CAN YOU RECOMMEND A TREK IN CHIANG MAI WHICH DOESN’T INVOLVE ELEPHANT TREKKING?
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hello, my husband and i are going trekking in chiang mai and we want a 2 or 3 day max trek in chiang mai, preperably visiting doi inthanon park which doesn’t involve elephant trekking? we cannot seem to find any and it is very frustrating. we have our moral reasons for not wanting to ride these beautiful creatures. we look forward to hearing from you.
hi thanks for replying, we are not hearted environmental moralist/activists we just made a mistake of signing up to a tour in egypt on our honeymoon where a camel ride was included. little did we know of the abuse these animals suffer until we saw it with our own eyes. we know there are a lot of differences between thai and egyptian people, and we go to thailand quite often but even so, i still would not want to go on an elephant ride because it goes against our morals. i dont want to go in to any gory details of what we saw of the camels in egypt but lets just say it was shocking and an eye opener.
I would say book it when you get to Chaing Mai. There are plenty of Kiosks on the street with people booking treks. I took a three day trek in the mountains and no elephants were involved. You’ll get a better price in town. I think I paid 1800 baht for three days (there were 6 people in our group but I didn’t know any of them). We climbed to the top of a mountain and stayed one day with a hilltribe. Take some gifts (clothes, and some toys for the kids, maybe some school supplies) all the food was included but they had water, beer and sodas available for extra so make sure you take some Baht 10 and 20s (I think I spent about 100 baht extra).
I agree about the long necks but to assume that hilltribe people are unaware of the outside world and that you would be interfering in their idolic life is kind of paternalistic. Many are refugees from the KMT in Myanmar. Many were employed in the poppy (heroin) business and are now just trying to raise their families. They are poor not stupid.
Please pick an answer (even if not mine) because some here like to use shills to increase their point totals.
The sad thing is few elephants in Thailand are wild and the rest has to work to earn their keep. Trekking is easy work for them, no hard labor like hauling logs or wandering in old minefields. At night they are left free to munch on juicy vegetation without fear from poachers should at them with AK47.
Those that are led in the city streets are the sad cases.
Too bad we cannot cannot do time travel.
If you are the pure hearted environmental moralist/activists I suggest you should boycott Thailand. Trekings through hill-tribes village has brought harm by introducing decadent western cultures and its experimentation with drugs. Long neck tribes are often held against their will to pose for tourist cameras. Tourism has brought millions of polluting motorcyles through easy credits and endless debts. Tourists markets are full of peddlers offering endangered gibbons, defanged pythons, cobras for easy tourist dollars. A long trail of destruction all because of tourist trade..
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I would say book it when you get to Chaing Mai. There are plenty of Kiosks on the street with people booking treks. I took a three day trek in the mountains and no elephants were involved. You’ll get a better price in town. I think I paid 1800 baht for three days (there were 6 people in our group but I didn’t know any of them). We climbed to the top of a mountain and stayed one day with a hilltribe. Take some gifts (clothes, and some toys for the kids, maybe some school supplies) all the food was included but they had water, beer and sodas available for extra so make sure you take some Baht 10 and 20s (I think I spent about 100 baht extra).
I agree about the long necks but to assume that hilltribe people are unaware of the outside world and that you would be interfering in their idolic life is kind of paternalistic. Many are refugees from the KMT in Myanmar. Many were employed in the poppy (heroin) business and are now just trying to raise their families. They are poor not stupid.
Please pick an answer (even if not mine) because some here like to use shills to increase their point totals.
References :
After you get to Chiang Mai you will be able to get a tour or trek from one of the many travel agencies.
At these travel agencies you will have a list of tours and treks that you can choose from – just choose one that does not involve seeing elephants.
Getting tours in Thailand is pretty easy – just find a travel agency after you arrive and be selective!
Happy trails.
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Just hit a travel agent near or in one of the upscale hotels…there are offroad vehicle treks….and if you dont want that, you can get a driver to take you all over for a whole day and you can hike around in the parks that way. Kao Yai Park is supposed to be more rich with wildlife, including wild elephant, monkeys, birds….Doi Inthanon, you have to get deep into the forest to see things, the native peoples have driven many animals off by killing and eating them….I was just there a few months ago.
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