One of the greatest parts of traveling, besides the actual traveling part, is getting to check items off your bucket list.

Riding an elephant in Thailand, however cliche and overdone, has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. Most people associate northern Thailand with elephants and jungle activities, and finding a top-notch tour agency that is eco- and wallet-friendly can be a monumental task.

I had the great fortune of finding an excellent, reputable travel agent to help my lifelong dream of riding an elephant in Thailand come true. With the many rumors of mistreatment and exploitation of elephants in Southeast Asia circulating the travel community, finding a good company was a bit daunting and somewhat discouraging. Especially since we were limited by location because we were volunteering in one area for most of our trip. Chiang Mai is internationally known for elephant sanctuaries, safe havens for rescued elephants where they are rehabilitated and given excellent living conditions. However, we wanted something more local and Chiang Mai was too far for a day trip.

Luckily, I found Pai Expert Travel in the small hippie town of Pai in northern Thailand. A three-hour bus ride northwest from Chiang Mai, Pai is a quaint river town with many cleverly named bars and delicious restaurants. A hub for tourist activity, Pai is littered with travel agencies and tour guides with activities from renting a scooter for the day to waterfall hiking and river tubing. After scouring the streets for quality companies, researching online and asking fellow travelers for recommendations, Pai Expert Travel was the agreed-upon company to book our activities.

Located on the main drag of town, Pai Expert Travel was easy to find with it’s bright red and yellow signs. I immediately liked the place once we walked in. The walls were covered in hand-written reviews by past patrons with accompanying pictures of travelers from all over the world on the company’s tours. We were greeted with genuine, gigantic smiles and immediately taken care of. My first questions were of elephant treatment and background history of the company. The agent, Mr. Dae, was very thorough in providing history of the elephant camp and beginnings of the tour company, answering our questions with warmth and sincerity. The elephants were housed not far from the town in Noi’s Elephant Camp and were treated and fed well with plenty of space. Commands were given vocally and not with the iron rod that companies are notorious for using on the animals. The price was also fair at 400 baht a person (13USD)- we had seen prices of upwards to 2,000 baht and as low as 300 baht (though the low price was associated with a sketchy company).

I made my decision within minutes of sitting with our agent and we even added on a two-hour tubing session down the local river for 250 baht. In total, we spent 650 baht a person for three hours of adventure activity, the best price we found in town.

The day of our tours, the sky was overcast and light showers started in the morning. I was so excited to see elephants, I wasn’t going to let a few raindrops deter my fun! We arrived 15 minutes early for our tour as requested and our friendly agent Mr. Dae gave us two free rain poncho’s. He noticed that my partner didn’t have sandals and offered to let him borrow his own sandals! I was floored by the generosity.

Tubing down the Pai valley river, even on a cloudy day, is stunningly beautiful and positively relaxing.

The river has a few small rapids, making the ride mostly gentle with a few exciting bits thrown into the mix. This combination makes for the perfect time to pop open a beer (it’s legal on the river!) and soak in the tropical green foliage surrounding the area. The river brings you back into town and a wooden staircase spits you back into the center of action. After clumsily pulling ourselves and tubes out of the river, we walked back to tour company where a truck was waiting to take us to our next adventure.

A few kilometers out of town, the elephant camp with its majestic beauties overlooks the valley, making for a great photo op. Once there, we were offered a photo and DVD package of our time with the elephants for 500 baht as an add-on to the tour. We graciously declined, as we happen to be iPhone photography extraordinaires (or so I try).

Since the elephants had just finished eating, we didn’t get to feed the elephants and due to the rain we weren’t able to wash them either, but we got to ride them down to the river and play with them in the water.

I was most touched by the relationship the mahout, the elephant trainer, and the elephant, Etao, had.

It was incredibly charming to watch the elephant respond to the verbal commands from the mahout and to see how enjoyable it was in return for the mahout. He would giggle when the animal would ignore a command in order to snack on some vegetation or when the elephant would sniff him with his snout. You could tell the duo had been working together for a long time.

Overall, our experience far surpassed my expectations and relieved my worries about contributing to the harm of elephants. I was even a bit unsure about even riding them, I felt like that was even a bit exploitative in itself, but watching the loving relationship between the mahout and the elephant alleviated my concerns and gave me a sense of well-being and companionship for all parties involved.

Pai Expert Travel also offers trekking, white water rafting, cave exploring, bamboo rafting, sight seeing tours, and home stays with local tribes. Prices are affordable, the employees are professional and friendly, and the experiences are memorable and fun.

For more information, visit www.paiexperttravel.com or email day_pai@hotmail.com or call +66 087-204-9709.