Elephants, Tribal Life and Sticky Waterfalls Adventure

Day 1: Chiang Mai- Palong village

Start your elephant adventure

Your guide and driver will meet you at 0700 at your hotel for your Elephants, Tribal Life and Sticky Waterfalls Adventure. Our first destination is an elephant camp near Mae Malai. This is a wonderful place where the elephants are treated very well. The camp doesn’t offer a show or elephant riding. You will learn about the Asian Elephant and its current status as endangered species. Even though they are “domesticated” elephants are still wild animals. Therefore you have to be always careful when you are close to them. If you want you can change into local clothes so you can take a bath with them.
Then you will meet our elephants and get close to them. You will feed them. Then you will bathe with an elephant. Elephants love to bathe and it is a lot of fun to share this with an elephant. Feed bananas to our elephants. Then it is time to say farewell to your elephant friends.

Lunch and trekking

It is time for a local Thai lunch! Please remind your guide if you have specific food requirements. After lunch we will continue to a nearby local market. Here your guide will do some shopping. Drive to the start of our afternoon hike. The trail takes us through the protected community forest. We will walk about three hours with many stops along the way. Your guide will explain about certain trees and plants in the forest. There are some nice views along the way. There will be time for taking pictures. Our final destination today is a village of the Palong people.

Learn some Thai Cooking!

After arrival in the village you can relax or explore the village on your own. If you want you can help your guide cooking dinner.
He will explain you about the herbs and ingredients he uses. After dinner your guide will explain about the people who live in this village: the Palong. They are originally from Myanmar and fled to Thailand in 1984. This tribe is known as Palong or Palaung but they call themselves Dara-Ang. Overnight will be in one of the village houses.

Day 2: Palong village – Chiang Mai

Lahu and Karen villages

Today is the second day of your Sticky Waterfalls, tribes and Elephant Adventure. This village come to life at an early hour. Your guide will prepare breakfast. Villagers will set up a small local market where you can buy some souvenirs if you want. After breakfast your guide will take you around the village and explain about the village shrine and the ‘huja rawl’, the ‘village heart’. The Palong women are very talented weavers. We will visit a small weaving project. After this we will say goodbye to the villagers and start our short hike to a Lahu village where our van is waiting for us. We will pass through the garden of Sukhum. Many varieties of fruit, herbs and vegetables are growing in his garden. It will depend on the season but you will see bananas, jackfruit, guava, papaya, longan and many other varieties. We end the hike at a Lahu village where we will visit an interesting spirit temple. From this village it is only a short distance to a village of the Karen people. The Karen are another of the ethnic minority groups. They migrated centuries ago from China. We sit down and drink a cup of tea before we drive to Phrao to enjoy a local Thai lunch.

Sticky Waterfalls Adventure

Our last stop today are the “Sticky Waterfalls”. Local people know these falls as Buatong Waterfalls. They are located in the verdant forests of the Sri Lanna National Park. Sparkling blue and clear water cascades down over the limestone rocks. You can easily walk up and down the falls because the limestone is not slippery. This has given the Buatong Falls its nickname. A dip in these falls is the perfect ending of this adventure. We will spend a couple of hours at this wonderful place before we return to Chiang Mai. Relax and enjoy the natural surroundings. We will drop you at your hotel at around 1600. It is the end of your Elephants, Tribal Life and Sticky Waterfalls Adventure.