Green Hill Valley: responsible elephant tourism in Myanmar

Sharing knowledge and encouragement across the border

Many of our visitors and volunteers ask us if there are other places where they might see elephants where there is no riding or elephant show involved. Save Elephant Foundation (SEF) is always on the look-out for elephant projects within Thailand and in neighboring countries that we can suggest to our visitors.

Thankfully the trend of experiencing elephants without exploiting them is catching on!

Recently, tourism in Myanmar has opened up. More and more people are looking to explore this rather undiscovered country. Though Myanmar is the land of elephants, there is little to no elephant tourism options. SEF has launched a non-profit foundation in Myanmar to help elephants, but we are still very much in the developmental stage. An operating volunteer program is still a long way off.

After seeing references to a place called Green Hill Valley (GHV) in Kalaw (on youtube) and having planned a long awaited trip to the ‘Golden Land’ once called Burma, we decided to make a special trip to visit this quaint little camp last October.

GHV is operated by husband and wife Htun and Maw along with their uncle U Ba who completed 35 years of service as a elephant vet for the Myanmar Timber Enterprise.

Kalaw itself is a sleepy little town, with not much going on but serving as a starting point for many walking treks. GHV is about one hour outside of Kalaw. The drive there is breathtaking! Often shrouded in mist, the road twists and meanders up and down through the Shan hills. These picturesque mountians are lush, green and rolling as far as the eye can see.

A look at a more responsible elephant tourism option

The camp is tightly nestled in a small valley. It is beautifully landscaped with close attention to details (for the jungles of Myanmar they have quite posh bathrooms!). Visitors are first welcomed on the bamboo veranda and offered green tea. They only allow a maximum of 30 visitors per day, who arrive in small groups. On most days guests meet and are shown around by Htun, Maw or U Ba, all of whose english and story telling skills are excellent. The rest of their staff are very polite, knowledgeable and professional as well.

They are doing what they can to do what is best for the retired logging elephants in their care and teach visitors about elephant life and history in their country.

During a visit guests can feed the elephants, photograph them, bathe them in a stream for a short period of time and walk with them back to the feeding area. Depending on which option the guest has booked, they may also plant trees to help with reforestation or go on a jungle walk for some bird watching.

Included in your visit is a light lunch of curry, dhal, samosas and naan — delicious!

They currently have seven elephants in their care, two of which belong to the family. Besides Po Chit, a boisterous five-year-old bull (who reminds one of Chang Yim), they are all too old to be working. The mahouts came with the elephants and enjoy their new lifestyle, but it will take some time for them to fully adapt to a concept where elephants come first. The mahouts still ride the elephants, because they feel this is needed to control them. They also still carry hooks though none of the elephants had any recent wounds.

It is important to remember that change can not come overnight.

Like ENP, they are also limited by land space and surrounding land is expensive, if available.

Earlier this year, on one of her many trips to Myanmar to develop the SEF project there, Lek and our film crew paid a visit to GHV and an alliance was formed. Lek invited them to visit ENP if they were ever coming to Thailand and finally just this week, Htun, Maw and U Ba (who is a spry 76!) made their way to ENP.

They observed our target training program and foot care. U Ba shared his expertise and gave suggestions on some of our treatment plans. They also were able to observe our bull yards and our ‘no hook – free roaming’ style of management which allows our elephants greater social interaction.

Because our mahouts are from Myanmar and we are always struggling with varying degrees of language barriers, our mahouts were very excited to converse in Burmese with Htun, Maw and U Ba.

We hope to continue to share ideas and information with GHV and support their bold move in a new direction towards a future of gentle elephant tourism in a land which has always worked elephants in logging.