The Golden Triangle elephant camp experience was definitely one of the most exciting parts of our honeymoon. Following Hong Kong and Chiang Mai, we visited Chiang Rai. Perched on a ridge overlooking the hills of Myanmar and Laos with amazing views of the magnificent Mekong River, the Anantara Resort at Chiang Rai was absolutely enchanting!

Chiang Rai is surrounded by fragrant gardens in the jungle hills of northern Thailand. It is the place to enjoy the magical views of the Mekong River, Myanmar, and Laos.

The Golden Triangle (also known as Samm Liam Thong Kham), found in the Chiang Rai Province in northern Thailand. Although in English it is known by this because it is where Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos meet, for the locals it is referred to as Sop Ruak because it is where the Ruak River meets the Mekong. We discovered that there were even more things to do in Chiang Rai than we expected.

The thing that attracted us to a Chiang Rai honeymoon and this resort, in particular, was the chance to spend some time around elephants, as there is the world-famous elephant camp on-site. It has been designed to resemble a traditional mahout (a South Asian And Korean word that means ‘someone who rides and works with elephants’) village. The idea behind it is to give guests a chance to experience the biggest land mammals on the planet up close.

We had booked to spend three nights at Anantara for our Chiang Rai honeymoon and while I wish it was longer, it was a truly memorable experience and we were well catered for.  Our room was exquisitely decorated and had a comfortable king size bed and balcony that offered great views of the surrounding jungle, gardens, and countryside.  There was also a very romantic terrazzo-style bathtub that was big enough for two and great for relaxing in after a busy day of seeing the local sights and animals.  

One of our favorite features of the Anantara Resort was their well-maintained infinity swimming pool, that also had an adjoining Jacuzzi. If you are interested in working out or pampering, there is a full gymnasium, tennis court, squash court, steam room and sauna. Depending on the time you have you may also want to make use of the bird-watching trails, jogging tracks and nature walks they have within the 160 acres of bamboo forest and gardens at the resort.

For one of the more interesting, but equally fun things to do in Chiang Rai, is to take in the surrounding countryside in all its majesty, you could rent a mountain bike and head out on two wheels. Along with all this, you can also experience all things Thai, you can take a cooking course, practice Thai boxing or even participate in some nurturing tree planting, rice planting, and harvesting to get back to nature and enjoy something traditional.

You could be forgiven for wanting to spend all day in there, just looking out over the Mekong Valley. However, there was so much to see and do and we only had a couple of days to experience it. It is though, worth mentioning that there is the Opium Museum (which I will go into a bit more detail later), rice fields, day trips to Myanmar, Tachileik Shwedagon Pagoda, Laos Islands and boat trips along the mighty Mekong River.

When it comes to food, The Golden Triangle Anantara Resort has you covered. There are three different eateries, as well as the chance to have a bespoke meal arranged for you and your significant other. The Sala Mae Nam is a beautifully designed restaurant that offers some of the finest food from the local Thai cuisine, as well as international favorites too. It has an open-air setting and is suspended over three different countries, making it rather magical. As it seats 90 diners at one time, it is by far the biggest restaurant on the resort but is still very relaxing.

I have always been fascinated by elephants and I thought this would be a truly amazing way to experience the towering, but gentle giants who call this local area home. The resort’s Elephant Camp is called this for a very good reason, as they offer unique and once-in-a-lifetime elephant adventures. We got to spend time with elephants a lot over the 3 days we were at the resort, as they are always somewhere close by. They are fairly tame and are the chance to roam freely around most of the 160 acres. Not only did we get the chance to see them closer than we ever expected, it was educational too as we learned why the local people and elephants have such an important and special bond.

The baby elephants were particularly delightful to watch playing and being looked after by their parents. As we took part in the elephant and mahout training experience, we didn’t just get the chance to admire these creatures. We actually got the chance to try and learn the different commands that mahouts use when working and riding elephants.

As they are so popular, and really it’s not that difficult to see why being up close and personal and either working with or riding these glorious beasts would be popular, you are only allowed to take part in one activity per day. E.L.E or Elephant Learning Experience is one of the options is and this is the more educational side of things. Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation has rescued many baby and infant elephants and conduct scientific research projects into the mighty creatures. If you are interested in the conservation and continued support of this beautiful species, the resort will donate THB 2,000 for every booking made by guests at the hotel to take part in the E.L.E.

This is probably one of the most beautiful experiences I have ever had – walking with these giants. The walk takes you through the surrounding jungle wilderness, accompanied by the herd and their companion mahouts. It is a great opportunity to not only catch a ride high above many of the roofs (as illustrated by some of our photographs) but to also admire them as they play and splash in the mud and river, snack on branches and leaves and socialize with their the other members of the herd. When you experience the natural world up to this close, it reminds you of how marvelous it is and it really touched my heart.

The ride is undertaken in a tuk-tuk (a three-wheeled motorized taxi-style vehicle used in Thailand), given you a truly authentic experience as you have the chance to try out various tasty delicacies at local food markets. There is also the intriguing Shwedagon Pagoda, which I would encourage all animal lovers traveling to the area to visit because you can learn the animal that corresponds to your birthday and make offerings in the temple. A pagoda incidentally in East Asia and India is a Buddhist or Hindu temple, which is usually designed to resemble a tower with numerous tiers.

As Shwedagon Pagoda is the most sacred of all Buddhist pagoda in the Myanmar region. There is also a chance to explore the dazzling Jade temple before moving onto the next destination.

Another of the great things to do in Chiang Rai is visiting the Hall of Opium Museum. While it is nice to relax, we wanted to make sure we made the most of the local area on our Chiang Rai Honeymoon and took in some culture and history too. The museum is a remarkable mixture of exhibitions and features lots of multimedia elements to bring everything truly to life. this is not your average dry lesson in history, that’s for sure. What I have often found is that textbooks and history books will often portray a certain part of the world or period in history from a specific angle or bias – this museum tackles the subject of opium from all sides of the story.

It takes you from the beginning and origin of opium, through to the opium war, the warlords, smugglers, devastating effects of this drug and the battle against the growing of poppies and producing opium. It doesn’t stop there as we were impressed to see it highlights the rehabilitation of Golden Triangle inhabitants living conditions and what used to be one of the most infamous trading zones for illegal substances in the world.

The exhibition is divided into separate zones:

Our pictures, although beautiful and wonderful mementos of our amazing Chiang Rai honeymoon, they really don’t do the area, resort or any of the experiences justice. It is definitely something you have to live and breathe for yourself. I will miss the relaxing and luxurious infinity pool and the truly outstanding vistas of the Mekong River, Laos and Myanmar that are almost too real to be real – the Thai countryside just leaps out at you and the fragrant scents it gives completes it.

I would therefore highly recommend anyone looking to have a Chiang Rai honeymoon, to consider booking some time at the Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort.

Following Chiang Rai, we spent four unforgettable nights of our honeymoon in Bangkok. The Peninsula Hotel in Bangkok had riverside location with panoramic views of the famous Chao Phraya River and the Bangkok skyline.