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TRAVEL – ELEPHANT HILLS, THAILAND


indexmagazine.co.uk


SINCE OPENING IN 2010 ELEPHANT HILLS HAS PIONEERED A UNIQUE VISITOR CONCEPT


“Many ended up in tourism but this hasn’t been a good thing. We allow guests to get up close but it is all controlled around the animal’s schedule – they are the boss. We’d like to have more but they are expensive to keep and feed.” We spend the next couple of joyous hours interacting with these most intelligent of animals. It is, at times, hypnotic – and it starts with cooling down. Our assistance isn’t required at this point so we just observe as these normally poised, graceful creatures launch themselves into the cafe latte coloured bathing pool, all mighty bluster, clumsiness and inelegance. It’s then on to bath time but, after thinking I was doing rather well scrubbing my charge to his obvious


satisfaction, he appears to cast me a sideways glance as if to say “Right, I’m off”. “Dinner time,” says Bamboo. “You no longer needed.” We follow obediently to the “dining room” and offer humungous quantities of bananas and other delights to excitable, waving trunks. That night back at camp, the temperature has dropped, the campfi re is lit and to a soundtrack of cicada and a gentle jungle breeze we enjoy (an excellent) dinner. I’m struck by the diversity of ages and get chatting to a 20-something English couple. “I’d have thought you guys would be island-hopping and hitting Full Moon Party,” I ask. “No, not for us,” says the heavily tattooed male. “This is the sort of place that really matters.”


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