Elephant camp Four Seasons golden triangle
Elephant rehabilitation

Two of the rescued elephants at the Four Seasons Tented Camp

Digital Editor Millie Walton steps into a nostalgic world of romance at the Four Seasons Tented Camp in the Golden Triangle region of Thailand to learn more about life in the jungle and to meet the resident elephants who have been rescued from the nastier side of the country’s tourism industry.

It’s just after sunrise and the sky is bleary eyed. The sunlight shines through the haze over the jungle and the morning song of the cicadas reverberates rounds us. We’re at the northernmost edge of Thailand on the banks of the Ruak River, overlooking Myanmar straight ahead, to the right is Laos and beyond that the distant mountains of China. Our safari tent is high up in the trees, a secluded hide-out harkening back to 19th-century style travel with hardwood floors, leather furnishings, intricate hammered metal surfaces, hurricane lamps, a grand stand-alone bathtub and an outdoor shower. It’s indescribably romantic.

Four Seasons elephant camp

A Deluxe Tent perched high up in the trees overlooking Myanmar and Laos

Minutes after arriving, by long-tail boat skimming gracefully over the dark green water of the river that visibly changes shade as you enter into the thin strip separating Thailand and Myanmar, we were cast into a narrative of old-world adventurers. This is the Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle, a natural retreat and foundation for rehabilitated elephants. Elephants are one of Thailand’s most popular tourist attractions with so-called “sanctuaries” flogging package experiences where you can bathe and ride an elephant. But what most visitors don’t realise is that many of these highly-intelligent animals are illegally captured, separated from their families and forcibly tamed through cruel training practices involving beatings and stabbing with bull-hooks. The Four Seasons in partnership with the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation works hard to rescue such mistreated elephants, providing them with a loving home in a humane and natural environment where they are cared for by their own mahout. They’re still used for trekking, as they cannot be released back into the wild, but it’s gentle work and only voice commands are used.

Golden triangle camp four Seasons

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At breakfast, I’m nudged on the back by the tip of a long trunk. I pick up a banana from the table and very gently the trunk plucks it from my hand, curls under and feeds it into a gaping mouth before returning for more. The grace and patience of such a huge animal is overwhelming. “Yuki is cheeky,” Rain, one of the resort’s tour guide tells us as we sit down to eat. “When I was her mahout, she used to pull me down off her back with her trunk.” He laughs, and we smile weakly taking in the towering height of the elephant, the largest of herd and the youngest of the group, but it’s an important reminder that whilst these elephants are trained, they’re still animals and you have to earn their respect and trust, especially since many have had bad experiences with people in the past.

Elephant camp Four Seasons golden triangle

A Mahout sits with two elephants at breakfast

Later, we’re standing in a barn ready for our own training. We’re dressed in the traditional Mahout costume – matching blue denim shirt and trousers – that the elephants are familiar with, as one of the camp’s mahouts talks to use about handling the elephants: “You can stroke them, but don’t try to hug their trunks, the underside is very sensitive,” he explains, patting the side of a huge cheek. “Speak softly, but firmly and try to avoid speaking too loudly or shouting around the elephants.” We all nod silently. Then he demonstrates how to climb onto the elephant’s back in three different ways. “Okay, now you’re go,” he points at me. On command, Puang Phet, my elephant for the afternoon, slowly lowers her head, and with help, I vault behind her ears so that I’m sitting backwards. Feeling slightly dizzy, I cautiously turn myself around. We trek slowly to the river that afternoon, for the elephants to bathe with us clinging on their backs as they squirt water at us and plunge their heads beneath the surface. It’s an honour to be so close to such beautiful animals and whilst I still wince at the thought of elephants being held in captivity, it’s obvious the mahouts at the camp deeply care for their elephants and have developed a relationship of mutual respect. It’s humbling to be around.

Four Seasons elephant camp golden triangle

Bathing in the water with the elephants

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Four Seasons Tented Camp

In the evening, we wander along the lamp lit path, deeper into the jungle, to the spa for open air massage on a private suite deck surrounded by the bubbling sound of frogs. The therapists, like the rest of the camp’s staff, are locals from the Golden Triangle region who have grown up in the exotic wilderness of Northern Thailand, foraging plants for natural remedies, cooking and healing. Thai women are traditionally taught the art of massage from an early age so they are experts at what they do and so serene that they diffuse calm into the atmosphere as they move, gently washing our feet with kaffir lime before guiding us to the treatment beds. For the massage, I choose a sensual blend of ylang-ylang and jasmine oil. The oils used are all natural, with many homegrown on the premises, as we’re shown on a foraging walk the next day, and we’re advised to leave them to sink into our skin for a few hours to enhance the benefits so we arrive at the Burma Bar that night glistening. It’s here guests meet for cocktails and canapés before being given a lift to the wine cellar in the camp’s jeep for cheese and wine tasting, followed by a long, indulgent dinner at the rustic Nong Yao restaurant. It’s all very casual and relaxed, even more so since it’s all-inclusive with a limited menu so that you don’t spend ages agonising over which wine to order with which dish, and the hearty cuisine is divided into Asian and Western options – the chef’s Gaeng Kiew Warn Goong (green curry prawns) is the best I’ve ever tasted: fresh, rich and flavoursome.

