Wild elephants won’t let humans ride on top of them. So in order to tame a wild elephant, it is tortured as a baby to completely break its spirit. The process is called Phajaan, or “the crush”. It involves ripping baby elephants away from their mothers and confining them in a very small space, like a cage or hole in the ground where they’re unable to move. The baby elephants are then beaten into submission with clubs, pierced with sharp bull-hooks, and simultaneously starved and deprived of sleep for many days. Elephant mistreatment doesn’t stop after they’ve been tamed. Many elephant camps continue to employ bull-hooks to control the animals. While they may not be stabbing them constantly like they did in training, it’s the fear of being stabbed that’s used to motivate them to work. Elephants never forget. If an elephant camp in Southeast Asia is claiming to be “responsible” with its animals, you should still be skeptical. Remember the process used to train them is often the same, even if they’re treated with kindness now. And usually, there is no way to be sure. Did you know that riding elephants can actually cause serious long-term harm too? Their spines are not made to support the weight of humans. I know it’s hard to believe given their size, but Zebras are the same way.

DO NOT RIDE THE ELEPHANTS! had about 8 elephants tied IN HORRIBLE CONDITIONS riding gear on them, from little baby’s they are tortured and made to live in small cages sometimes holes in the ground so they can’t move until their poor spirits are completely destroyed, i was glad to see that no one was there to ride them but on the way back down there was 1 left so obviously the others had been purchased for trekking, people need to realise that if you want to help them you need to go to a proper elephant sanctuary where they have been rescued from these horrible places, and are able to move not tied up and have a lot of free space and get feed and looked after properly everyday. On the way to Patong I even saw billboard for elephant shows. People need WAKE UP!

Pathetic place and making fools to tourists. No properly trained staff and poor conditions of elephants. Ladies who are dealing tourists are ill-mannered, no respect for outsiders. Ticket cost is too much and no enjoyment at all.

This place and places like this exist for retarded people to pay money to enjoy abusing poor animals. This place need to be shot down and the elephants take in to sanctuary asap.Also there is 2-3 more places like this around the island where they us and abuse elephants what they need to be shot down

Bad place! All of them so bad to treat all elephant 😩 STOP them!!

We just drove past on the way to a viewing point & couldn’t believe that this horrible place is still open after all the bad and true reviews from two or three years ago! It’s heartbreaking to see, these elephants look traumatised and can’t even move 10 cm.

If you are poorly educated you will probably go there. If you can read at least: try to invest your money in something else not in animal slavery. Horror ace directly on the street, poor animals have to listen the cars and motorbikes on extreme heat all day long. Disappointing.

As we saw the elephants we cancel the trekking. The condition of the elephants was truly deplorable and we gave up on riding. I do not recommend to anyone

nice experience, but not cheap. friendly people and close contact to elephants. you need a good car to climb up this hill.

I regretted later riding an elephant, will not do it next time. But atleast they treat the elephants right and it was amazing to see the relationship of the guide and the elephant. The trek is short for the 30 mins and they have an awesome viewpoint.