 "Good girl, Yom!" (above); Mother and adopted son, at the Mahouts' Course Elephant Camp (right) |
 There is no elegant way to climb up onto an elephant. Tricia Welsh learns this very quickly after many unladylike attempts and several hours of instruction at a mahout’s course in Northern Thailand.
The course is run by the elephant camp at Anantara Resort and Spa in the Golden Triangle near Chiang Rai. It is home to 34 elephants and is set up like a traditional mahouts’ village that used to exist in the hills of Northern Thailand when most of Thailand’s elephants were employed in the logging industry. The Thai Government set up the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre (TECC) to ensure the well-being of elephants; the camp at Anantara is the northern extension of the TECC and offers guests a great chance to get to know these massive pachyderms
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