Elephants

Normally, a river safari on Chobe River is part of safari trip to Chobe National Park, but we have given it a separate entry because it's a very different type of safari than the usual game drive in jeeps. The animals use Chobe riverfront to drink from, particulary during the dry season (May through October). Shortly before midday, the first elephants usually show up, quickly followed by the rest of the herd. Most will just sip from the water edge, but some might go for swim or even dive. At midday, the riverbank can be packed with elephants, giraffes, buffaloes and various antelopes, all standing side by side cautiously sipping. Big pods of hippos cooling off in the water make river navigation a cautious affair for hippos are extremely protective of their younger ones and get easily agitated - and they are fast.

10 % of Gabon is covered by national parks (the highest in the world) and the Reserve de la Lopé is one of Gabon's hidden jewels. There are usually two options for spotting animals. Either a safari drive from the headquarters, where you might see elephants and buffaloes or the monkey/ape trek (lowlands gorillas, mandrills and other monkeys), which requires a 90 minutes adventurous 4x4 drive into the jungle. It's a far less organized experience than the counterparts in Uganda, Rwanda and even D.R.C., where they have a good idea where the gorillas are. In Lope it's a bit more hit and miss, but there is a good chance that you will have to yourself. The road to Lope NP is spectacular, as it passes through rain forest and patches of savannah, but the last 100 km is on a dusty dirt road, so be prepared for a bumpy ride. A more popular option is the train from Libreville, which arrives in Lope in the middle of the night.

The only one of its kind in Malaysia, the sanctuary is aimed specifically at reducing the plight of the endangered and fully protected Malaysian elephants. Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary & Orphanage is the permanent base for relocation teams while also being the home of young orphaned and abandoned elephants. In its aim to promote public awareness and increase support for conservation, the sanctuary welcomes visitors for free to interact with these majestic mammals in a number of ways. Videos are regularly shown to help understand the handling and management of protecting these gentle giants and you’ll also get the chance to participate in feeding, riding and getting dumped off the back of an elephant into the river. Help wash the elephants in the local river and don’t forget to use sand – the elephants apparently love a good body scrub. Popular amongst local and foreign tourists alike, weekends can get a bit hectic so try visiting during a weekday and be warned, activities are limited to a small number of visitors so try to get there early!

The government-run Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage is a sanctuary for rescued and injured elephants. It is home to about 70 elephants, where some were orphaned as babies because their mothers were the victims of poachers or accidents, while others have been injured by landmines or have been in conflict with farmers. They roam free in the parkland, but are controlled by mahouts who ride working elephants. The daily highlight is the bathing (twice daily), when the herd is lead across the road and down to the river for their much loved bath. The feeding is equally fascinating to watch, particularly the bottle feeding of the cute baby elephants who happily guzzle down large quantities of milk.
Some visitors have been unhappy about how mahouts deal with the elephants and beg for tips. So if wild elephants is more your thing, Yala National Park is a good place for spotting those.

Not only does Yala National Park have the world's highest concentration of leopards, but the landscape is extremely diverse, ranging from dense jungle over open scrubland to sandy beaches sloping into the Indian Ocean. The park is packed with all kinds of wildlife like Asian elephants, crocodiles, Grey langurs, Sloth bears (like Baloo from the Jungle Book) and more than 150 kinds of birds, including White-bellied Sea Eagles and Painted- and Black-necked storks. This is what makes the park so special:; there are literally animals everywhere and you get fairly close to them in the small jeeps.

Surin is mostly famous for the annual Surin Elephant Round-up held in November, but you are likely to see some of the stars any time of the year – and we don't just mean the countless elephant statues scattered around town. It's not unusual to see an elephant parked between the cars waiting for passers-by to buy some fruit for them from the mahout. Besides the elephants, the town doesn't offer much in terms of unusual sights, but since it is well connected by both buses and train, it is a great base to explore the countryside. You can find some of the best Angkor temples in Thailand close-by: Khao Phra Wihan/Preah Vihear (150 km to the east), Prasat Meuang Tam and Phanom Rung historial park (both 100 km to the west).