Our Honeymoon in Thailand, Part 2 - Elephant Hills

 

After spending the first part of our honeymoon in the wonderful, amazing, gorgeous city of Bangkok, we made our way to the next part - Elephant Hills. Here we would explore the jungle, spend time with rescue elephants and stay on a floating rainforest camp. We couldn't wait!

After being out drinking the night before on our hotel's rooftop bar, we woke up way too early for our liking to catch our flight to Khao Sok national park. We were so unbelievably tired when we arrived that we could barely keep our eyes open, so it was really nice that we were greeted with some refreshing drinks and had a quick check-in.

The welcome hut was beautiful. It's the place where visitors check-in, take cooking classes, participate in feasts and watch entertainment at night. 

It was equally as hot in the rainforest as it was in Bangkok, but with a bit more rain, so of course, we were immediately immersed in a tropical vibe. The warm rain pitter-pattered as it trickled through the lush green canopy onto the straw rooves - it was unbelievably relaxing. 

One of the smaller huts was for grilling meat. It was used more at night when there were big feasts but they were cooking a small amount for the new guests arriving that day. It took all of my strength not to reach in and grab a skewer for myself right then and there.

Our bags were taken to our tent so we could head to the buffet for some food. It was crazy awesome! Jim and I still talk about the food here. It was full of freshly cooked Thai dishes (and the camp was brilliant about my dairy allergy - there was very little I couldn't have as Thai food uses mostly coconut milk, but they made sure I knew what I needed to avoid and cooked a special replacement for me when needed). One of our most beloved food items was the Chicken Tempura. It was fried in coconut flakes and, of course, had a more Thai feel to it rather than the tempura we were used to. This with Thai curry on top was amazing. All the food was, honestly, but we would always grab extra portions of the tempura.

After our lack of sleep and the early flight there, we were so happy to have some amazing grub and to be able to try lots more Thai dishes in a buffet style.

Poor Jim was just out of it. I swear he wasn't grumpy or cranky here, he just was barely awake. We were crazy tired at this point. But we still managed to appreciate the food and the rainforest views from where we were sitting.

Looking over the edge of the dining area brought you these views. We would see this for every meal. How amazingly gorgeous is all of it? We have one of these photos printed and hanging above our TV. It just takes my breath away every time I see these images. I can still smell the wet, tropical air warmly carrying the scents of the plants all around us.

After some food, we walked the beautiful forest path to our tent.
Jim and I deliberately didn't do more than a quick, cursory glance over any of the websites for the places we were staying so we wouldn't skew our expectations and build it up too much. We said to ourselves that if we were staying in basic, hostel-type situations, we were more than happy with that and if they turned out to be better, then it was a bonus. So we were not expecting the amount of luxury we were given. We genuinely thought it would just be a little tent and some camping cots to sleep on (if we were lucky enough to be off the floor). We were ok if that had been the case, Jim and I are the type who will make the best out of a crappy situation when travelling, but we were blown away by how amazing our lodgings were.

We had a bed! A big, beautiful, comfy bed. No camping cots for us! And it really was enormous, you could have fit 5 of us in there comfortably. They also left us little elephant candles as a welcome token on the duvet. We still haven't had the heart to light them, we keep them on our bookcase with the rest of the travel items we've accumulated.

The tents were gorgeous. We had everything we needed, even electricity. There were sockets in certain areas to charge our phones and GoPros and we had working lights. We were also provided with bottled water and a kettle with some tea.
It was really spacious too, we had plenty of room for our things (we packed light anyway, one backpack each). There were wooden railings to hang our clothes and wooden tables to keep our bags off the floor. Other beautifully carved wooden furnishings, some in the shape of elephants, decorated the interior. It really was way above what we thought we would have. We were definitely glamping. It felt like a hotel room but with better rainforest sounds.

We also had a private bathroom and shower attached to the tent through sort of a doorway at the back. The bathroom was stone and white plaster with an open roof. It was still had coverage from the rain and such, but it was pretty much open up top. I loved this, it was really cool to kinda feel like you were showering out in the open rainforest.

I was utterly delighted to see that there was a hammock right beside the opening to our tent (all the tents were on their own little hill throughout the camp and were very private, so anything outside your tent was for you only. It's not like people would come up and chill in a hammock outside our entrance). I could have stayed there all day and nearly fell asleep, but we had plans for more adventures that day.

