17 Jun 2023
Main lady at reception desk (who was also the one to give the tour) seemed irritated the entire time and was not afraid to show it on her face as well as how she spoke to people. She seemed bored and that guests and walking through the tour was an inconvenience to her.
This “tour” was maybe ten minutes long. All the tour included was a simple gesture to ‘this is where the eco farm tour is’, with little to no explanation and then a 30 second walk to where the water buffalos were. Guests had the option to ride one of the water buffalos which is neat but the reigns they used to guide the buffalo were tied to a nose ring which they obviously pulled on to get the animal to go. The buffalo clearly didn’t want to move but gave in because they keep pulling until the buffalo moves. I saw the buffalo wince a couple times from them pulling.
We ultimately came to this location for the mangrove kayak and didn’t know/forgot this tour was part of the excursion. If I would’ve known they would be exploiting animals I would not have chosen this location. The buffalos were super calm and beautiful though, it’s unfortunate they’re used for this purpose. If reigns were used in a more humane way, this would drastically change peoples feelings towards the experience.