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Cambodia Elephant Experiences

Our incredible Elephant Experiences are a must for any Elephant lovers planning on visiting Cambodia. We are able to offer you three different elephant experiences:

Elephant Sanctuary: Where you can learn about the welfare of elephants and how to look after them, feed them and wash them.

Elephant Trekking: Where you get the opportunity to ride an elephant like a traditional mahout, trek through the forest and then wash your elephant in the river as reward at the end.

Airavata Elephant Safari: This is similar to the Elephant Trekking option where you get the opportunity to ride an elephant like a traditional mahout, trek through the forest and then give your elephant a well deserved spa at the end.

Please Note:
Our Cambodia Elephant Experiences are located in Cambodia’s North-East provinces of Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri, which are a day’s drive from both Siem Reap or Phnom Penh.

*Our Elephant treks have also been given the go ahead by ‘Save the Elephants‘ as ethically run elephant experiences.

Elephant Trekking

Your day starts by being transferred to the Phnong minority village where your elephant and local guide will be waiting to greet you. Once at the village you will get introduced to your elephant and mahout before the jungle and river adventure begins. The elephant will take you through some stunning jungle, across rivers and past some local minority farms before ending up at the Trok River for lunch.

At lunch time the elephants are released and free to wander around the forest to rest and to scavenge for food. After lunch, you will then search for your elephant with your guide and then go down to the river to wash your elephant to cool it off. During this time, you can either watch from the river bank or go for a swim and help wash your elephant. In the afternoon, you then head back to the village on a different forest trail, arriving back at approximately 3pm, were you will be picked up and taken back to Sen Monorom.

Elephant Sanctuary

Your day starts by being transferred to the nearby elephant sanctuary situated 11km from town. This sanctuary is one of only a handful of elephant sanctuaries in the world so is a very special experience. During the day you get to learn all about these magnificent animals an how to look after and care for them. From how a heard of elephants interact together in a forest habitat, to learning about their character, behaviour and body language.

The aim of the sanctuary along with the support of the Bunong villagers is to rescue and treat elephants who have suffered injury and abuse and to also raise awareness. Throughout the day you will get a real hands on experience as you help the staff go about their daily tasks and shadow the natural movements of the elephants with opportunities to take a walk with the elephants as well as washing them too. It really is a magical hands on experience that all elephant lovers will cherish.

Airavata Elephant Foundation

We are extremely proud to have partnered up with the Airavata Elephant Foundation who has saved the last 3 elephants in Cambodia; Ikeo, Bokva and Bak Mai as they have been named.

The foundation offers visitors to Ban Lung 4 different programs:

An Elephant Ride
An Elephant Walking Trek (Where you walk beside your elephant)
An Elephant Spa (Where you wash your elephant in the river)
Elephant Feeding (Where you can take younger children just to meet the elephants and fed them bananas)
Learn to become a ‘Mahot’ for a day

Cambodia Elephant Experiences holidays and tours

BBQ with a local tribal family

After your chosen elephant experience we then introduce you to a local Phnong family that you will be sharing dinner with. This is probably the most authentic experience in Cambodia, as you get to interact and talk with real tribes people about their life and how they live. During this must do experience you are free to explore the village as well as playing games with the local children. Then once the village elders return from their day working in the fields you can help prepare a traditional evening BBQ meal with your new adopted family and enjoy a fabulous cultural evening.

What makes this trip special is that your guide Hong was the same guide used when Gordon Ramsay came to Cambodia and now Hong can cook some mean kebabs!

Phnong children posing in front of a traditional hut

Traditional Phnong Homestay

If you are looking to completely immerse yourself in traditional local life and really want to know what it is like to live like the Phnong tribal people. Then why not spend longer with your new family? And enjoy a traditional home stay in a Phnong hut.

Not only this but you will truly get some lasting memories as you embrace this incredible experience as well as enjoying a few glasses of the local rice wine and sharing stories with your new found family.

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