I have literally just returned from Journey to Freedom and wanted to provide a long review since it was hard for me to find information before embarking on the trip.

Summary: the week long Journey to Freedom is a fantastic volunteering experience. You will meet amazing people, learn about the Karen tribe culture, see elephants in various ways, and help contribute to some combination of the village, the elephant care, ENP, and nature. Nothing is glamorous but everything is soul-fulfilling.

Logistics:
Be sure to book directly. There are tour companies that offer the exact same experience for over double the cost(!).

If you read old reviews they will mention going to the Elephant Nature Park (ENP) but that is no longer the case - and that’s ok!

Drive:
You will meet up at the ENP office which is well located in Chiang Mai near many hotels within walking distance. The drive up to the mountains is in an air conditioned van and takes about 3 hours with very very windy roads. I highly recommend motion sickness medicine! You will stop along the way at a market and also for lunch before switching to an open air truck.

Accommodations:
Good news! The bamboo house has been updated with beds (no more ground sleeping). You get a great blanket, mattress, pillow, and mosquito net. Most people loved the mattress (I found it hard and was glad to have my camping mattress pad) but almost everyone hated the pillows. They felt like inflatable pool toys. If feasible, bringing your own pillow or equivalent is advised.

The bathrooms are well kept and as clean as the group keeps them. But there are bugs! The good news is one of the 3 showers is hot water so that was wonderful for washing hair. The other 2 are cold water only.

Food:
All vegetarian (it’s about the animals, right?!).

The park provides a western breakfast (for us, it was an amazing banana pancake with various egg dishes, fresh fruit, and one other side plus toast, corn flakes with warm milk, and various jams/spreads). Lunch is usually a couple options such as fried rice and fresh fruit. One day there was spaghetti marinara. Dinner is a soup (always delicious) and a couple dishes (such as pad Thai or green curry) and side and fresh fruit. It’s all good food, some of it is very good or excellent in fact. My sister is THE pickiest eater and was thrilled to have Nutella pancakes for breakfast, white rice, cereal, and the soups each day. Every one else are much better variety!

Schedule:
This changes weekly so nothing is in stone. I’m a huge planner but I liked the unknown. It’s well thought out for sure! Our group had 3 amazing walks in the mountains to see the elephants in the wild (one was a half day and the other were full days. The week prior it was 2 half days because the village had a special temple ceremony the group did instead. So, it really varies). We also got to meet the elephants twice at the camp - once for the family of 4 and once for a single elephant because she does not like being in the group. That was really spectacular too. We had cut grass (which was so fun!) earlier in the day to feed them along with feeding bananas and something I’m still not sure what it was but it looked like a big ball of mushy dates. The food we feed them helps give them a healthy diet with protein, etc., but most of their food is from them eating in the jungle on their own.

On other days we went to the village to meet with villagers and walk around. My little sister even got to try the blanket weaving that a grandma in the village was doing. It was awesome. Our particular group also weeded coffee (relatively hard work but only for about 2 hours at most), planted grass, visited the village temple, and on the last day is a blessing ceremony.

You MUST be physically fit enough to hike up steep hills in mountains and have the stamina for standing multiple hours. Otherwise you will be very uncomfortable and/or miss out on much of the weekend. As I write this, I was one of the least fit people and still loved it very much, but a sedentary 18 year old boy who was there complained very much of being tired. The park is very accommodating to your needs, but you don’t want to let the group down by not participating.

At night we enjoyed cold beers (or wine coolers if you bring your own) and played cards. Someone brought a great speaker and it made it so much more fun. We were lucky to have a dry day in the rainy season so we got a bonfire and danced around it - including the Macarana! Haha. It was really great fun.

People:
You get a chance to meet people from all over. In our group (half full week) there were 2 teenage girls from Australia doing a gap year, 2 teenage boys from China doing community service for school, 1 young man from Kenya (by way of London) traveling for his summer off, 1 16 year old girl from China who was going it just for fun, and my sister and me - an 18 year old and 30ish year old from USA doing it as part of vacation.

The leader of our group was Joe and he was amazing. All of the others who worked/volunteered at the camp were also amazing. A wonderful spirit and presence among all of them.

Be prepared:
This is a trip truly in the jungle. Bring bug spray! And after-bite is recommended too.

You also need sunscreen and long sleeves/long pants. For the rainy season, the clothes help protect you from leeches as well as mosquitos and from sharp grass. They have laundry (by hand) but everyone just wore dirty clothes if needed. There are no toiletries so be sure to bring shampoo, soap, a towel, etc. Also, for rainy season a simple plastic rain poncho is a must. And tall boots or rubber shoe covers (I found some on amazon that worked a charm. They just snapped over my sneakers) will make you very happy on the muddy farmland and rainforest. Bringing cards or games for the evening is great too. You will have plenty of free time between/after activities. I thought it was a good balance. Some others wanted more hard work and less free time. But you can be as busy as you wish.

Overall:
It’s a really wonderful experience. You feel like you are contributing but also learning and growing yourself. The people who run it are incredible and I highly recommend this project!