The Pioneering Trips Include a Full Day of Responsible, Elephant-Friendly Activities along with a Variety of Cultural Stops

(TRAVPR.COM) KHON KAEN, THAILAND - January 6th, 2015 - Isan Explorer, the leading tour company for Northeast Thailand, has created three elephant-focused tours that protect the elephants' welfare.

Travelers on these special tours spend a full day getting up close and personal with elephants, mostly out walking with and watching them in patches of forest and at watering holes where they can play and splash around with each other. Travelers even get to help the mahouts bathe the elephants in the Mun River.

Isan Explorer's tours do not partake in the usual elephant chair rides (elephant spines are quite weak and carrying heavy loads on their backs causes permanent damage) and talent shows that are, unfortunately, the staple of elephant tourism in Thailand. The elephants on Isan Explorer's tours remain off-chain the whole day.

"Interacting with elephants in a natural environment such as this is an intimate and immensely rewarding experience," says Tim Bewer, founder and director of Isan Explorer. "Far better than watching them do circus tricks." Bewer, a long-time resident of Northeast Thailand, worked with the renowned Save Elephant Foundation to ensure that these tours are not only responsible, but actually beneficial to the elephants involved.

Although spending time with the elephants forms the core of these tours, which come in two-, three-, and four-day versions, they also feautre many other cultural stops including historic Buddhist temples, a Khmer ruin, and a silk weaving village.

Full itineraries, prices, and other details about the tours can be found on Isan Explorer's website and short videos about the tours are available on Isan Explorer's YouTube channel. The website also has a page with more information about Isan Explorer's ethical elephant practices.

Hi-res photos and video are available upon request.

Tim Bewer is available for interviews about tourism or any other topic related to Isan; or Thailand in general.

About Isan Explorer
Isan Explorer is a family-run tour company offering unique slow travel tours in Thailand's seldom-visited northeast region, the most fascinating part of the country for cultural travelers. Known as Isan, this vast area – covering one third of the country – is brimming with culture, wildlife, and history; and its myriad sites are just as beautiful, inspiring, and evocative as anything the rest of Thailand has to offer. Yet because only 1% of visitors to Thailand come here, Isan offers the kind of authentic travel experiences that are increasingly hard to find elsewhere in the country. All tours stop in off-the-beaten-path villages, temples, and markets to give their guests a full immersion in traditional life.

About Tim Bewer
Isan Explorer's founder and director, Tim Bewer, first visited Thailand in 1997 and returned several times for work and pleasure before moving here permanently in 2007. Travel is his primary passion and he has visited most of Thailand's 77 provinces and also over 80 countries. Before opening his tour company, he worked fulltime for many years as a freelance travel writer and photographer, primarily writing for Lonely Planet, and he continues to update the Northeastern chapter of their best-selling Thailand guidebook as well as covering many Africa countries. His wife and business partner, Suttawan Intarapanich, has lived her whole life in Isan and has a Master's Degree in Mekong Studies.

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