The elephant is seen as a symbol of the nation and a talisman for the Thai people. With their wrinkly grey skin and swaying trunk, they are a fascinating combination of brute force, gentleness and remarkable agility that inspires both respect and affection. With elephants fast disappearing from the wild in Thailand, the best place to see these fascinating animals up close is in a trekking camp. There are only a few camps in Krabi - such establishments must follow strict guidelines as set by the National Livestock Department regarding the provision of adequate food, water and shade for their animals, as well as proper health care. A trek will allow you to experience this first-hand, as well as the animals' natural forest environment. Carrying tourists for fun means the elephants are able to earn their keep, while living as freely as is possible: as there is not enough space to release them into the wild, and they are very costly to feed (eating up 2-300kg of food per day) the only alternatives for these gentle giants are begging, illegal logging, or inactivity in a zoo. Trekking tours - usually an hour's ride on the elephant, combined with another sightseeing activity - are bookable through any local agent, or you can visit the camps directly if you don't wish to do the other activities on the itinerary. Elephant Trekking Tour, we are based at Baan Nai Sra just 20 minutes drive from Krabi and there we invite you to climb aboard one of our five elephants. Then suddenly you're high above the ground and heading into this amazing scenery where the quiet will envelope you as you relax into the swaying rhythm of the elephant's walk on a one hour trek. Our elephants are not working elephants, they work only with tourists; some elephant trekking operations abuse their animals by forcing the animals to trek with tourists after a long day working in the forest, controlling the elephants with fear and violence which can only lead to frustration and anger in these otherwise gentle creatures. All our elephants are well looked after, well fed and watered and above all respected, we hope and believe they are happy; a happy elephant is a safe elephant.