My first trip to Thailand included trips to Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket and Koh Samui. When I was staying at the Amari on Chaweng Beach, I looked out and saw the trainer taking this young elephant out for an afternoon dip at the beach (if you end up going to nearly any of the high-end resorts in Thailand, it is quite likely that the hotel will have a resident elephant to entertain the guests during certain times of the day).
One of the reasons elephants are so involved in the tourist trade in Thailand, for better or worse, is that logging activities in Thailand have been greatly diminished to help preserve the little rain forest that is left. As the elephants and trainers still need to eat and work, you will find numerous places where you can take the elephant out for a jungle trek (the best jungle trek I’ve done has been in Chiang Mai).
Damon Billian has spent a fair amount of time traveling through Thailand, where he has a wife and home on the lovely island of Phuket. In addition to spending a fair amount of time in Southeast Asia over the past five years, Damon has worked as a Community Evangelist for companies like PayPal, SimplyHired, Mint, Tokbox and CloudFlare. Damon’s primary hobby, when he isn’t working 60 hours a week, is cultural and animal photography.
