Sample local coffee and learn more about rural Thai life

Our popular 4in1 half day tour has recently gone through some changes for the coming season. To offer something different and to give our visitors even more insight into rural Thai life we have added some new features to our tour. The main new feature is our local farmyard that has a small rice farm for you to learn more about traditional way of farming rice and how the rice ends up from the field to your plate. Meet with our water buffalos and see how they help to plough the rice field and take a ride at buffalo cart. Sample traditional Thai coffee or “kafe boran”, as the locals call it and taste some delicious traditional coconut pancake. Learn about Thai herbs at the farms herb garden and see how traditional clothes are woven by our skilled staff. All these new features are combined with some of the stations that you might already know if you have visited us before. Visit rubber tree plantations, sample spicy but ever so delicious Thai curry, learn about coconuts and of course, meet our young and adult Asian Elephants.

Our 4in1 tours with new additional itineraries will commence from the 1st of November and sales of the tour have already started on our website. Check out our new itineraries here.

Kanom krok, coconut pancake

If you have ever visited Thailand’s local markets before, you might have seen or even tried this traditional Thai favorite, kanom krok. It is a coconut pancake made from two different types of dough, normal pancake dough and coconut dough. It is very popular amongst Thais and can be consumed plain or with sugar while steaming hot fresh from the special “kanom krok –pan”. Sometimes these pancakes have sweet corn in them to give a little more color and a more distinctive taste  .

Try kanom krok at almost any local market around Thailand or while visiting our Phuket camp on one of our famous 4in1 tours. Join 4IN1 SAFARI with Junk for a half day safari tour in the morning that finished with short lunch cruise via Chalong Bay and Rawai on a traditional Burmese junk, or for our longer and definitely more romantic 4IN1 SAFARI with Sundown Dinner Cruise tour in the afternoon. Both tours include elephant trekking, a visit to our young elephant training center and local farmyard and of course, the opportunity to try fresh coconut pancakes with some local coffee. Read more detailed itineraries and book your tour from our tour package page on Siam Safari website.

Introducing our staff

Our guides are the ones who are responsible for the success of your tour, whether it be half-day tour in Phuket or overnight tour in Khao Sok. But how much do you get to know them during your tour? This time we decided to introduce you one of our guides and see what she thinks about our tours.

The guide in question is Ms. Maneerat or better known as Aor. She is originally from Samutsakhon province just outside of Bangkok and has been living in Phuket for the last five years. We asked her, what made her to choose tourism as her profession.
“My favorite subject in school was tourism management and before when I went to vocational college I studied accounting because my father thought it would provide me with a good job with decent salary in one of the many factories in my hometown. When I finished from technical college I realized that accounting wasn’t really what I wanted to do for living. After the December 2004 Tsunami I told my father that I wanted to go to Phuket to help the Tsunami victims in Phuket, but my father didn’t approve. Back then I couldn’t speak any English. I asked my father every day if I could go and finally, 4 months later, I was allowed to go. I told my father I wanted to take care of myself and learn about tourism, I started to study at the vocational college in Phuket, finally graduated with a guide license and got a job. My father was really proud of me and never thought I could do something like this alone.”  

After graduating Aor found a job at one of the diving companies in Phuket, but work at the office didn’t offer her enough responsibilities and she wanted to learn more English. That’s when she got the idea to become a tour guide  .
“I didn’t think my English was good enough to be a tour guide when I applied for a job here at Siam Safari. I have learned a lot during my time here and I enjoy learning more every day. When I applied for the job I didn’t know too much about the company, just that they had elephant trekking. I was glad to hear that they even have overnight tours which make the job more variable and interesting. I want to share the best parts of my country and its culture with my guests. I also talk about downsides of my country and want to give my guests an image of real Thailand. I really appreciate my guests flying a long way to come to see my country and it is important to me to make them enjoy their holiday and give them other useful information about Thailand as well.”

Of all the tours Siam Safari is offering, Aor says that her favorite tour to guide is the 5 day tour through four southern provinces of Thailand.
“I like the 5-day tour because you get to experience so many different parts of Southern Thailand. It’s the whole tour and all the parts in it that makes this my favorite tour, not any particular part in it. You get to see temples, lakes and rivers, elephants, sea, go canoeing and eat a lot of good food. During the 5 days you also get to know your guests a lot better than during shorter tours and it’s always nice to hear new stories and learn about different cultures. During the five day tour we also visit Krabi Province, which is one of my favorite parts of Thailand.”

How about the future, where does Aor see herself in a few years time?
“I think I would like to continue guiding, since I really enjoy meeting new people and learn about different cultures. One of my biggest dreams is to visit Australia. I think Australia might be a bit similar to Thailand with many farms, national parks, wildlife and hot climate as well, at least in some parts of the country. Visiting there would also offer me a good chance and challenge to learn more English.” “But first I need to save some money!” Aor laughs.

Meet our guides on our tours or read what they like to do during their spare time and send your greetings or comments to them at our website.