Sam Phran Elephant Ground and Zoo

The place is a bit old but still worth to visit. It’s quite huge but mostly shows lots of crocodiles and elephants. There’s a crocodile show and elephant show, which we didn’t see. You could feed elephants but in general it felt like the place was pressuring you too much to buy stuff, pay for taking photos with elephants for example. They have dual pricing and it’s quite expensive for foreigners (I paid the normal price with the work permit though).

My daughter was really keen on trying elephant riding, and although I initially had reservations (and even had to act like I was leaving to get the standard Thai price for the ride), it turned out to be a nice experience. The elephants at this place are incredibly massive, and the ride takes you through a beautiful garden, making it a memorable adventure.

For tourists who may not be well-informed (or informed by medias that focus on how they are domesticated), it’s easy to have concerns about elephants in captivity. However, I personally didn’t sense any mistreatment during our visit. Elephants are huge and powerful creatures, you do want a mahout to control them. These elephants are born domesticated, and without such parks, they might face bleak fates nowadays when they are not used in agriculture or war anymore, being too expensive to maintain, they would have no opportunities to reproduce. The park at least plays a role in their conservation, as their numbers are going down in the wild.