Photography: Frits Meyst
Text: Jillian Macdonald

With a lack of traffic signs and rules, it seems the best choice is to give the right of way to the big guys, the elephants. After all, weighing anywhere from 2500 to 4000 kilos they do most of the heavy work around Ban Ruammit, in northern Thailand. Since early morning, we, a small group of international adventurers, left the calm serenity of our hotel on mountain bikes, challenging city chaos to get to the longtail boats. We will travel from Chiang Rai along the Mae Kok, mountain bikes on board, to visit these enormously graceful creatures, then cycle the hilly road back to Chiang Rai.

Click on any of the pictures to get to all high resolution images with this feature story