from 518€

Excellent 4.8rating (21)

Elephant and Gibbon Encounters

location
1 - 1 weeks  ·  Age 14 - 50+

rating  Excellent 4.8  · 
  Verified by Volunteer World
  Excellent response rate

Highlights

  • Experience encounters with both majestic elephants and agile gibbons in their natural habitats.
  • Be a catalyst for crucial conservation initiatives, working to rescue elephants from distressing conditions and observing wild gibbons in their natural habitat.
  • Empower local communities through English education, fostering awareness about wildlife conservation's vital role.
  • Immerse yourself in lush forests, observing the fascinating behaviors of elephants and gibbons in the wild.
  • Drive essential conservation efforts focused on conserving the habitat of elephants and gibbons, igniting transformative change.

Especially suitable

Age 14+
Singles
Couples
Families
Groups
50+

About the program

Join our award-winning foundation! Partnering with local communities, we bring elephants home to the forest and help conserve gibbons in their natural habitat.

Embark on a transformative journey with Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary's immersive 5-day program, nestled in the heart of Thailand's lush forests. Delve into the rich tapestry of local Karen culture as you engage with two distinct villages—one dedicated to the majestic giants, elephants, and ...

About the program

Embark on a transformative journey with Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary's immersive 5-day program, nestled in the heart of Thailand's lush forests. Delve into the rich tapestry of local Karen culture as you engage with two distinct villages—one dedicated to the majestic giants, elephants, and the other to the playful gibbons—both working tirelessly to safeguard their natural habitat.

Witness firsthand the profound connection between indigenous communities and the land they call home, as you learn about traditional practices harmonizing with modern conservation principles.

Immerse yourself in the daily rhythms of life alongside these majestic animals, gaining insight into their behavior and needs under the guidance of experienced caretakers. From watching elephants to observing wild gibbons swinging through the canopy, every moment is an opportunity for discovery and connection.

Our gibbon encounters project is the first of its kind in Thailand – a truly unique experience. Join us in fostering positive change for the environment and wildlife, as we strive to create a sustainable future where humans and animals thrive in harmony. Come be a part of something bigger thanyourself with Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary's 5-day program and help protect two endangered species —a journey of conservation, community, and compassion.


Typical day

Volunteers and visitors are expected to wake up early in the morning and be prepared for a long hike into the forest. Hikes will usually return to the village around early afternoon but the day doesn’t end there. Volunteers and visitors will have the opportunity to participate in teaching English ...

Typical day

Volunteers and visitors are expected to wake up early in the morning and be prepared for a long hike into the forest. Hikes will usually return to the village around early afternoon but the day doesn’t end there. Volunteers and visitors will have the opportunity to participate in teaching English to the local community, help out with local plantations, as well as learn about the elephants and gibbons in Asia and the local language and culture. 


Your Rough Schedule:

  • Day 1: Begin your adventure with a 9 am pickup from Chiang Mai (with possible pickups from Pai or Mae Hong Son upon inquiry). Traverse through a national park and picturesque mountains inhabited by local hill tribes until reaching our distinctive village.

2pm Meet your homestay family, our welcoming staff, and fellow volunteers. 

5.30pm Immerse yourself in hill tribe culture by participating in cooking sessions with your homestay!

6pm Dinner time

7pm Learn the art of basket weaving from village elders.

  • Day 2: Rise early for a forest hike to locate our resident elephants:

7am Breakfast time

8am Elephant hike: Spend the morning observing, documenting, and understanding these magnificent creatures and their natural behaviors. As a volunteer, you will help keep our elephant diaries up to date by collecting information about their behaviours and daily anecdotes.

12pm Enjoy a forest lunch in the company of elephants. Return to the village in the late afternoon.

3pm Join us to gain deeper insights into our conservation work, local language, culture, and possible engagement in community and teaching initiatives. As a volunteer you will learn some of the local language, assist in teaching English at the nursery or to our villagers, or participate in activities such as litter pick-ups or making ecobricks.

6pm Dineer time with the team and other volunteers. Enjoy sharing your anecdotes of the day!

  • Day 3: Another early start awaits as we trek to observe our elephants! once more before relishing lunch in the village. 