We got settled but couldn't stay long as we were given a time to be back at the welcome hut to meet our guide. Each group is given their own guide who would help you throughout your stay and take you out on all your trips and excursions. Our tour guide was amazing! She was incredibly funny and bubbly and very knowledgeable.

It was unusually rainy when we were in Thailand; some of the river had burst its banks and flooded parts of the national park. In order to get to the elephant fields, we had to be kayaked there - which was awesome! As part of the tour, you get kayaked around Takoapa's mangrove swamps and around the river anyway, but because we had to travel to the elephant part by water, we were lucky enough to be taken on an extra-long, extra scenic route which normally wouldn't be accessible.

We arrived at the part of the park where the elephants live and we were so excited to see them! The elephants roam around freely and come and go as they please, they're not shepherded over to meet the guests. So if they approach you, it's because they want to say hi or are really curious.

There are special members of staff called Mahouts who stay with the elephants (you can see them in the photos here). Mahouts are traditional elephant riders, handlers, trainers and keepers - but these elephants are not ridden, do not perform tricks and are not chained up. In fact, the interactions the guests have with the elephants is entirely up to the beautiful creatures. If an elephant is not in the mood to interact that day, they are allowed to walk away and do whatever they please. So the Mahouts are there to help with the elephant's welfare and to make sure that the guests are treating the elephants right. Watching the elephants interact with their mahout was a beautiful thing, you could see how much they cared for one another. The elephants also seemed to love having the guests around. You get to feed them a snack and give them lovely scratches, so they clearly really enjoyed being a part of the whole thing.

We were taken to a paddock where we learned how to feed the elephants. We made them a treat filled with fruits, some loose nuts and seeds, a fermented stone seed that helps their digestion and wrapped it all up in a banana leaf. We also cut up pineapples and bananas to hand to them.

It was incredibly surreal to be up so close to these gorgeous elephants. They were super eager and playful. They tried to steal each other's treats and would even check your pockets to see if you'd stashed some fruit away. The fence was there just so everyone could get a turn, otherwise, they'd steal all the food.

Other parts of the paddocks were open and we took full advantage of getting up really, really close.

 We were able to give them lots of cuddles. They were unbelievably gentle and adored scratches. At one point, I scratched one of their trunks so hard that the elephant had closed their eyes and was practically dozing off.

While we were feeding and cuddling them, some of the other elephants had wandered over to the excess water from the floods and were leisurely taking a bath. We got to watch them swim around and play for bit before heading over to give them a good scrub down.

The floods had stretched to the area where you get to wash the elephants. We actually kind like this, even though there were some snakes swimming around in the water. It was also raining (but was still lovely and warm) and we were going to be spraying the elephants with hoses, so it didn't matter too much to us if there was extra water around us. Plus, the elephants really loved playing in the water.

We were given coconut husks to scrub the elephants. They absolutely adored a good hard scrub and the coconut was just the right texture for them. Plus, it was renewable material for the park to use.

We hosed the elephants down and then gave them good, hard scrubs. The elephants would even lean into the scratches. Attmidedly, it was a little daunting to have something so huge lean their body weight into your little arm while you were washing them. But they were really gentle.

Look at this happy girl! She loved it.

I love these photos because I remember how awesome it was squishing her soft cheek against my head. We got to interact a lot with the elephants and the mahouts because not everyone was into the idea of getting up so close to the elephants. Even when we were feeding them, we stepped aside so other's could get a turn but people just backed away. I get it, no judgment to the people who weren't very comfortable around such big creatures but it did seem weird to travel so far for an experience and not actually experience it. Jim and I are the type to dive right into stuff and will usually be the first to step forward to try something out. This definitely happened here. We pretty much beelined for the elephants at every turn, would go to step aside to let someone else have a turn and when they would back away, we would step back in again and have more time with the elephants. They eventually ended up following us for scratches so we got to get really close and super-duper cuddly with them. The mahouts saw how the elephants wanted more interaction so they were really good about showing us how to get in closer, like near their faces like this.

This is what I mean about some people not stepping in to experience it. The photo above is us offering people the coconut husks (because we were worried we were stepping in front of people and taking too long). You can see how they weren't very eager to jump on in. Some did and came forward after we encouraged them to like Jim is doing in the photo below, but more than I thought stayed back.

