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Elephant camp at Anantara Golden Triangle Resort

If you need a bit more than sea and sunshine to make a holiday, become a mahout and ride elephants bareback in northern Thailand

Imagine yourself as a spatchcocked chicken with your arms stretched out at your sides. Then imagine you're straddling an elephant's neck clinging on to her ears, with your chin resting against her, decidedly hairy, forehead. This is how I found myself bright and early one morning. All thoughts of not inflicting pain vanished as the elephant stood up and I rocked and swayed alarmingly, squeezing tightly on her giant earlobes. Luckily elephants are thick-skinned and she didn't seem to mind.

I'm always keen to try new things, so I jumped at the chance to meet some mahouts and spend a day with them and their elephants. Admittedly, I was less than keen on the early start - I had to be at the hotel gates at 7am - but there is something magical about meeting elephants up close.

Anantara's Golden Triangle Resort is set in 160 acres of bamboo forest and is home to 19 rescued elephants and their mahouts. Elephants are valued for their strength and were widely used in the logging industry. Now there is less call for their skills and many of these elephants were working the tourist routes in Bangkok and Pattaya, begging for tips.

At the resort, the elephants, their mahouts and their families live closely and enjoy a more settled lifestyle. And guests at the hotel are encouraged to get involved, helping to bathe the animals or even undergo their three-day mahout training course.

Boun Na and me
Having been introduced to Ke, my mahout for the day, I then set about getting to know Boun Na, the 29-year-old female elephant I was to ride. She was big. She weighed about three tonnes and was at least twice as tall as me. But Ke soon had me repeatedly climbing on and off her. I can't pretend it was dignified (at one stage I had two mahouts shoving me from behind), but eventually I could mount and dismount without causing serious injury to either the elephant or myself.

Feeling marginally more confident, we set off for a walk through the forests. The hills of northern Thailand are ruggedly beautiful, and from where we were, you could see the borders of both Myanmar and Laos. It really is a magical place, full of mystery and adventure. The highlight of the walk was undoubtedly the end, when we rode our elephants into the river, and tried to stay on their backs as they splashed and swam. My top tip would be to wear dark coloured trousers to save yourself an embarrassing see-through moment!

The Golden Triangle Resort itself is sumptuous. It's only got 77 rooms and suites, so there's a feeling of space and it's very peaceful. All the rooms have large balconies with built-in sofas. I looked out over the Mekong, and could see the red roof of Myanmar's Win Win Paradise Casino in the distance. Another lovely feature of the rooms is that you can bathe with a view. Sliding doors separate the huge bathtub (big enough for two) from the bedroom, and while soaking after my elephant adventures, I enjoyed the sights and sounds of the river, from a safe enough distance to preserve my modesty!

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