Company : Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary
Duration: < 1 week to 1 week
Approx Costs: 100 to 500 $ Dollars (US)
Spend 2 days & 1 night or 3 days & 2 nights at our elephant sanctuary located near Chaing Mai in Northern Thailand.
Our sanctuary is a registered NGO in Thailand which opened in May 2016, with the aim to bring as many elephants as possible back to their natural habitat whilst working on educating both the public and the locals about elephant treatment and try to combat illegal trade.
We are passionate about elephant welfare and want our elephants to live their lives as naturally and with as little human influence as possible. We do not promote elephant rides or any form of elephant performance. We also work very closely with the community of our village where the sanctuary is set.
We provide an income for our community by creating homestays for the volunteers to stay, renting land, and creating jobs. We give back to our wonderful community by teaching English at the school, to the homestays and to the mahouts.
Day 1
Pickup from Chiang Mai at 9am. Travel through a national park and stunning mountains inhabited by local hill tribes until you arrive in our unique village. Meet your homestay family, our friendly staff and the other volunteers, immerse yourself in hilltribe culture by cooking with your homestay and learning how to basket weave from one of the elders in the village.
Day 2
Wake up early to hike in the forest and find our elephants. Feed them fruit and carry out a health check. Spend all morning/afternoon observing and learning about them and their natural behaviours. Have lunch in the forest with the elephants and return to Chiang Mai in the afternoon.
Day 3 (optional)
Another early start to hike to our elephants one last time. Return to Chiang Mai in the afternoon.
* This price inculdes all transport, accomodation and food in the village.
There are now many organisations in Thailand styling themselves ‘ethical’ and as ‘sanctuaries’ just because they no longer allow the tourists to ride the elephants. If you really want to experience genuine ethical tourism, the Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary is an absolute must. The 5 elephants, all of which have been rescued from a brutal life in tourist camps, are able to wander around the 4,000 hectares of land around the village, and simply enjoy being elephants. As volunteers, you have the opportunity to observe them really closely and to record a diary or data which will go towards research. When not observing the elephants, you are able to join in village life or simply relax. We travelled as family of 4, with our 2 teenage boys who had fairly low expectations of the experience beforehand. However, they had the most amazing time, not only with the elephants, but with the whole. KSES team. My eldest son had the opportunity to assist in the school for a day and he really loved this. We are now all agreed that this was by far the best experience we have enjoyed together for may years. Also, the village food is delicious and there is always loads of it! We went armed with a full medical kit including antibiotics, but didn’t get so much as an upset tummy or a mosquito bite between us!!
I highly recommend visiting or volunteering at Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary....the elephants are treated with love and respect, the staff are wonderful and dedicated and living in the Karen village with a host family is an experience of a lifetime 😀