This is one of those times I was talking about when the elephants would lean into you. We were walking back to the main paddock and Jim and I wanted to walk with the elephants (you can see the crowd who didn't really want to interact with the elephants trying to get ahead of them up at the front). I still remember the weight on my hand when she leaned her big beautiful belly in towards me. I thought I would have to jump out of the way.

As hard as we scrubbed, I don't think our tiny arms could compare to a good tree scratch. 

When we got back from one of the most amazing experiences of my life, we headed to the pool for a dip. This is one of the most beautiful pools I've ever been in. It had some of the same views as the dining area, so you get to take in all the lush jungle while you're swimming.

The camp also had some outdoor showers speckled about the place. They were super refreshing before and after a dip.

We took part in a cooking class where we were shown how to make two traditional Thai dishes from scratch. The buffet was also there, so we could go back and forth between the cooking class food and the rest of the food. We completely pigged out. It was glorious.

We spent the rest of the night having drinks with the other campers listening to the frogs and wildlife in the forest before heading back to the tent.

I have no idea if it was the jungle air, the rainforest sounds, the rain on the roof of the tent, or simply being so tired, but that was one of the best night's sleep I've ever had. Jim too. It's another thing we still talk about. I know it seems really weird that we still bring up a good night's sleep (like, get a life, lads), but I just can't properly put into words the sensory experience that was falling into the deepest sleep of my life in the middle of a rainforest. It was glorious.

The next morning we had some more amazing food (the omelette on my plate was made specially for me as the scrambled eggs had dairy in them) and got ready to head on for the next part of our adventure - staying on a floating camp in the rainforest. 

We hopped in one of the open windowed jeeps where we would be taken to the lake and get to the next part of the camp by boat.

We stopped off at high point on the lake to take in some views. I got to sit on the swing branch of a banyan tree. When I got up after the photos were taken, I noticed a brightly coloured caterpillar on the branch. Our tour guide informed us very casually that it was lucky it didn't bite me as it was a pretty toxic little creature.

The journey in the truck was pretty awesome. It was really cool to stick my head out the window and watch the sights and smells of the rainforest go by. I kept thinking about things like Uncharted and Tomb Raider and it was pretty cool to be able to put the sensations to the images from the games. The heat, the humidity, the sounds and smells of the rainforest - I still recall the exact smell in the air when I replay certain parts of Uncharted 4 or the Thailand level in Underworld. I know that this is nothing like the adventures in those games, we were pretty pampered on this trip, but as an avid gamer, it was still an absolute moment for me.

We eventually made our way to the docks on the lake and hopped into a boat that would take us along the lake.

Of course, I asked if I could sit at the front of the boat. How could I not? The tour guide was very obliging and it became my usual sitting spot on all the boat trips.

Being up there on that boat, watching the Thai wilderness zip around me, I had one of those amazing travel moments of I can't believe I'm actually HERE. It's been one of the most serene moments of my life. Being able to lean out over the boat and touch the water, no one telling me to stop or step back from the edge, that I had to remain in my seat or anything like that, just being able to sit my own way in a spot I really wanted to sit and letting the wind brush my face and take in all the surroundings of this beautiful, gorgeous, overwhelmingly amazing country.

That smile! It was really amazing to see my new husband so happy. One of the reasons I love him so much is because of his sense of adventure. A lot of the time when we travel, I watch him taking things in and it seems to just illuminate the whole experience.

The colour of the water was utterly mesmerising. It was deep jade in some parts and a beautiful turquoise where it became shallower.

We eventually made our way to the floating camp on the Cheow Larn Lake. It was exciting to see the camp come into view and see how isolated it all was. Just stretches and stretches of jade water and acres of dense jungle all around. Glorious!

Yet again, we were greeted with some refreshing drinks after our journey there. We sat on the floating communal tent with a few drinks and some more delicious buffet food while our bags were loaded into our tents.

Ugh. The utter tranquillity of this place. I will never forget it. The views from our tent were spectacular.

Our view at the back of the tent looked out onto the jungle. We could hear monkeys in the trees all around us. Weirdly, one of the campers from another group actually complained to management about the monkey noises and expected them to do something about it. Can you believe that? It wasn't even very loud or anything, in fact, it was quite relaxing. We were expecting to hear lots of birds, which we did, but it was a really cool surprise to hear how close all the monkeys were.

