EJ Latitudes 1/08.qxd - Frontiers Elegant Journeys

"Thank you so much for arranging the
best trip ever in 30 hours. Everything
worked perfectly, including our
elephants. The Four Season Tented
Camp one of the most special places in
the world - you were so right in urging
us to go. Please extend our thanks to
your staff who helped in the herculean
effort it must have taken to arrange all
this at last minute." S.C., New York
ing tub, double sinks and an outdoor “rain” shower. Each tent has
a private balcony with stunning views, and one often sees elephants
grazing in the distance.
There are a myriad of activities one can enjoy from the camp —
Mekong River excursions, jungle trekking and nature walks, birding,
cooking lessons, traditional craft classes, a visit to the nearby Opium
Museum (which is excellent), a day trip to Myanmar, a treatment in
their open-air spa, relaxing by the small pool, or sipping a sundowner
at the Burma Bar. But the real drawing card here is the
opportunity to interact with the camp’s adopted family of elephants.
It started at breakfast with delivery of a few bushels of bananas in
the open-air dining room as we finished our first coffee; the baby
ellies were led in and all of us were encouraged to feed them.
Asian elephants have played an important cultural and economic
role for centuries, and they still roam wild in the Thai forests.
Valued for their strength and dexterous trunks, elephants were
once the main workforce in the teak forests of Northern Thailand,
transporting timber. With the 1989 logging ban, these elephants
were “out of work” and consequently became a burden to their
owners, who no longer had the income to support their expensive
charges. We’ve all ridden elephants as a one-off experience in
Africa and India but this was entirely different — a genuine mahout
training and learning about this enormous animal.
were nuts . . . but somehow on site, you develop an unexpected
confidence and comfort zone — one on one with your elephant,
which is part of the joy of the whole experience. Once you feel
ready, you go out on various elephant-back jungle treks.
This is a magical place for a couple or a family, and in fact, they
recently relaxed their age limit so now children age 12 and up are
welcome. It’s an all-inclusive rate, including all meals, mahout
training and elephant trekking, one spa treatment and round-trip
airport transfers. Put this on your bucket list for sure!
From the highlands, we headed south to the beach. Phuket is
Thailand’s largest island and one of the most popular holiday destinations
in all of Asia, attracting more than one million visitors each
year. Although there are some lovely properties on Phuket itself, if
one million people sounds a little stifling, you’ll find the 45-minute
high-speed boat transfer to Koh Yao Noi well worth the extra logistics.
The azure waters for which this area is so famous surround this
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We were given denim mahout outfits to wear and Thai vocabulary
cards with common commands. The elephant’s own mahout
teaches you how to bathe the animal, the basics of driving it, and
a variety of inventive ways to mount and dismount. If anyone had
told me before I went there that I’d be catapulting over the elephant’s
forehead (on and off!) or that I’d be riding the elephant
barefoot (which sounded so terrifying) I would have sworn they
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