Bamboo Rafting in Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand is the place that we chose to do an elephant trek. I had been elephant trekking before in Nepal, but my wife had never even touched an elephant so we booked a typical day tour that included an elephant trek and a few other experiences in the area, including bamboo rafting.

Elephant tourism is something that we are a bit skeptical about as we are a bit soft when it comes to animals. In fact, we didn’t enjoy the experience at all. However, the first part of our tour was bamboo rafting down the Mae Taeng River, something that I was definitely looking forward to.

I had no real idea of what to expect, but as I walked down to the banks of the river I could see the rafts lined up and waiting for us. A bamboo raft is exactly what it is – A few lengths of bamboo tied together that you use to float down the river.

Bamboo rafts waiting for passengers

We hesitantly stepped onto the raft and had to cross over to the raft next to it. There were two long wooden seats on the raft that we had to sit on, and each raft could take four passengers along with two people to steer with bamboo poles.

Once we were all on I noticed water all around my feet and could see that the raft barely sits above the water, with every ripple in the water going over the raft . Before I knew it we were off, gliding down the Mae Taeng River.

The raft is steered by a person at each end who stands upright and steers with a long bamboo pole that they push off of the bottom of the riverbed.

One of our drivers

The raft was a lot sturdier than it looked and we cruised down the river quite calmly. Before long we passed some Mahouts taking their elephants for a bath in the river, some of them spurting water at the observing tourists.

Passing by some bathing elephants

The river passes patches of jungle, farmland and little houses with locals going about their daily chores. Although every now and then we would go through a small rapid that would inundate the raft, the ride was peaceful and a lot of fun. A great way to experience the area.

Houses on the banks of the river

Rafting down the Mae Taeng River

An elephant eating on the banks of the river, while some locals look on.

While I don’t recommend the elephant trekking tour, bamboo rafting in Chiang Mai was a lot of fun!