Tours & Treks

There are so many tour groups in Chiang Mai that specialize in trekking, that it can seem impossible to choose. Below are some of the better options and most reputable operators for each type of trip. Most of the smaller companies have offices along Tha Pae Road, in guesthouses, and all along the major tourist routes in the city and are always happy to talk about what's on offer. Many adventure tours mix mountain biking or motorcycling with tribal village tours.

For jungle trekking, there are a number of small outfits arranging trips from Chiang Mai, but Contact Travel (www.activethailand.com) is in a category all its own. Combining treks and village stays with multi-sport adventures by jeep, bicycle, and kayak, the folks at Contact can cater a tour to any needs and price range. They also offer more traditional itineraries with elephant treks, visits to caves, and relaxing bamboo raft river trips and their English-speaking guides are the best. Treks from Chiang Mai stop at Lisu, Lahu, and Karen villages. A 2-day/1-night trip is 1,300B ($30) per person if you join their regular tour, or 3,900B ($89) per person for a private group trip. A 3-day/2-night trip, which takes you to a greater variety of villages, is 4,300B ($98) per person if you join their regular tour; 5,900B ($134) per person for a private group. For an additional 1,000B ($23) per person you can hire a porter to wrestle your bags along. Their office in Chiang Mai is 73/7 Charoen Prathet Rd. (tel. 05327-7178; fax 05327-9505).

Small operators that cater to the low-end backpacker market offer trips for as little as 500B ($12) per day. This can mean you'll be in a large group and care and feeding comes at a lower standard, but that's budget-trekking and there's a kind of fun in commiseration over post-trek beers. If you want to keep it budget, try the following few companies:

Top North Tours (41 Moonmuang Rd. Chiang Mai; tel. 05320-8788) offers a range of short tours featuring trekking, bamboo rafting and elephant riding. They've been around for a while and are a reliable budget choice, but that means big groups and basic services.

Queen Bee Travel Service (5 Moonmuang Rd. Chiang Mai; tel. 05327-5525) has a whole range of budget trekking services and local cultural tours.

Boat Trips -- Within the city, a long-tail boat trip along the Mae Ping River is a fun diversion. Head for the boat landing at Wat Chaimongkol on Charoen Prathet Road opposite Alliance Française. A tour lasts about 2 hours and costs 400B ($9.75) with fruit and drinks included. Starting in the city center, you'll get good views of old teak riverside mansions behind which arise the tall skyline of this developing burg, while on the outskirts of town, villages offer scenes of more suburban and rural living.

Elephant Riding -- One of Thailand's greatest treasures, the domesticated Asian elephant has worked alongside men since the early history of Siam, and these gentle giants are an important symbol of the kingdom. Elephant training culture is strongest in parts of Isan (the northeast) and the far north.

In and around Chiang Mai alone there are a grand total of fourteen elephant camps that try to cash-in on the popularity of these gentle giants so you're sure to pet a pachyderm somewhere on your travels. Elephant camps can be pretty unpleasant though so be warned: at shoddier camps, elephants are drugged to keep them placid and many animals are kept in poor conditions and often abused in the name of entertainment. Choose your elephant camp wisely. By far the best way to interact with the animals is a visit to the Young Elephant Training Center in Lampang. In and around the immediate Chiang Mai area though, you have your pick of day trips. Just north of town in the Mae Rim Valley you'll find a number of camps offering packaged programs (all similar) that are fun, especially for kids. Most day-tours include a few hours of hill trekking with groups of three or four in a basket on elephant-back which is followed by ox-cart rides to "primitive" villages setup for tourists and even bamboo rafting back to camp. Of the many, I recommend Maetamann Elephant Camp (535 Rimtai, Maerim, Chiang Mai 50180; tel. 05329-7060).

Please Don't Feed the Elephants! -- One look into the eye of an elephant tells you that the lights are on and the gears are working: these are incredibly intelligent, thinking, feeling creatures and any close contact with the animals will make a conservator of anyone. It is thus that a recent trend is quite upsetting: Though banned in Bangkok (a rule that is being enforced more rigorously these days), many young mahouts march their steeds around town and beg tourists to pay for small treats for the animal. The practice should not be encouraged because the animals are treated badly and often rented-out like a livery taxi for an evening of work. Elephant advocates simply ask visitors to discourage the practice by not giving money to the mahouts even if buying food seems philanthropic (it is hard to resist feeding these animals). Instead, visit elephants at any of the better elephant camps.