If you love elephants and wish to see one in the wild, Kuiburi National Park (thainationalparks.com/kui-buri-national-park; adult/child 200/100฿) is your best bet, with rangers estimating a 95% success rate. The park is home to 22 known elephant families (over 300 elephants in total), who have the run of over 900 sq meters of forestland in which to munch vegetation to their hearts’ content. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), the animals are wild, so a sighting cannot be guaranteed; parts of the park remain closed to the public.
Besides elephants, Kuiburi shelters the biggest population of gaur (wild cattle species) in Thailand, at an estimated 100 and counting. These can be spied easily all over the park, some quite close to the forest roads. Other, less easily spotted mammals include gibbons, deer, jackals and even rumors of tigers and leopards, though these are very rarely spotted (no pun intended). There are also over 260 species of birds, including a wealth of hornbills, partridges and crested firebacks and around 60 known reptiles species like pit vipers and roughneck monitors.
Visitors can arrive by car to the Huai Luek Ranger Station , 16km north of the park headquarters, on their own, but they must then hire a safari pickup with a guide (850฿ for one pickup holding a maximum of six people). These guides, all armed with walkie-talkies, patrol the grounds on the hunt for elephants, and once one is spotted, they will all rush to the spot in the hopes of catching them – much like paparazzi rushing to photograph a celebrity in LA. Unfortunately, there is little wildlife to be spotted at the visitor center beyond some birds and an alarmingly large spider, and the park headquarters are not recommended for visiting at all.
The park recommends that visitors arrive by 3pm to allow time to find a guide. Viewing hours are 2pm to 6pm, but it says to book a tour in advance on the national-parks website, or with a tour operator in Hua Hin or Pranburi.
