One of the more popular beautiful things you can see in Khao Sok National Park is a wild elephant. Elephants, though thought to be an image of Thailand are often severely mistreated. It’s heartbreaking to realize how many elephant suffer just so tourists can sit on their backs. We are vehemently opposed to elephant trekking camps as they are not doing anything to help the elephants in most cases. It’s a booming business and if most tourists actually realized what these wonderful beasts went through, they’d think again about riding on their backs.
Please, if you want to help the elephants do some research first. There are many reputable elephant conservation programs and outfits that allow you to bathe, feed and take care of the elephants. This is much more rewarding that merely riding on their backs.
It is not unusual to see wild elephants in Khao Sok National Park in the reservoir area. On some of our more rugged trekking trails we see evidence of them and it’s pretty impressive seeing what they’re capable of climbing up and down.
The elephants in Khao Sok tend to stay in one region as long as there is food. Once the food supply is depleted, they move on and come back once the food has regrown. We saw elephants on almost every tour over the past two years!
You can see more wild elephant images at our Pinterest page.
All images copyright Paddle Asia Co. Ltd.
