Elephantfarm in Chiang Mai

Hey guys,
I want to tell you about my trip to an elephantfarm in Chiang Mai. It was a beautiful experience to meet those giant gentle animals. You can book a trip to a farm at any activity shop in Chiang Mai. Don't worry, they are really hard to miss. Just beware of paying to much. The usual prices range from 2.000-2.500 Baht (~50-60 €) for a full day trip and half of that for a half day trip. After a lot of negotiation, I was able to bring the price down to 1.100 Baht for the whole day. I guess they make a lot of margin on those trips. After going there, I would suggest to take the half day trip, since they don't really do much less. Here's a recap of the day:
We got picked up in the morning by a taxi and arrived at the farm after about an hour. First we learned some keywords to communicate with the elephants, and then we went straight to feeding them sugarcane and bananas. After getting to know the elephants and taking some pictures, we (the full day people) were kept busy for a time, until the other people finished our afternoon routine. Then we got some lunch. The meal was not bad, but nothing special either. During the meal, the half day people got picked up by taxis again, and then we went to do a mudbath together with the elephants first, and afterwards washing them (and ourselves) in the river. There were some other small things to do, but those were basically the interesting things. Later in the afternoon we were brought home again.
All in all, I would say it was really worth it, and meeting those beautiful creatures was a nice experience. You could really see, that the elephants are treated nicely and taken good care of. The guide told us, that all the elephants on the farm used to be carriage elephants and they were saved from different locations. It is good to know, that they do not provide elephant riding services.

Thanks for reading so far and have a nice trip :)

-Zeljko