2away

Cooking classes, hill tribe villages and elephant trekking made it to the “must do” lists of thousands of tourists coming to Chiang Mai every year. Everyone wants to learn how to cook a tom yam, see a long-neck woman and get a picture with an elephant. The choice is impressive – tens (or hundreds?) of tiny travel agencies on every corner offer all sorts of activities from 1-day trips to longer term tailored tours. Standard package: elephant ride, elephant show, bamboo rafting, visit to the Karen Long Neck village packed into one day, transportation and lunch included. Sounds good and time-efficient? We decided to dig deeper and collect more information to make sure the place we go to is really the best. Couple of hours in front of our laptop and two bottles of cold Chang later we knew, where we were heading for the most authentic elephant experience.