This is an amazing place, a real highlight of our 6 month trip.

We signed up to do the Journey to Freedom one week volunteer project. We spent the first night at the Elephant Nature Park and saw the great work they do there. It is so sad most tourists don't realize how awful the cruelness is in many of the 'Elephant Treks', even the ones that claim to be 'eco'. Lek (the Elephant Nature Park Founder) is an amazing woman with a love for the elephants which is obvious the minute you see her with them. The park is really well designed for both elephants and visitors. The accommodation is lovely if you choose to stay and if not you can still get involved in helping the elephants with their bath time and feeding! This is a great way of getting close to these magnificent animals but without compromising their welfare.

The Journey to Freedom project was amazing, the following day we headed up into the mountains. We stayed with the remote Karen hilltribe, they kindly gave up their living areas for us to camp down on and were extremely welcoming. We didn't speak a word of their language and they didn't speak a word of ours but smiles and laughter was enough to bond!

Thee idea was that we'd help build a toilet for the village and spend some time also trekking with their elephants in an attempt to show the locals how valuable their elephants are and to encourage them to keep them with them in a much more natural setting rather than selling them to trekking camps. The money the project gets goes to the elephant owners so they have a real choice and can afford to keep their elephants in a kinder place.

Please support the Elephant Nature Park and don't be tempted by the other 'treks' on offer. Once you've seen the video of how these camps 'train' the elephants you'll be horrified and hopefully won't want to go near them.