Phuket Elephant Top Hill — Attraction in Karon

In the way to the Big Buddha, I witnessed a deeply upsetting scene involving elephants being used for tourist rides. Many of them were chained by their legs, forced to stand still for long periods under the sun. One baby elephant showed clear signs of stress, constantly swaying its head and moving its legs repetitively — a heartbreaking display of emotional suffering.

The smell of feces was intense, as the elephants were kept standing in the same spot for hours, surrounded by their own waste, without any freedom to move or behave naturally.

These animals are often taken from the wild at a young age, separated from their mothers, and “trained” using harsh, cruel methods to tolerate human interaction — all for the sake of entertainment and tourist photos.

This is not culture. This is not tradition. This is cruelty.

Please, if you care about animals, DO NOT support this kind of attraction. Do not ride elephants, do not take selfies with them, do not pay for their suffering. There are ethical ways to experience nature and local culture — without pain and without exploitation.

Conscious tourism saves lives. Get informed, speak out, and say NO to tourism that profits from...

I didn't intentionally seek out this place. I was on my way to the Big Buddha and came across it.

In a very small enclosure, there was a baby elephant, tethered. People took turns approaching to feed it. Each time, a handler caused pain to the baby elephant to make it stand still. Strangely, people in line seemed oblivious to this, and a huge queue formed.

All the other adult elephants were in chains, and their enclosures were also too small. They could hardly move. Many had seats on their backs, and people were riding them. Three to four people on a single elephant! Later, I read that elephants used for carrying people suffer immense trauma because their spines aren't built for such loads.

Just the sight of these elephants speaks volumes about how terribly they are suffering. To be honest, I thought such places no longer existed. Please, do not financially support or visit them. People who joyfully ride these exhausted and tormented elephants are just as responsible as the organizers of...

Omg please DO NOT SUPPORT THIS BUSINESS with your money!!! We drove past on our way up to and down from Big Buddha (which is currently closed due to the landslide) and it was so clear that these poor elephants are mistreated and kept in dreadful conditions, being forced to tramp around the jungle carrying tourists. They looked sad, downtrodden and unhealthy. Why any kind hearted person would pay to do this beats me! So very distressing to see the baby in a concrete pen on its own being handled by tourists. They shouted at me for taking a picture as we went past and when I said it was really bad they ranted on...