Guide Vladislav Max: The tour itself was good in terms of content, and we especially enjoyed the waterfalls. However, there's always a "but"... The first "but" is that we spent very little time with the elephants, 40 minutes at most. We signed up for this tour on the recommendation of parents who had also attended. Their visit to the elephant farm took about an hour and a half, where, in addition to feeding and "swimming" with the elephants, the guide shared many interesting things. We moved on to the second "but." Our guide generally said very little and seemed to know little. He shared some philosophy and a little Thai history, and then, for some reason, started talking a lot about real estate. That's interesting, of course, but that's not what the tour was about. At each point, my parents' guide told us something interesting: about elephants (how much they eat, how they're cared for, and where they come from on the farm), about waterfalls, fauna, flora, the royal family, history, religion, and various tales. We had mixed feelings about our guide... And the final third "but": it was very strange to take us to a place of memory and history, but not tell us anything about it... At the tsunami memorial, we were told that the Thais wouldn't come out to see us, that we could walk around for 20 minutes and see the monuments ourselves. Well, kind of cool... They didn't tell us anything about the history, the aftermath, or anything. Like, if you don't know, figure out for yourself what kind of place it is... Again, my parents' guide knew a lot and led the tour himself.
