The Elephants and Spices of Siam: Mahout Training, Homestay and Culinary Course

Duration: 5 Days/4 Nights
Routing: Chiang Mai - Thai Elephant Conservation Center, Lampang - Chiang Mai

Take a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live among pachyderms. Live with a Mahout and learn about the lives they lead. Enjoy the relaxing mountainous Northern landscape, interrupted only by a trumpeting herd of elephants.

Chiang Mai is Thailand's second largest city and the cultural capital of the north. Within the city are more than 100 monasteries, excellent shopping opportunities and wonderful restaurants of all types. Arrive on a morning flight and meet your guide. Check in to your hotel, freshen up. Lunch is in a local restaurant, after which you will get your bearings on a Samlor (trishaw) tour to some of the city's most beautiful temples. Then you will drive up a beautiful winding mountain road to visit Doi Suthep monastery, one of Thailand's most revered and beautiful temples, overlooking the city far below. This mountaintop temple is one of the country's most important pilgrimage destinations. Return to your hotel in the late afternoon. This evening, explore the town's many fine dining venues on your own, and get to know the lively Night Bazaar, known for its wonderful shopping opportunities.

Meals: Lunch
Accommodation: Chiang Mai Empress Hotel

After breakfast, visit a Thai cooking school to learn some of the secrets of Thai cuisine with a half-day cooking class. You will go to a local market to shop first for the ingredients, and then have great fun learning to prepare some tasty Thai recipes. Your lunch you will have prepared yourself! Return to your hotel to spend the rest of the day on your own exploring this busy but provincial city.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Accommodation: Chiang Mai Empress Hotel

This morning, transfer with your guide to the Thai Elephant Conservation Center. Depending on when you arrive, you may be able to catch the elephants bathing or performing in a show. Then we will teach you about the elephant behaviors and commands used by the mahouts. After lunch, meet and ride your very own elephant with the help of a very skilled mahout. Learn to ride your elephant and then ride your elephant into the forest, so it may rest, and walk back to the camp. Enjoy some free time in your cottage. In the evening, help the staff to cook dinner and use your newfound cooking skills!

Meals: Breakfast, Dinner
Accommodation: Thai Elephant Conservation Center

Wake up early and walk through the teak forest to ride your elephant back to the TECC. Watch their first bath of the day. After breakfast, learn to ride and control the elephant in the show grounds. Then visit the elephant hospital and meet baby Babar, the world famous elephant. Take an elephant ride through the forest, this time as a passenger for about a half hour and have lunch. In the afternoon, receive more training about how to command the elephant to turn left and right, and move forward and backward. Then it's time to ride the elephant back into the forest and visit the elephant cemetery and Mahout Training School. Return to the camp again; enjoy helping the staff cook dinner.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation: Thai Elephant Conservation Center

Begin your day with a hike into the forest to get the elephants back to TECC. Are you brave enough to give your elephant a bath? Maybe you will get wet, but who cares, as it is a rare opportunity to swim elephants. Dry off and have breakfast. Visit the elephant dung paper factory and learn the newest way we are helping to save the elephants from extinction. Visit the exhibition hall and marvel at the large elephant skeleton. Be part of the elephant show and receive your Mahout Student Certificate! After the show you will have time to wash and reflect on your experiences and then it's time to say goodbye to your new friends, the people and the elephants and leave the Thai Elephant Conservation Center, perhaps until next year. Return to Chiang Mai and onward to your next destination.

Meals: Breakfast
Accommodation: