Our accommodation had a little brochure of things to do. Browsing through it one thing jumped out at us. The trip into the Kui Buri National Park to see the elephants in an ethical way. We wanted to be ethical elephant tourists, not see them trained and beaten. Or giving rides.
Kui Buri National Park is known to be the best place in Thailand for ethical elephant spotting and relatively good chance to spot gaurs that sometimes are in big herds. Gaurs are the biggest cattle species and the fourth biggest land-mammal species in the world. Other possible sightings during the tours include sambar deer, banteng and wild boar.
We ventured into elephant country, or at least Kui Buri national park which is one hour’s LPG taxi ride south west of our accommodation in Sam Roi Yot. It had a touch of Jurassic Park about it as we met our guide Tui and climbed aboard a trusty Isuzu pick-up.
As we took off with Tui she told us that the park was 969 sq km and is home to 300 elephants and 400 gaurs (wild ox). The pick-up bumped along on a rough, forest track which shook our bones and rattled our fillings.
In my naivety I clutched my camera phone ready to grab a picture should Jumbo suddenly charge out of the bushes and face us down. How wrong I was.
On we trundled, passing one viewing point after another until our jarring passage ended at point five, where other tourists had massed. Tui screamed “Elephants!”, we clambered from the pick-up to take a look, and there, across the verdant valley, we couldn’t see one darn flump let alone two.
A frail English girl clutching binoculars, who had come from Bangkok for the experience, pointed out some minute grey figures in the distance.
I hadn’t expected elephants close-up, doing tricks, but I might as well be looking at craters on the moon. There wasn’t even an ice-cream van.
“Some days no elephants at all,” Tui said. I told myself it was my lucky day. I had to realise that in a natural habitat of nearly a 1,000 sq km the elephants are hardly going to line up for a photo call every time a gaping bunch of people appeared with cameras and binoculars.
I was wrong again. As we headed back to the car park we encountered people at a viewing point and down in a clearing was a mum elephant and her calves, lined up in the wilderness as majestic as you like.
Wonderful. These animals, we are told, have only ever known the park and they won’t be playing football or giving tourists rides. They are sometimes on view, and sometimes not. Thankfully, we were lucky enough to see them, admire them and leave them free to roam.
5 more places to see wildlife near Sam Roi Yot
Kaeng Krachan national park. Thailand’s largest national park with 2,914 sq km of rainforest in the watersheds of the Petchaburi and Pranburi rivers. It has over 400 species of bird as well as 57 mammal species. Larger mammals include elephants, gaur (wild ox), deer, Asiatic black bear, Malayan sun bear, tiger, leopard, Malayan tapir, white-handed gibbons and langurs (Asian monkey).This park is very popular for wildlife watching, camping, hiking and it’s impressive viewpoints for the sea of mist. The park has also a few medium size waterfalls and a couple of smaller caves. Ban Krong and Panoen Thung areas closed in rainy season August – October. Kaeng Krachan National Park has been accepted as a World Heritage Site
Marshlands. Just 3 km away is Khao Sam Roi national park comprising of Thailand’s largest freshwater marsh which has more than 300 varieties of migratory birds. A park ranger can give you a tour in a pole boat. Best time to visit is very early in the morning at sunrise or late afternoon.
Monkey Island. A few kilometres away, off Phu Noi beach, is a large island that is home to a big group of long-tailed macaques. The island can be reached by boat and is also a pleasant canoe trip.
Mangrove. About 15 km north there is a large mangrove forest on the coast of Pak Nam Pram. There is a wooden walking bridge that goes through the mangroves and a boat trip around the area is available.
Koh Talu. Two hours’ drive south are the spectacular reefs at Koh Talu. They are a short boat ride off the coast of Bang Saphan. Ideal for snorkelling to see a great variety of tropical fish and corals. Water is clear and six to seven metres deep, ideal for a first snorkelling experience.
