decided to go for our original plan of Thailand... after reading some reviews and travel guides on Thailand, I noticed that there were elephant rides available in Thailand. I was "IN," I agreed to change our plans to Thailand as long as I got to ride on this giant friendly animal. It was definitely a highlight of our trip. We had so much fun feeding the elephants at the beginning as there are 2 elephants - very hungry elephants who seem to want endless amounts of food at the entrance. Then we watched a very entertaining show where elephants are playing darts, playing dead, playing soccer and much more. They even painted (better than most people I know including my hubby). It was such a thrill... and of course we ended our experience with the elephant ride. It's a bumpy ride and my husband thought it would be smelly as many horse-rides are but it wasn't at all... although we did hike across the hill which appeared to be their toilet area as each elephant relieved themselves... the ride is shaky and it's recommended you go get a massage afterwords - check out my AKA spa experience for that.
From journal Elephant Ride Anyone?
Mae Sa Elephant Training Center
- April 8, 2006
- Rated 5 of 5 by
BBDeluca from New York, New York
I highly recommend the Elephant Training Center - Dao in Chaing Mai. We rode the elephants then did the rafting tour. Both were our favorite parts of the trip.
From journal Chiang Mai - Thailand