7am Breakfast time

8am Elephant hike: Spend the morning observing, documenting, and understanding these magnificent creatures and their natural behaviors. As a volunteer, you will help keep our elephant diaries up to date by collecting information about their behaviours and daily anecdotes.

12pm Lunch at base and get ready to leave to your next experience.

2pm A new adventure beggins! Venture to our Gibbon Encounters village.

5pm Discover the fascinating world of gibbons, relish Karen cuisine, and explore the village surroundings.

  • Day 4: Awaken to the enchanting sounds of gibbons right outside your door!
6am Follow their calls around the village, guided by our local expert, in hopes of catching a glimpse of these agile creatures. Gather data on the diverse gibbons you encounter, aiding in monitoring the various groups within the nearby forests.

7am Enjoy breakfast before embarking on a forest exploration.

8am The hike starts! Visit a local cave, and savor a traditional forest lunch.

3pm Engage in community projects such as aiding in coffee, tea, or rice plantations, or learning the art of weaving from local artisans.

5pm Witness a breathtaking sunset from a village vantage point after dinner.


  • Day 5: Hike to the gibbons

6am Begin the day with another attempt to spot gibbons near the village!

8am Gibbon hike! After breakfast, embark on a deeper forest hike. You will collect data on the gibbon population to track of the different groups inhabiting the area.

12pm Enjoy lunch and get ready to say goodbye!




Free-time activities

Experience the Heart of the Village:
  • Immerse yourself in the vibrant local community as you explore the village, partake in traditional festivities, and embrace the enriching rhythms of village life.
  • Dive into the refreshing waters of the river, just like the locals do, and enjoy a leisurely swim ...

Free-time activities

Experience the Heart of the Village:
  • Immerse yourself in the vibrant local community as you explore the village, partake in traditional festivities, and embrace the enriching rhythms of village life.
  • Dive into the refreshing waters of the river, just like the locals do, and enjoy a leisurely swim amidst stunning natural surroundings.
  • Take amazing pictures of the lush surroundings, the local community or the traditional weaving by Karen women.

Requirements

Requirements

Minimum Age: 14 years

In order to join the program you need to be at least 14 years old on the program start date.

Language Skills

You need to speak English (fluently)

Nationality Restrictions

No restrictions. Helping hands from all over the world are welcome.

Other Skills

Volunteers under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult.

Time Commitment

Your helping hand will be required on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday

What's Included

What's Included

Services by Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary

Included in these fees are: transport to/from project/Chiang Mai Old Town on arrival and departure, food & accommodation and insurance.

Accommodation

We provide an income for our communities by housing our guests, volunteers and interns in their own homestay provided by the local people.

All of our home stays are different from each other, some being a private room inside the family home, others being a wooden hut just outside the family home. Some home stays have a western toilet, others have a traditional squat toilet. Each one beautifully unique, just like their welcoming hosts.

The accommodation is basic but comfortable and provides all bedding, a mattress, mosquito net, extension cord to charge electronics, filtered water and usually a shared bathroom with cold showers and toilet paper provided. Hot shower may be provided at our base hut (depending on water pressure). Please be aware that during the dry season there might not be a lot of water available in the pipes for running water, but there will always be a bucket of water in your homestay toilet to be used for showering or flushing the toilet. Electricity can also come off and at different intervals during the dry and rainy seasons. 

Food & Beverages

Basic western breakfast and Thai lunch & dinner and filtered water included. Home stays will provide a packed lunch and dinner in their home whereas breakfast will be provided at our communal base hut where our visitors/volunteers hang out during free time.

Internet Access

Limited access at the project site

What's NOT included?

What's NOT included?

Airport Pickup at Chiang Mai International Airport

An airport pickup isn't included within the program fees either.

