Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle

The longtail boat turns off the Mekong into the narrower Ruak river, the border between Thailand and Myanmar, and after ten minutes of bamboo and birdsong it noses into a landing where a mahout waits with an elephant. That is the arrival at Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle, in Chiang Rai province, and it was planned to feel like the start of an expedition rather than a check-in.

History

The camp opened in 2006 on a hillside of bamboo forest above the Ruak, near the town of Chiang Saen, as the first tented camp in the Four Seasons portfolio. The idea came from the safari camps of Africa transplanted to the far north of Thailand, with elephants in the role the big game plays elsewhere. The herd was assembled with the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation, which bought elephants off the streets of Bangkok, where their mahouts had been begging with them, and brought the animals and their families to the camp; the foundation still runs the herd and its veterinary and research work. The camp was conceived with a two-night minimum and an all-inclusive rate, and that model has not changed.

Architecture and design

Bill Bensley, the Bangkok-based designer responsible for a long list of Asian resorts, designed the camp in the manner of a colonial-era explorer's outpost: canvas tents on timber decks, hand-hammered copper bathtubs, leather and brass, maps and campaign furniture. Walkways of teak and rope climb through the bamboo between the tents, the main lodge and the spa. The whole camp is built into the slope with the river below and the hills of Myanmar across the water. A later addition, the Explorer's Lodge, is a two-bedroom house at the top of the site with its own pool.

Rooms and suites

There are 15 tents, each of about 54 square metres with a king bed under canvas, a deck over the jungle, an outdoor shower and the copper tub, and the Explorer's Lodge for families or two couples. There is no air conditioning in the tents; the canvas rolls up and the hills do the rest. Every tent is far enough from the next that the only sounds at night are the river and the forest.

Dining

Nong Yao, the main dining room in the lodge, serves Thai and Western food on a terrace above the river, and the Burma Bar beside it is where guests gather at dusk. Meals, drinks and the daily elephant programme are included in the rate. Dinners are also set out in the jungle, on the river bank and in a bamboo pavilion.

Wellness

The spa has two treatment tents by the river with a Thai massage programme, and there is an outdoor pool on a terrace with the Mekong valley in view. The real activity is the elephants: guests train as mahouts in the morning, learn the commands, ride bareback through the forest and bathe the animals in the river, with the camp's biologists on hand to explain the foundation's work.

Weddings and events

The camp does not host weddings or meetings; with 15 tents and a two-night minimum it is booked by couples and families, and whole-camp buyouts are its version of a private event.

Location

The camp is about 70 kilometres north of Chiang Rai, close to Chiang Saen and the point where Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet on the Mekong. Mae Fah Luang Chiang Rai International Airport is roughly an hour and a quarter away by road, and the drive ends at the river landing for the boat. It is the only luxury hotel in Chiang Rai province where the staff includes a herd of elephants.