# Elephant Training: Backup Plan

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-training-backup-plan/427671>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [November 25, 2007, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-training-backup-plan/427671 "2007-11-25T05:28:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\
**Post date:** [November 25, 2007, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-training-backup-plan/427671/1 "2007-11-25T05:28:46Z")

</div>

My intention to undergo elephant mahout training next May has hit a stumbling block. I had planned to take a14-day course from the [National Elephant Institute](http://www.thailandelephant.org/eng/college4.php3#), in Lampang province in the North. However, in talking to them, I learn they have a new two-person minimum on all of their courses. The wife won’t go near elephants, and no one else I know wants to take the training.

So I may have to go with the non-profit foundation [Elephantstay](http://www.elephantstay.com/), in Ayutthaya province in the Central region about 2 1/2 hours north of Bangkok. They do allow lone students and have a 14-day course for 39,200 baht (US$1153). But that’s a little longer than I wanted and a little more than I was hoping to pay. The 10-day course at the National Elephant Institute recently rose from 30,000 baht to 35,000 baht. I was willing to go that much, but I think I may now have to settle for only the three-day course at Elephantstay for 9000 baht ($265), plus an extra 3000 baht for each day longer if I want. That will still give me plenty of elephant time, and then I can take the wife on holiday up into the North afterward like we were planning only maybe for a bit longer.