Flight Tickets

The nearest airport is Chiang Mai International Airport (CNX) in Chiang Mai. We assist you to find cheap flights to Thailand. FIND CHEAP FLIGHTS

Travel Insurance

Going abroad is an adventure and it is always best to be prepared. Sudden illness or injury, cancellation or theft - a travel insurance for Thailand provides security and is a plus to have. GET A QUOTE

Vaccines

If you are intending to volunteer in Thailand you should seek medical advice before starting your social journey. Check your required vaccinations for Thailand. VACCINE CHECKER

Details on arrival

This program starts on any day from Sunday to Wednesday

Availability
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Program fees

5 days 518€
Average fees 726€/week

Program fees

726€ per week 1 - 1 weeks Age 14 - 50+

Payment methods

Visa Master Card Maestro American Express PayPal

NO CREDIT CARD FEES


Duration

1 - 1 weeks

Deposit

The deposit is simply to reserve your volunteer placement. Payments are handled by PayPal, our trusted global payment provider. If you don't have a PayPal account, you can also pay using a credit card.


Final Payment

Your final payment will be agreed with Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary during the application process. Common solutions are either via bank transfer or a cash payment at the project site.


Meet your organization

Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary

Excellent 4.8 rating (21 reviews)

Non-profit - founded in 2015

Verified by Volunteer World

  Excellent response rate

Coordinated by

Kerri

Spoken languages: English

About the project

Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary work hard to rescue elephants from tourism, return them to the forest and educate our community on sustainable tourism

Meet your organization

Our sanctuary is run by Kindred Spirit Elephant Foundation, a registered NGO in Thailand. We opened our doors in May 2016, with the aim to bring as many elephants as possible back to their natural habitat and, at the same time, to work on educating both the public and the locals about elephant treatment and try to combat illegal trade. We, at Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary, are passionate about elephant welfare and want our elephants to live their lives as naturally and with as little human influence as possible. We do not promote elephant rides or any form of elephant performance.

We also work very closely with the community of our village where the Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary is located. We provide an income for our community by creating homestays for the volunteers to stay in, renting land and creating jobs for the locals. We give back to our wonderful community by teaching English at the school, to the families of the homestays and to the mahouts.

Our elephants have been taken from a life of inadequate health care, poor diet, exhaustion and entertaining tourists; they were unable to just be elephants. We brought these wonderful creatures back to their natural environment where they are living in semi-wild conditions, free to roam as much as possible and live their lives how they choose to – interacting and foraging. We plan to bring elephants of all ages and sizes home to the forest, but we need your help.

There are more than 4,000 captive elephants in Thailand, most of who are living in inadequate conditions with incorrect care and lack of freedom. Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary recognises that this is not the right environment for elephants, which is why we are working towards bringing as many elephants as possible back to their natural habitat as well as raising awareness about the captive elephant situation. We work alongside our elephant owners, our community and other organisations to try to bring about a brighter future for all captive elephants.

Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary needs visitors and volunteers on the ground to help us carry out research on our elephants' natural behaviours, perform health checks on the elephants and teach English to our community. Joining us can provide valuable in-field research experience, teaching experience and the opportunity to live abroad immersed into another culture.

Our Elephants

We currently have 4 resident elephants with us at Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary, but with volunteer funds and donations, we hope to return more elephants to the forest soon. We have 3 generations in our elephant family, have a look at their stories below and sponsor our elephants if you want to contribute to keeping them in the forest.

Too Meh

Too Meh is our oldest elephant. She is 55 years old and spent her younger days working in the logging industry. When logging was banned in 1989, she was brought to work in the tourist camps where she spent her life entertaining tourists. She spent about 20 years giving elephant rides with a howdah, the iron saddle that is put on their back to carry tourists and gives many elephants back problems. In between elephant rides, she was chained up with very little social interaction time. She has suffered for over 50 years, until now. She is now free to spend her days in the forest, roaming, foraging and interacting with her daughter & grand-son.

Mae Doom

Mae Doom is in her early 20s, is the daughter of Too Meh & auntie of Gen Thong. She has spent her life entertaining tourists and was rescued from a camp where she was giving bareback elephant rides. This camp did not recieve alot of customers and sometimes days would go by with no tourists visiting. This meant that Mae Doom would spend days on end chained in the camp, having no social interaction with the other elephants and spending very little time in her natural environment. Now that she resides at KS Elephant Sanctuary, she has finally been reunited with her mother and nephew and has the freedom to learn from her and walk through the forest as she pleases.

