Cautionary Tales: Elephant Treks in Chiang Mai

If you are interested in a hill trek tribe around Chiang Mai, as everyone seems to be…be very careful and choosey before you buy tickets at the first storefront you encounter.  There are literally hundreds of places where you can buy “exciting trekking tours” throughout the Tha Pae area, and prices run the gamut from $15-$50 US a day.  However, many of these companies are extremely exploititive to the environment, animals, and indigenous people.  Some treks tramp through the jungle leaving trash, and taking the same route over and over destroying most of the native flora.  Many treks include bamboo rafting down the river, but they use native bamboo stalks to make the rafts new for each tour, systematically destroying chunks of forest.  Local fauna including elephants are damaged not only by habitat destruction, but by abusive mahouts (elephant tamers)-who beat, starve, and pen their elephants in inhumane conditions.

However the most disturbing part of these treks is how the indigenous people are treated; not unlike a human zoo.  Whole villages of Karen, Hmong, Lahu, Akha, and Mien people are often “bought off” by tourism companies. The companies guarantee a constant flow of tourists with ready money to their village, as long as they “act native” and have their famous handicrafts ready for sale.  The villagers end up abandoning real village life for acting and handicrafts made in a factory type mode.  Their land goes to shit, the people become much more westernized, and eventually the tourist company has to find a new village to exploit.

Thankfully, the current King and Queen have started many projects to help the locals of these villages, including shops run by volunteers that sell quality handicrafts, with all proceeds going directly to the artisans.  There are also programs for the encouragement of tribal people to get off city streets and return to their lands, in order to become less impoverished through farming.

I know this news is pretty depressing.  I mean elephant rides, exciting rafting trips, learning about new people, it all sounds so exciting–but unfortunatly these great and fantastic ideals have turned into yet another exploititive big business.  Now, for the record, I am not saying that you can’t enjoy elephants, rafting, or meeting people very different from yourself.  I am just saying there are other ways to do it.

#1 and this is huge, you MUST visit the Elephant Nature Park. It is an elephant sanctuary one hour outside of Chiang Mai.  The park currently houses 33 elephants, 30 of which were rescued from abuse at logging companies, from serious injury, or from begging in city streets.  They will live the rest of their days on 150 acres as elephants doing whatever the hell elephants do.  This foundation also offers free vetrinary care for sick pachyderms anywhere in Thailand.  There is a also a breeding program that focuses on reintroduction back into the jungles of Thailand.  They receive no money from the government but every cent you give goes directly to the park.  For about $75 a day (expensive for a backpacker I know…) you can get up close to the elephants, feed, and bathe them (remember these elephants were domesticated, not wild) or volunteer for up to 2 weeks.  I talk about this so extensively, because my visit to ENP was perhaps one of the most amazing things I have done in my life.  Go There!…but enough about elephants….

If you are looking for an alternative to the bamboo raft part of the trek, you can join a whitewater raftingtrip-there is some good info on this at www.activethailand.com. For those of you interested in tribal people you can meet them at the night or sunday market, (usually the little old ladies are theones who have made the handicrafts and the young adults are often family members who have better language skills than the actual artisan)  You can talk to them and ask them about their people (usually after you have bought a lovely quilt or pillow sham.)  You can also head to your nearest Thai temple and ask one of the monks there if you can make some donations of money or school supplies for the tribal people. (Many of these temples have collections for these people anyways and have stuff sent up on occasion.)

If these ideas are not enough and you still want more of a trekking experience, just make sure to do some research.  Here are a few clues to find out if a place is sheisty or not (remember most of them are).

1. Avoid elephant and raft tours, if a raft tour is included ask if they reuse them.

2. Smaller groups are a good sign, try to go on treks with less than 8 people, the less the better.

3. Ask them if they donate any proceeds to the village direct.

4. Probably the most important (and this is from a backpacker on a very low budget)-if you really want to go on a trek, you get what you pay for, so the more you pay, probably the more “eco-conscious” it is. I mean anyone can stamp the words on their sign, but it takes a certain kind of group to mean it.  Since I have never been on a trek, I can’t give you specifics, but after some research these companies seem less exploititive-but I would check them out in person before you decide.

Chiang Mai Green at www.chiangmaigreen.com

Trekking Collective at www.trekkingcollective.com

Pooh Trekking at www.pooh-ecotrekking.com

-Happy Travels