Karen Culture and Elephant Experience
Day 1: Chiang Mai – Mae Win (Full day Elephant care – Join in)
Your guide and driver will meet you at the hotel, you will join the others for the elephant program.
Drive to Mae Win, our first stop will be at a typical Northern Thai local market where your guide will do his shopping for the coming days and will explain some of the local specialities that are for sale here. Drive to Mae Wang and onwards to Mae Sapok, our first destination of today. This trip takes place in the Mae Wang area.
Here we will visit an elephant camp which we carefully selected. You will join a half-day elephant activity. Others will join you. It is not private. Your activity today includes preparing a treat for these majestic animals. You will also feed them a self-made delicacy. Change to a typical Thai farmer’s dress and join them in their favourite activity which is playing in the water. There are plenty of photo opportunities. You will learn about the Asian elephant, an animal which is unfortunately under threat of extinction..
Late afternoon, we will drive the short distance to our guesthouse.
Enjoy dinner at the guesthouse on own costs.
Overnight at Mae Win Guesthouse
Day 2: Mae Win – Karen Village
After breakfast, your hill tribe adventure begins. Drive the short distance to the starting point of the trek. We will hike to a waterfall where we will rest and have time for a swim. After this, we will trek through the forest for about two hours to the Karen village Baan Huai Hoi. Here we will have lunch.
Trekking to Karen village
After lunch, we continue trekking for another two hours to another Karen Village Huai Kao Lip. Along the way, stop at another waterfall. Enjoy swimming and relaxing before continue trekking to a Karen village. After arrival, your guide will introduce you to your host for tonight. You can explore the community while he starts to prepare dinner. You are welcome to help him with cooking. We also encourage you to practice some Karen language with your host after dinner. Overnight in the Karen village Huai Khao Lip.

Day 3: Friday/Monday
Karen Village – Chiang Mai
Rise with the roosters. Your guide will prepare a hearty breakfast. After breakfast, we will visit the Royal Project. Your guide explains this agricultural project, and we will work a couple of hours helping the villagers take care of the vegetables. After that, walk to another Karen village, Ban Mae Sapok. We will stop at a pretty waterfall where we will spend some time relaxing, swimming and enjoying nature. Your guide will prepare a delicious lunch, jungle style.
After lunch, we will drive to a small rafting camp. Our bamboo rafts will be waiting for us. We will provide life jackets. Please wear them and have a look at our bamboo raft policy. Enjoy a relaxing and, at times, exciting bamboo raft trip for about 45 minutes on the Wang River. After this, we board our truck for the drive back to Chiang Mai. Thanks for joining our Karen Culture and Elephant Experience.
