Elephant Hills - Khao Sok
I have been selling Elephant Hills for quite a while now, so felt it was important to have my own personal experience and I hoped also that my family would really have a 'WOW' time. I need not have worried! I knew from my daughter's reactions to the promotional videos they were looking forward to it and when we arrived they really did love every minute. We had a wonderful time!
We opted for NS4, the four-day, three-night Nature Safari and I am so glad we did as each day was filled with amazing activities. If we had opted for a shorter tour we would have missed out on something.
Elephant Hills organize the transfers and can pick up and drop off at the same location or can pick up in one place and drop off in another, which is what we did. The options include Koh Samui (including the ferry), Suratthani Town and Airport, Khao Lak, Krabi Beaches and Airport and Phuket Beaches and Airport.
We were picked up at 7:30 am in Krabi for our transfer to Elephant Hills. The driver greeted us with an introductory itinerary as well as Elephant Hills branded bottles of water. We stopped at an ATM to get some cash as you need cash to pay for any drinks and souvenirs whilst at Elephant Hills.
Upon arrival, we were greeted by our guide Kong who went over our itinerary and explained various procedures. We were each given an Elephant Hills 'jungle' shirt and then we had a couple of hours to relax before lunch. Our luggage was delivered to our luxury tents and collected prior to our departure.
We had two tents and they really do have everything you need. You have furniture outside including lights and a fan. There is also a fan in the tent and another in the bathroom. Inside you have either twin or double beds, a clothes rack so you can hang shirts up, a wooden trunk, a dressing table and tea and coffee making facilities. Large water bottles are also provided.
There is a safe located in the bathroom, where you have nice showers, proper flush toilets and a sink. Towels are provided as well as plenty of amenities. There are two plugs for shavers or toothbrushes and a hair dryer is provided. Plugs are two pin.
The tents can be locked on the inside or outside with a padlock and you zip and close all windows and entrances or leave them open for the 'natural' experience. The windows and entrance have mesh and thick canvas, so you can keep out any mosquitos if you have the canvas flaps open.
After lunch on the first day we were led down to the Sok riverbank where there were inflatable kayaks. Two guests would get in each kayak and the guide would gently paddle as you sat back and enjoyed the scenery.
After about half an hour you transfer on to a truck which takes you to Elephant Camp. The elephants are roaming around quite freely and the make their way to nice natural pool where they can play in the water and cover themselves in mud. When they are sufficiently dirty they make their way to another area for a nice wash. The mahouts work it out so that each family has one Elephant to look after so there is no need to worry about missing out on your experience.
With a hose pipe and a big bucket, you get to give the elephants a good clean and then rub the down with coconut husks which they really enjoy. Whoever is holding the hosepipe needs to have a good aim though, otherwise you can end up more wet than the elephant. When clean or when they elephants have had enough, they are led to another area for their afternoon snack. As they eat 250kgs of food per day this is just a tasty treat!
There is a long table crammed full of food including bananas, pineapples and sugar cane. Each person, including children, have their own cleaver, basket and set amount of food and then you chop it up and when you are ready you take your basket of food and go and feed an elephant, roughly two people per elephant. The Elephant Camp experience is wonderful and certainly not rushed as you are there for a few hours.
After heading back to Elephant Hills, you have about 90 minutes before the evening activities start. They have an informative movie at 6:30pm which might be about Elephants or nature in general and is followed by Thai Classical Dancing performed by children from local schools. This is very popular. This is followed by a cooking demonstration of a popular Thai dish and there is a different one each day.
Once this is finished a buffet dinner is served. There is an abundance of food and you will certainly never go hungry here. After dinner we stayed in the restaurant area to make the most of the free Wi-Fi.
Breakfast is served from 7am and announced by the banging of a very big gong. On the second day we taken via a local Thai market to an area called Takua Pa to explore the mangrove forest by boat. There is a lot of wildlife around here including big families of Macaques plus Mangrove snakes and Monitor lizards. The Banyan trees create a tunnel effect and it is really stunning. This was another highlight.
From here the boat took us on to the river to board a Burmese Junk where lunch was freshly prepared for us. This was followed by the chance to take 2-person hard kayaks from the river to another area of Mangrove forest. That was a great experience to have with my 10-year-old daughter. My 12-year-old paired up with my wife and I think they had two left oars as they ended up stuck in the Banyan trees and getting towed back to the boat by our guide Kong!
On the third day we headed to Cheow Larn Lake to board another Long Tail boat. This is a beautiful area and is very similar to Halong Bay in Vietnam which is on many people's bucket lists. After a little 'cruise' around the lake admiring the limestone rocks we carried on to Rainforest Camp which is floating on the lake. Here we enjoyed another lunch before swimming in the lake and then more Kayaking. We had a whole afternoon here, but guests on a Jungle Lake Safari would spend one night here.
On the fourth day after breakfast we set off on a Rainforest Trek which is suitable for most people unless they have mobility issues. Here we enjoyed a lunch freshly prepared for us in the forest and a curry made with coconut milk sourced straight from the coconut!
Elephant Hills is amazing, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.