Surin elephant round-up
Surin’s elephant round-up, held every year on the third weekend of November, draws some forty thousand spectators to watch four hundred elephants play football, engage in tugs of war and parade in full battle garb. These shows last about three hours and give both trainers and animals the chance to practise their skills, but if you arrive early (about 7.30am) you can watch the preliminary street processions when locals set out long trestle tables filled with pineapples, bananas and sugar cane so the elephants can munch their way into town. Note that however well controlled the elephants appear, you should always approach them with caution – in the past, frightened and taunted elephants have killed tourists. Tickets cost B500–800 and can be booked through TAT, the provincial government website or Saren Travel, who can also arrange accommodation and transport if you contact them three months ahead; alternatively, you could join one of the overnight packages organized by Bangkok travel agencies.
Surin village tours
One of the best reasons for coming to Surin, other than November’s elephant round-up, is to take one of the excellent local tours organized from Pirom & Aree’s House. Pirom is a highly informed former social worker whose trips give tourists an unusual chance to catch glimpses of rural northeastern life as it’s really lived. His village tours feature visits to local silk-weavers and basket-makers, as well as to Ban Ta Klang elephant trainers’ village, and it’s also possible to do overnight village trips, including one that takes in Khao Phra Viharn (when open), Khong Chiam and Pha Taem.
The Suay and the Surin Project
Traditionally regarded as the most expert hunters and trainers of elephants in Thailand, the Suay tribe (also known as the Kui people) migrated to Isaan from Central Asia before the rise of the Khmers in the ninth century. It was the Suay who masterminded the use of elephants in the construction of the great Khmer temples, and a Suay chief who in 1760 helped recapture a runaway white elephant belonging to the king of Ayutthaya, earning the hereditary title “Lord of Surin”. Surin was governed by members of the Suay tribe until Rama V’s administrative reforms of 1907.
Now that elephants have been replaced almost entirely by modern machinery in the agricultural and logging industries, there’s little demand for the Suay mahouts’ skills as captors and trainers of wild elephants, or their traditional pre-hunting rituals involving sacred ropes, magic clothing and the keeping of certain taboos. The traditions are, however, documented, along with other elephant-related subjects, at the rather desultory Centre for Elephant Studies in the southern part of Ban Ta Klang village. To satisfy tourist curiosity, the centre also puts on elephant shows to coincide with the arrival of tour groups.
There are currently around two hundred elephants registered as living in Ban Ta Klang, and their mahouts are given subsidies for keeping them there. This discourages them from taking the elephants to Bangkok, where curious urbanites would have been charged for the pleasure of feeding the elephants or even walking under their trunk or belly for good luck (pregnant women who do this are supposedly guaranteed an easy birth). The downside is that there’s very little for the elephants to do at the study centre, and they spend much of their time shackled up.
In a bid to give Surin’s elephants a better life, the not-for-profit Elephant Nature Foundation has set up the Surin Project, which provides open spaces for elephants to roam in and teaches mahouts the benefits of ecotourism. At the time of writing, just twelve of the study centre’s elephants were being cared for full-time at the project, with five more elephants at the centre on a part-time basis, but the aim is for more to join them soon. It’s possible to volunteer at the camp, and for B12,000 a week you can help to dig irrigation channels, build shelters and plant food for the animals. The rate includes food, accommodation and transport from Buriram, Bangkok or Chiang Mai (pick-ups every Mon).
Crossing the Cambodian border via Chong Chom
There are a/c minivans and non-a/c buses via Prasat to the Chong Chom border pass, 70km south of Surin; or you can arrange a taxi through Farang Connection, located behind Surin bus station. Cambodian visas are issued on arrival at the Chong Chom–O’Smach checkpoint, from where you can get transport to Anlong Veng and then on to Siem Reap, which is 150km from the border crossing (start negotiations for a taxi transfer to Siem Reap at B350/car, but expect to pay slightly more). There have been reports of people on visa runs being asked for more money by officials on the Cambodian side, especially if they try to return to Thailand on the same day. There’s a casino on the Cambodian side, making this crossing popular with Thai gamblers.
Arriving from Cambodia, songthaews and motorbike taxis ferry travellers from the border checkpoint to the bus stop for Prasat and Surin. For details on other overland routes into Cambodia.