Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary

Established in 1989, the initial set-up of this centre was never meant for tourism, in fact it was mainly to focus on the elephant translocation job, but now the center also serves as the spot for elephant conservation awareness to the public. This centre quickly became popular among tourists and visitors are offered a chance to come up close with Malaysian elephants (Elephas maximus). The centre is only one of its kind in the country and it aims to educate the public on the importance of conservation and protection. Over the years, more than 400 elephants had been relocated in the country by the sanctuary for protection against human activities.  The sanctuary is about 40 km from Bentong and 100 km east of Kuala Lumpur.

Activities Schedule

Beginning at 9.00 am, the driving to Kuala Gandah from Kuala Lumpur is a journey of one and half hours. It is estimated that tourists will arrive at Kuala Gandah around 10:30 a.m. The activities begin with Deerland Park visit that usually took 2 hours. There, visitors will be able to interact with different species of deers such as Taiwan deers, Javan Rusa deers, Sika deers, mouse deers, etc. Besides that animal lovers will have an opportunity to get up-close and personal with other variety of animals such as Golden Pheasant, Bengal Cat, Rabbits, Parakeets, Malayan Sun Bear, Pythons and few others. Visitors are allowed to feed and pet the animals. Food for the deers are provided by the park. The admission fees are RM12 for adults and RM 4 for children. 

After the Deerland Park tour, at 1:00 p.m. tourists are to be at the Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary. The sanctuary tour will begin with video presentation about elephant conservation awareness that usually takes about half an hour, along with briefing by the sanctuary staffs. Then around 2:00 p.m., the elephant show will begin.

Before the show, the 'Mahut' (the elephant trainer) will bring all the elephants to the nearby river to bathe and clean them.

After the show visitors are allowed to interact with the elephants with feeding and grooming activities. They are to handle the elephants food themselves in the feeding activities.

Next, the baby elephants are brought to a river within the sanctuary to be bathe for cooling down and cleaning. Elephants are covered in mud to protect them from over exposure of the sun and by evening, they are to be cleaned of this mud. The bathing is also to cool down the elephants as the temperature at the sanctuary can reach up to 35 degree Celsius. Tourists are to join this bathing process which are supervised by the staffs, so a set of clothes for changing is a must.

In all, the activities would take about two hours to be completed. By 4:30 pm, tourists are to begin their journey back to Kuala Lumpur. 

The package for this tour with Uncle Braim executive taxi is RM600.00 (Round trip)