Lakbay-freak: Elephant Safari in Phuket

Elephant Safari in Phuket
September 20, 2012


Our tour for today is the Elephant Safari Program C.  But this time, it went a little bit rough.  The pick up time for this tour is 7:15am, so we were at the lobby 7:15am sharp.  We waited and waited until it's more than an hour and all the guests in the lobby were already fetched by their tour operators.  So I started texting and calling but got no replies so we went back to our room.  After a few minutes I got a call from the tour agent saying that they were there this morning and we were nowhere to be found so they left.  Of course I insisted that is not true.  Clearly he is lying because even the receptionist didn't see them.  So after arguing, I just asked him to do something about it and not waste our time in Phuket.  We both hang up and after a few minutes he called back, he downgraded our tour to Program B, which starts a bit later in the morning.  So I settled with that, waited for his driver to pick us up.

The Elephant Safari Program B has a duration of 3 1/2 hours and an hour less from Program C, also cheaper.  It includes accident insurance, hotel transfers, 30 minutes elephant ride, ox cart riding,  Muay Thai show, buffalo picture taking, rice farming demonstration,  Som Tai making and tasting, rubber tapping demonstraion, monkey show and elephant show.   We missed the fish spa, 4x4 mountain safari and nature canoe from Program C.  The tour is operated by Island Safari and cost THB2,200 for both of us.  It was  booked through Phuket Easy Tour.

Elephant Safari Video

• Ox Cart Riding.  Takes you from the reception to the elephant ride take off pad.

• Elephant Trekking.  A 30 minutes ride on an elephant just inside the vicinity, no panoramic views or jungle as they claim on their site.  This is the best part of the tour though.

THB800 for both souvenir photos with frames.

• Muay Thai Show.  Brief history and demonstration of Muay Thai.  I even volunteered as a trainee.

• Buffalo Picture Taking.  Take a picture on a buffalo with lush greenery of plantation.

• Rice Farming.  Demonstration of farming rice then and now.

• Som Tai.  A cooking show on how to make Som Tai, a spice papaya salad.

• Rubber Tapping.  Demonstration for farming rubber from trees and how they are made.

• Monkey Show.  Monkeys performing tricks and stunts.

• Elephant Show.  Elephant doing crazy stuffs such as soccer, darts and massage.  Also one of the highlights of the tour.

Elephant massage.

Good thing our tour agent did something to make this happen instead of just cancelling it and return our money.  We really enjoyed our safari and it's a nice experience.  

After the safari we went back to our hotel.  We were done by noon so we just wandered around the area, went to Jungceylon Mall and Patong beach.  

Watching the parasails. 

See my entire Phuket Trip post.