Gen Thong

Gen Thong is our youngest elephant at 4 years old. Gen Thong has had an even more traumatising childhood than most captive elephants. He tragically lost his mother at the age of 2. His mother was chained to a tree below a wasp nest in the tourist camp and was not being watched carefully. The wasp nest fell on her head and stung her many times. Gen Thong was with her, however being so young he was not chained and was able to run away from the wasps unharmed. His mother was not so lucky and sadly passed away due to the poisons of the wasp stings. He then spent a few months under the care of Too Meh, his grandmother, but was then separated from her to undergo his training. After he returned to the elephant camp, he spent his days on a chain being fed bananas by tourists and giving elephant rides. He has now returned to the forest where he lives out his days learning the natural behaviours from his auntie, grandmother and best friend Boon Rott. We couldn’t be more pleased to have him here at KS Elephant Sanctuary.

Boon Rott

Boon Rott is a 10 year old male elephant, who has also lived his life in tourist camps giving rides and performing tricks. When he was born, he was malnutritioned as his mother was unable to produce enough milk. His mother had given birth a few times but Boon Rott was the first of her offspring to survive, due to the combination of her care and their hard working mahouts. Boon Rott has always been highly saught after by many of the tourist camps in the Chiang Mai area because of his high intelligence and ability to perform - some camps using this to exploit him. He is now able to roam free in the forest, not being forced into any un-natural behaviours.

Information

If you want to have a unique experience of hiking in the forest to find the elephants everyday and observe their natural behaviours in their home environment, then you have found the right place. Come and join Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary for the experience of a lifetime. Volunteers and visitors must be physically fit to hike everyday up and down mountains to get to the elephants. In our sanctuary, you can see exactly where your funds and going and how they are benefiting our sanctuary, our elephants and our community.

Volunteers and visitors are expected to wake up early in the morning and be prepared for a long hike into the forest. Hikes will usually return to the village around early afternoon but the day doesn’t end there. Volunteers and visitors will have the opportunity to participate in teaching English at the school, to the homestays and to the mahouts as well receiving education about elephants in Asia and learning the local tribal language and culture. We also have a number of add-ons you can choose such as relaxing with a thai massage or learning how to basket weave. 

Visitors and Volunteers can stay with us for anything from 3 days to 3 months. Although Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary recommends at least a week to get the full experience of our sanctuary. Students who wish to carry out research for their studies are also welcome.

21 reviews · rating4.8

haris turulja rating5

2024 at Elephant Research Internship

It was a pleasure to help such a great cause to rehabilitate elephants back into the wild. We hiked through some awemazing nature trails over some mountains to find the elephants and got to experience their personalities while collecting data on their behaviors. The friendly locals would cook us ...
Nadine Reichert rating5

2024 at Visit and Help Elephants

I've booked a 2 nights experience and it was wonderful! After we arrived there was a welcome drink prepared and we were introduced to our homestay. Everything very basic but clean and I really liked it. Started early in the morning on the hikes to the elefants. Beautiful landscape and awesome ...
Kaat Heynen rating5

2023 at Photography Internship

De perfecte combinatie tussen fotografie, conservation en community! Een unieke kans om bij te leren op vlak van wildlife photography. Bovendien is het magisch om de olifanten elke dag weer te zien genieten van hun vrijheid, dankzij Kindred Spirits! De medewerkers zorgen ervoor dat je je meteen ...
Gitte Bornak rating5

2020 at Visit and Help Elephants

I have never really trusted these places. Our last experience was in India in a so called sanctuary and we were heartbroken, when we saw what conditions the elephants lived under. They were tired up and only let out to ride the tourists. But after a lot of research we found this very special place ...
Sean Jones rating4.8

2018 at Visit and Help Elephants

My daughter and I were fortunate enough to be able to visit the sanctuary last week and had an amazing time. The team have done well to rescue four elephants from poor working conditions and have allowed them to have their freedom back. Booking was easy enough and Kerri was always able to answer any ...
Thomas Plamper rating4.8

2018 at Visit and Help Elephants

Es war das erste Mal, dass ich Freiwilligenarbeit gemacht habe und das Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary war gleich ein Volltreffer. Kerri hat diese Stätte für Elefanten gemeinsam mit ihrem thailändischen Freund vor einigen Jahren gegründet und baut sie Stück für Stück aus. Es war für mich ...

Location

Asia > South East Asia > Thailand > Chiang Mai

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