Thailand – Elephant Forest Refuge – Videos

The initial Culture Week takes place in Hua Hin, one of Thailand’s most popular beach destinations. It is located 280 kilometers southwest of Bangkok, in the southern Thai province of Prachuap Khiri Kha. The Elephant Refuge is located 1 hour north of Hau Hin in Tha Mai Ruak.

As a volunteer on this project, you will assist an ethical refuge that provides rescued and injured elephants the opportunity to live chain-free. A renown local non-profit organization created this impressive sanctuary for elephants to retire after a strenuous life in the tourism industry. Forested land around the rescue center allows elephants the chance to roam around in near natural surroundings. The largest elephant enclosure is 20 hectares with natural trees, lakes, and grazing areas. This gives them space to move around and socialise with other elephants.

Volunteers will spend their time with the mahouts (elephant handlers), following a daily schedule of elephant care. Some of your tasks may include:

• Cleaning and maintaining enclosures, pools and mud baths
• Creating enrichments to stimulate our elephants
• Observing elephant behavior in a natural habitat
• Harvesting plant matter, including banana trees and grasses to feed to our elephants
• Feeding the elephants
• Washing the elephants
• Walking the elephants to the forest to allow them to forage on natural foods
• Volunteer house cleaning duties and caring for the dogs that live there.

Please note that volunteers may interact with some of our elephants, as they cannot return to the wild. However, we do not ride or swim with the elephants.

Work Schedule:
Your day starts at 6:30 at the volunteer House and ends around 17:00 with several breaks included breakfast and lunch. Volunteers work 6 days a week with one day off. The work can be physically demanding, yet is well worth it. The volunteer co-coordinators will assign you each day to work-groups and tasks. Each participant can work at their own pace, according to their strengths and abilities. Volunteer coordinators will be around to answer questions, and monitor and support each group throughout the day.

Internet: Wi-Fi is available in a communal area

Laundry: Laundry service is available for around 7 BHT per item

Accommodations: Culture Week: Comfortable shared rooms for 4 people with private bathroom and hot shower. A communal swimming pool is available for the volunteers. Private room upgrade is available for an extra fee.

During the volunteer week, you will stay in European style, concrete and brick bungalows. Rooms are single gender with 2-3 volunteers per room. All rooms have either en-suite or shared bathrooms with a western style toilet and a cold shower. A few Hot showers are available in the communal area. You will also get a pillow, blanket and bedsheets during your stay.

Food: The Thai staff prepare 3 meals a day. Breakfast includes various items such as bread, jams and butter, eggs, seasonal fruit, pancakes, milk, tea, coffee. Lunch and dinner are usually local Thai cuisine. Vegan and vegetarian options are available as well. Note: During the Culture Week, we provide 2 meals during the weekend.

Laundry: Laundry facilities are available for use at the accommodations. Washing powder can be purchased on-site.

Accommodations: Volunteers will be staying onsite, in the middle of the sanctuary so elephants can be viewed and heard from the rooms. The rooms are single-gender, with up to two volunteers per room. The rooms are equipped with fans and mosquito protectors. There are private bathrooms on-site with hot showers and Western-style toilets.

Food: Three meals per day are provided. Meals are mostly rice, fish and vegetables. Vegetarian and vegan diets can be accommodated with advance notice. We cannot guarantee that the food will be completely free from nuts, seafood or be gluten free.

Program requirements

• Basic level of English
• Motivation to work with animals
• Able to do physical work under tropical heat
• Doctor’s written statement of health is required to join the program
• Must be up to date on the DTP routine vaccinations (Diphtheria/Tetanus/Polio)
• Durations longer than 9 weeks: Volunteers must have a non-immigrant Type-O Visa to join the program for 9 weeks or more. Our team can assist with the necessary documentation, however volunteers must apply with at least 1 month’s advance notice to allow for time to process the visa.