Trekking and Elephant Riding

We guide terrestrial tours, too. You may choose a half- or full day elephant ride through the forest on Phuket Island, or a guided walking tour nearby. National forests and parks are readily accessible throughout Thailand and offer remarkable excursion opportunities. In the North, we arrange and participate in treks of three or more days. These treks are partly on foot, partly on elephant and may include bamboo rafting on jungle rivers.


We spend each night in a different hill tribe village. You will usually visit several different tribes and share their daily routines. There are great opportunities for photography and video, both in the villages and along the trail. These are adventures for people in moderately good shape.

Porters carry all of the main supplies, while our guests carry personal gear, such as camera, hat, jacket, water bottle and change of clothes. You may have a porter carry your personal gear, also, for a small sum, agreed in advance.

Contact In Depth Adventures: indepth@loxinfo.co.th
for further information about your personalized adventure.

Thailand (Sept-April): Phone (66-76) 383-105/Fax (66-76) 383-106
U.S. (May-August): Phone (1-707) 443-1755/Fax (1-707)444-8574

Notes from Robert's Journal:

In Chiang Mai I arranged a three-day trek that I have done several times and which has the cleanest villages with porcelain squat toilets set in cement floors and tethered pigs, a balanced amount of walking with elephants and rafting. It turned out to be perfect. There were nine at the start, a combination of two- and three-day groups. (It is still pre-high season.) We visited the Mork Fa waterfall and the hot springs (See video) and then walked over the hill to the first Karen village, Pong Noi. I thought of Phyllis Lessin as we gained the summit. Because the two-day group would be covering roughly the same ground, we only paused at this village, where we normally spend the first night. I love the long walk to Ban Mamanai. It's the one where we walk down out of the village, cross the creek and then angle East up to the ridge and along it as it rose and plateau'd to the summit. We stopped and looked back-a long way down and across the canyon to where sunlight glinted off of tin roofs. It was not hot, but we were soaked with sweat by the time the breeze on the ridge reached us. The view from here, perhaps a thousand feet above Pong Noi and miles away, always excites me. The air of the canyon sparkles with that same jewel-like quality that one sees down forty feet in very clear, blue ocean, when there is no reef and you are surrounded by the Great Blue. There are pines and orchids and a coolness not found in the lowlands, and a There are pines and orchids and a coolness not found in the lowlands, and a sense of physical achievement that one can measure with the eye from having walked to this spot.

The trail rollercoasters down and up and around and finally a long, steep, knee-biting descent to Ban Mamanai. We could hear young people laughing in the river. We crossed it on a log bridge just below the young women washing clothes and themselves. We dumped our packs in the village "hotel", and went to the river to cool and wash ourselves. Ah, the simple pleasures at the end of a day in the woods. Excellent sweet and sour pork and pork with basel and peppers and rice. The night was cool here, but not like the chill we have experienced in January, and we all slept well.

The next day the two-dayers left us and a young French girl from Normandie, Helen, smart and a good hiker, joined us for the remainder of our trek. We walked about two hours to a third, White Karen village, Ban Kholan. Two men built us a bamboo raft, cut us poles, and an hour after we arrived we were poling down the Mae Taeng to the elephant camp. The river is pretty full with tributaries running in clattering and chartreuse mosses; clouds of small yellow butterflies cluster over and around mud-edged puddles on the shore, and there are blue and red flowers.

We poled into shore at the Karen Elephant Camp in mid afternoon. The clonking of the elephant bells from up on the high bar told us that our mounts awaited, and sure enough, we soon saddled up, two to an elephant, to ride down river to Ban Bong Pong Yen, the Yellow Lahu village for our second night. I love riding elephants, whether it's on a howdah or sitting on his neck. It is so magical to be way up there, feeling that soft, warm hide and black bristle hairs. There is a waltz rhythm to an elephants walk and their looseness of hide gives you a little extra on each pendular sweep.

I thought of our grandson, Alexander a lot. I would have loved riding our elephant with him, looking at the jungle along the river, the great green vines and the tall, gray gum trees. I think he would have been amazed at village children, Akha headdresses, bamboo homes without electricity. He would have enjoyed seeing pot-bellied pigs and ponies and jungle fowl, aka chickens, with baby chicks and lots of puppies.

We dismounted at the Lahu village; half a dozen Akha women waited for us in front of the Twilight Zone Bar. (The sign is gone) The women were in full regalia: Fancy silver and bright cloth headdresses, red blouses, pleated skirts and high leggings, chewing beetle-nut and chatting. The Lahu women don't really compete with the aggressive Akha, even in their own village. The guests bought jewelry and clothing, pipes and silver elephants. A second group arrived, and the women, having pretty well exhausted the possibilities of our group, suddenly left to huckster them. (Cut-me-own-throat Dibbler would have envied their technique.) After dinner the Professor arrived with offers of subai-dee and soon there was the sweet smell of opium and quiet guitar. The night was warmer and, moonless, full of stars.

The third morning, the gray overcast disappeared as we boarded our raft to head down to the Shan village, Sop Kai. Khun Rhon, our primary guide, did a great job leading us through rapids where the raft was knee-deep in water and we tipped, threatening to roll. We arrived dry and intact and climbed the 300 steps to the restaurant. Our first iced drinks and sounds of internal combustion. We sat eating noodles and looked down on the river and the dozens of rafts there. A perfect ending.

Contact In Depth Adventures: indepth@loxinfo.co.th
for further information about your personalized adventure.

Thailand (Sept-April): Phone (66-76) 383-105/Fax (66-76) 383-106
U.S. (May-August): Phone (1-707) 443-1755/Fax (1-707)444-8574