Ko Samui Travel Forum

Hi, will be going to Ko Samui in a few weeks time, and wanted to know if I could see any elephants? I love these animals and would like to know if they do rides? Are they well looked after and treated well too? I couldn't go to a place if they were badly treated either, as I would be too traumatised. Thanks for any replies.....

Hi Suzze, I was in Thailand but not in Koh Samui (Bangkok, Pattaya, Koh Samet and mainland). Anyway, you have to know that in Thailand people using elephants for work as well as, a tourist attraction. So, everywhere you can find elephant villages just for tourist where elephants are main actors in shows (of course you can ride). They treated them well but I really don't want to see how they teach them all these things. Also, don't go to the rural places where people using them for work!

ok! thanks for that info. We are going to Bangkok for the first few days then onto Ko Samui for the main part of our hols. Want to explore as much as we can, and wanted some info on the elephants. I understand about the working elephants, but what I didn't want to do was go somewhere thinking I'm going for a nice elephant visit and ride to find them in poor conditions thats all really. We went to one in Bali and it was really lovely there. Thanks for your reply.

I was in Ko Samui a couple of years ago, and there were elephant rides near the waterfalls in the interior. But I don't think the elephants were well treated. On a different occasion (in Kanchanaburi), I've met a couple who said they would never ride an elephant again because of the poor treatment by the trainer. Anyway, that was just my own opinion.