from $977.00

Tour style – Wildlife & Nature

8 days

The programme works alongside an traditional ‘elephant village’ in rural Surin – a province famous for being the ‘home’ of the Thai Elephant. Through sharing their lives with visitors, the mahouts are now able to support their elephants and families without ‘begging’ in urban areas – meaning not only a better family / community life for the mahouts but also a much higher quality of life for the elephants. The elephants live very much as part of the family – overnighting under or next to the mahout’s houses and all days are spent either caring for the elephants, bathing them and feeding them. The programme also enables volunteers to work alongside the mahout harvesting / planting (depending on the season) crops for the elephants giving an incredible insight into the lives of the village.

The host village is 45-60 minutes outside Surin town and is a typical rural Thai village. Houses alongside a quiet dusty road, a couple of local stores and all inhabitants either being mahouts or farmers. It’s very warm and friendly, definitely not on the ‘tourist’ trail and a great experience all round.

Table of Contents

In addition to the work with elephants, all volunteers get the opportunity to:
• Learn Thai cooking (in the village)
• Kayak on the local river
• Make elephant dung paper (another source of income for the village)
• Go fishing (optional)

  • Day 1: Arrival into Bangkok

    Today you will be picked up from Bangkok International Airport between 6am and 10pm. From here you will be transferred to your accommodation on Koh San road.

  • Day 2: Orientation

    Wake up to your orientation where you will be told much more about the project and how you will be helping. From here take a walking tour of Bangkok including Wat Pho, Wat Arun, a canal boat tour and a visit to The Grand Palace.

    Please note that entrance to the palace is optional and costs approximately 500THB.

    Tonight you carry on the party on Koh San road.

  • Day 3: Surin

    Wake up to breakfast and then head to Surin at around 10am by train or coach.
    Settle into the volunteer house with other volunteer members and get ready to meet the elephants!

  • Day 4 – 6: Elephant Village

    Over the next few days you will be at the elephant village and helping out as much as you can!

    You will be staying in a local homestay in basic but clean shared rooms with fans. Toilets are Asian style and there is only cold water for showers so leave your Western preconceptions behind!

    Breakfast, lunch and dinner are included on all days.

  • Day 7: Return to Surin

    Today you will return back to Surin and the volunteer house

  • Day 8: Departure

    For those volunteers who are only staying 8 days – today is your departure day. The local team will assist you with booking further travel arrangements.

    Fancy hanging out with the elephants a little bit more? Longer durations are available!

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