Four Seasons Tented Camp

The entrance to the Wine Cellar where tastings are held every evening before dinner

We find our tent has been prepared for nighttime with a plate of local sweet treats to try before bed and the back and sides zipped down providing privacy, with the front still open so that we can watch the fireflies dancing in the dark and fall asleep to the sound of wild. It’s a beautiful example of how luxury and nature can live harmoniously. Whilst there are plenty of resorts are built into unique and stunning settings elsewhere in the world, there are few that manage to present the highest level of indulgence and service as the sideline attraction to the natural wonder of its surroundings and the majestic animals that share the space. It’s a truly unforgettable place.

All images by James Houston

fourseasons.com/goldentriangle/

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Reading time: 6 min
Epic Tomato’s Iceland trip

Epic Tomato’s Iceland trip

Travelling to the earth’s wildest places has obsessed humans for centuries. The difference is that now, we can do it in style and little risk, as Darius Sanai explains

To travel to the ends of the earth. It’s a metaphorical concept these days, but one that has inspired travellers from Livingstone to Scott. Many of us would like to think of ourselves as modern-day explorers, setting foot where no man or woman has gone before, and there are a surprising number of experiences that can take you very close to this goal.

Staying in a mountain village in Papua New Guinea, or trekking across the Antarctic, may not be replete with the kinds of danger Stanley faced in Africa or Scott in the South Pole, but it’s certainly a change from the office grind, yacht or private jet, however privileged your lifestyle. And a new generation of travel companies has emerged to assist clients with just such demands.

Antartica exploration from Abercrombie & Kent

Antartica exploration from Abercrombie & Kent

It’s about far more than barefoot chic. “One of our clients, who is on the Forbes Billionaires list, comes from a very humble background,” says one travel company insider. “He wanted to show his children that the world is very different from their Chelsea house and Nikki Beach holidays. He asked us to organise a three month tour through South America, including being left on an Amazon tributary for a week with just the supplies on their back. They had no satellite phone, nothing: if they’d gotten ill or lost, they would have died. But they didn’t; and they had the time of their lives.” They also spent time in mountain villages in Peru where very few Westerners had gone before. Some may decry such journeys as “human safaris”, but how better to learn about the world? And if it is done with humility and empathy, there is no reason why all three sides – the traveller, the locals, and the travel company – can’t benefit.

Going over the edge with Epic Tomato’s first Guyana and Venezuela adventure

Going over the edge with Epic Tomato’s first Guyana and Venezuela adventure

One of the companies at the forefront of this style of travel is the London and New York-based outfit Black Tomato, which has recently launched an even more extreme offshoot, Epic Tomato.

“To me Epic Tomato is about meeting the needs of an experience-hungry person who wants to be challenged and get more than the easily accessible,” says Tom Marchant, the company’s young founder and CEO. “They may have the yacht, the plane and the island but to summit a never-beenclimbed mountain, or trek through jungle that no western traveller has ever set foot in, is something truly unique. “To me it is also a modern definition of luxury. Luxury these days is about providing rare access and extremely personalised services to an individual and dropping off the grid to go somewhere where few others or no one has been before is the embodiment of that.”

They may have the yacht, the plane and the island but to summit a never-been-climbed mountain, or trek through jungle that no western traveller has ever set foot in, is something truly unique

Another player in the adventure travel field is the global travel company Abercrombie & Kent. Says their UK Managing Director Justin Wateridge: “Our clients have the curiosity and confidence to learn more of the astounding diversity of this planet. Travel gives them so much – experience, empathy, perspective, understanding and such vivid memories. They come to us for inspiration. We listen to their brief and deliver an experience that is tailor-made to their needs.”

The great Victorian-era travellers were criticised in some quarters as selfish, for leaving their families and seeking personal gain from their experiences. We can be just as selfish; the difference is, we can do it with our families, and with rather less risk to life and limb. These pages are a celebration of the enduring human passion for adventure travel.

Hunting in the jungles of Guyana

Hunting in the jungles of Guyana

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Reading time: 3 min