Each tent was given their own kayak. They gave us a time for an optional tour around the lake with a guide but you could also use these freely and explore the lake as much as you wanted on your own. The water was really calm, we were sheltered from the wind and there was no current, so it was a very safe place to go and explore on your own. We were given suggestions of some spots to travel to and see.

Of course, we jumped right in the lake the second we could. We were all meeting up later to go out on the kayaks but we couldn't resist going for a dip in that absolutely enchanting water.

There were fish in the lake that nibbled on some campers toes, but nothing too bad. I think the reason they paid attention to some campers was because the fish hung out by that particular tent's ladder and were just getting a bit territorial. Jim and I received no nibbles, which surprised us because we felt with all the Thai food we had eaten, we'd become a little bit tasty.

After a swim and a chill, we hopped in the kayaks and headed out to explore. We did both the tour and some exploring on our own. Some tree stumps would stick out over the water and we went to push the kayak away from one by sticking the oar against the stump for leverage. Little did we know that most of the brown on the stump was actually a fuck load of insects! Some flew at us, some spiders and other multiple-legged critters scuttled across the kayak. I got it on video on my GoPro and it's the funniest thing ever. We just burst out laughing on the tape (we're not really squeamish but we still screeched in shock).

Our guide found a water snail and we got to pass it around examining it before returning it to where our guide found it. It was so beautiful!

I was sleeping so well in the rainforest that I was up before sunrise and able to experience this amazing sky. The bird calls at this time were spectacular. I sat on our dock for ages just soaking it all in and watching the sun come up while my husband slept.

The next morning we had another amazing breakfast. This entire dish was all for me because, again, the scrambled eggs had dairy in them. It was huge! I couldn't finish it and shared it around.

To my sheer glee, we headed back out on the boat to go for a jungle hike.

We hiked a bit up the mountain and we were taught lots of things along the way. We even got to experience some jumping leeches (exactly what it sounds like, the leeches jump off the leaves to find you). Our guide got one stuck to her foot and had the jungle guide take it off for her. She said she hated them because the wound itched like crazy afterwards, but she had gotten to this one quick enough for it to not affect her.

We came to a couple of caves and were invited to explore. We had to hop down into the cave and then step across loads of slippery, wet rocks while holding onto walls with water spilling down them. We loved it! I adore this kind of thing so I was very eager to climb down into the cave and explore. We were given bamboo sticks to help us hike up the mountain and they became really useful here.

We got to see some amazing wildlife in the caves. Our guides pointed out snakes coiled up on stalagmites, took us into an alcove that had loads of bats that squeaked all around us and they even fished out this little whip spider for us to hold. Again, Jim and I were the first (and this time only) people to step forward and hold the spider. They loved heat so the warmth of our hands was actually really nice for them. Our guide gently put them back under the little gap in the rocks where it was found.

Again, because we were the only ones interested, the guides brought us around to the big gaps in the rocks. We were given flashlights so we could crouch down underneath to find other spiders and cave-dwelling creatures that lived on the ceiling of those little alcoves (though we were advised not to pick these ones up as they weren't as friendly as the whip spider).

After our hike through the jungle, we hopped back on the boat to return to camp. Again, I took up a spot at the front of the boat.

Our jungle guide took out a big knife, got some bark from the trees and made us this ring. Jim has one too. It's amazing! I love it so much. 

When we got back we headed out kayaking and swimming in the lake for a bit more. We were heading off to the next part of our trip in the morning - a relaxing resort on the island of Koh Samui.

We adored our adventure with Elephant Hills. My only regret is that they sold these amazing adventurer shirts in the gift shop at the welcome hut that I never picked up. To this day I wish I had grabbed one and they don't sell them online. We plan to bring our kids here one day so I might be able to pick one up then.*

Other than that, it was a perfect stay. We loved every single second of it - the food, the lodgings, the experiences, the staff. Everything was brilliant.

Aoife x

*EDIT: We got the shirts!!! I randomly left a comment on one of Elephant Hills Instagram Posts about how we regretted not getting them. The messaged me and sent us two shirts as a gift. How amazing is that? They really look after their guests, even when your trip is over. We now live in Australia and took the shirt hiking with us Christmas Eve 2020. We received the shirts during one of Melbourne's many, many looooong lockdowns, so it was something that really made us smile through a tough time. We finally got to take pictures of them when lockdown lifted. We're so grateful to Elephant Hills for their continuously amazing experiences.