Count Down's On

2 more weeks left of school

2 more weeks until this...

And this...

And this...

And then finally one month until this...

Yes things are coming to an end. In exactly one month from today I will touch down at Pearson International, the greatest airport in the world, because you know that at the end of baggage claim and customs and having to deal with far too many people who don't understand how airports work, there will always be family waiting for you at the end! Ok, so this may not be true for everybody... But it is for me and its glorious.

But before all this I'm celebrating the end of my first teaching contract abroad by going Indonesia for two weeks, in particular: Java, Bali and Lombok for a whirl wind self-created tour (I'm starting to get good at these) of various art workshops, temples, monkeys, dancing, and beaches. After which I'll head back to the Philippines for 2 days to get things in order, and then leave forever (or at least a while to very long time).

But before all this fun happens there's still 2 weeks left of school, exams, and report cards. On top of that I'm packing up my house, selling off my stuff, figuring out international shipping and cancelling all my stuff here.

I'll have seven weeks at home this summer before I head off onto my next adventure, which will be a little more like this...

Friday Night

Picnic dinner on the beach, because really the only time it's cool enough to go on the beach is when the sun's no loner out. 

Marking

I'll admit that I've been a lazy teacher these last 2 weeks or so.  It also happens to be the end of the year where a lot of projects start to get handed in. What this resulted in was 20 projects from my 7 different classes, all still waiting for me to mark them.

Yesterday I decided to tackle this mountain. I packed a dinner for myself and planned on staying at school until I got it done. As an art teacher I'm sometimes jealous of my colleagues who can take home their essays and lay on the couch as they get their work. Can you imagine me trying to carry home a class set of paintings to grade. It's a little more difficult. Anyways my plans for an all nighter may have been a little ambitious considering the 20 projects I needed to get through. I got through 11 projects, and stayed at school what many people would consider far too late. I got home passed out.

Just 9 more to go...

Found this sign in Manila the other weekend:

I'm not sure if the person who was in charge of putting this up thought it would be a funny joke, or they just found this image online and didn't get it. Either way it made my night.

Day 12: Back to the Philippines

I had a leisurely breakfast, relaxed in my room, then caught a cab to the airport. I could have done a train, but I still had a lot of Baht left over, and I was feeling lazy. 

I went to the check in counter, Kuwait Airlines was who I was traveling back with. I give them my ticket and my passport. They then ask for my out bound ticket. In the Philippines you need to prove that you will be leaving the country in order to get into it. I tell them I don't need one, my work visa is on page 9 of my passport. My passport is then passed around to several different ticketing agents all speaking in hushed tones as they look at it. Eventually it gets back to the guy in front of me who then tells me "This isn't a real visa." I work in a Freeport zone, which means I don't pay tax like other people who work in say Manila. Because of this my visa is slightly different then there the standard issue one. I try to explain this to the people at the counter. They proceed to be very unhelpful. I'm sent to wait in this one area. I'm surrounded by people who have not complied with the rules. There's a large Korean family with large quantities of durian fruit which is banned in the airport. Its pretty much the worst fruit in the world because it smells like decaying caracas and sweaty gym sock. Why people think its a good idea to put that in their mouth I have no idea. But they're there trying to argue that it shouldn't be taken from them. Eventually I get to talk to a person and explain whats going on, he says that they will fax my visa to Manila immigration and see what they say, but this may take three hours. At this point I'm 45 minutes from boarding. 

I  then tell him if it would be quicker I have a ticket leaving the country for the 22nd of June. "That should work, where is it?" 

"In my email."

"Why didn't you bring a printed copy with you? Don't you know you need exit ticket to get into the Philippines?"

"I HAVE A VISA!"

I'm then sent to Cathay Pacific for them to print me off a copy of my ticket for June. I bring it back to the ticket guy, he then looks at it "This is no good, you can only be in the country for 30 days, you'll need a visa for an extended stay." 

"I ALREADY HAVE A VISA!" Theres a fair amount of arguing, and then they consult the other employees around them in Thai. I'm watching as the time gets closer to my flight. 30 minutes to boarding. Eventually the man hands me my boarding pass and passport with angry look and says, "Here, but they won't let you into the country." 

"Thank you. And they have been for the past two years."

I ran through airport, got to security, I'm always amazed by how few people understand how security works. Yes, all metal does include the keys and change in your pocket. Yes your watch counts. No you can not bring a 2 litre water bottle on the plane.

But I made it through, got to the gate with enough time to go to the washroom before we boarded. Upon arrival I was let back into the Philippines no problem. I flagged a cab, it only took me 5 attempts to find one that was willing to actually put on the meter. After a very long bus ride back to Subic (we ran into far too many Easter parades).  It was nice to be back. 

Thailand Day 11: Back in Bangkok

I was awoken by the ticket agent as we pulled into Bangkok. It was just before seven and the sun was already blazing. I climbed out of my bunk as the workers went through the car with expert precision gathering up the night's blankets and quickly turning the bunks back into seats. I watched as the train pulled through the city. It looked less glamorous from the train window compared to when I first arrived over a week ago.

I made my way from the main station to my Hotel, returning again to the Shanghai Mansion in China Town. After dropping off my bags at the hotel I left them there and made my way up to MOCA, the contemporary art museum. My concierge try to dissuade me, but based on several blogs I had read I was determined to check this place out.  It took my cab a little to find it. Its up in the North of the city, not too far from the Chatuchak Market.  There's not much around it. I got there a little early and had to wait for it to open, the security guards seemed shocked that I was there. This museum although new, and world class isn't on any major travel site, brochures or tours. But if you make your way to Bangkok, it worth checking out. It showcases amazing art from Thai artists, as well as other artists from the region. There's 6 floors featuring amazing art, that ranges from beautiful to jarring, though provoking and insightful.

Court yard outside of the gallery

After my 2 hours there I had one of the people at the front desk call me a cab (because there were none around, there is actually nothing in that area) and I made my way to Chatuchuck Weekend Market.

I of course had chosen one of the hottest days to make my way through the giant maze of a market. I'm pretty sure 80% of my time I was lost, trying to make my way to various areas that I was told I must visit. I spent far too long wandering around the furniture section trying to figure out how to get over to the clothing area. Note for future travellers: the lonely planet map of Chatuchuck is useless. Several hours later I had picked up a couple of things, none of which where on my list of "things I want from Chatuchuck". My attempt to buy nice ceramic table setting were meet with a lady unwilling to negotiate on price and then refused to honour the sticker price on the bowls. After wards I realized the $4.50 a bowl isn't that much, and I could have paid the extra $1.50 than what the sticker had advertised. But it was the principle of the matter, and if you say its 100 baht a bowl, you better give me it for that. I was tired, super sweaty, and probably dehydrated. So three hours in I gave up, the attempted to find an exit. Which took me another half hour. 

The whole subway ride back to my hotel clutching my purchases all I could think was I can't wait until I can take a shower and a nap. 

I spent my last night in Bangkok at the food market out side of my hotel. Various pork buns, noodles all washed down with pomegranate juice. After I got my self an ice cream bar, made my way to my hotel room where I repacked, made sure I had my plane tickets and watched the last half of the movie the Mexican. 

Thailand Day 10: Cooking Class

Cooking with Dana!

My last day in Chiang Mai marked my cooking class. I would learn how to do traditional Thai dishes. Because I had to catch my train at 4pm, I wasn't able to do the full day course with 7 dishes that ended at 6pm. Instead I did the "Basic cooking course" where I would learn to create 3 dishes including Thai curry paste. 

I was picked up from my hostel at 9am. We gathered a couple more people on the way, all of sitting in the back of a pick up truck. We first went to the market where our "Master Chief" took us around and taught us how to identify various Thai ingredient and he purchased the things we would be using for the day's course. We were given time to wonder around the market. The one girl from New Zealand was overwhelmed by the market chaos and the odd assortment of things sold. For me it was very similar to what I was used to in the Philippines, where I pick up my veggies, get fresh fish and have my dresses made. Of course this combination of fresh produce, live fish, seamstress and pig carcass can be a little odd to people who aren't used to it. I picked up some fresh strawberries for myself, we gathered back at the truck and made our way to the cooking school.

The cooking school was in a front yard of a house, under one covered area were 10 small gas stoves, and a large prep table, under another was a long table with chairs. We sat down at the table and were each given a list of different food. We were instructed to choose one soup, one noodle dish, and one curry dish. Our teacher went around the group recording the various dishes we had chosen. I went with Coconut Cream Soup, Pad Thai, and Khoa Soy Curry.

First up the soup. Our instructor took us to the prep table which was filled with ingredients and told us what each of us need to take for out soups and then demonstrated how to chop and prepare each of them. 

Coconut Cream Soup

50 g of chicken or prawns (aka sea bugs that have the same texture as rubber) I went for the chicken option

1 tbsp of sliced lemon grass

1-2 leaves of kaffir lime leaves

7-8 of fresh chilies smashed I only put in 2

1 lime

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp of chicken stock

3-4 oyster mushrooms

1/2 tbsp sliced of galangal (thai ginger)

1 tbsp chopped coriander 

1 green onion

1 medium/small onion eighthed

1 medium tomato eighthed

2 tbsp of fish sauce 

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup of coconut cream

1. Add water into a pot; add chicken stock, kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass and galangal and chilies bring to light boil

2. Once at a boil, add tomatoes, large onion, mushroom and chicken, stir for 2-5 minutes

3. Reduce heat to medium, add fish sauce, sugar, lime, taste. Stir until flavours are blended. Add coriander and spring onion. 

4. Serve while hot

Makes 2 servings 

As I discovered when cooking outdoors in Thailand, its hot, by the end of cooking the soup we were all covered in sweat. With two more dishes to go and the day only getting hotter our instructor reminded us constantly to drink lots of water to avoid passing out. He would often sing to us "Stiiiiiir, and drink, Stiiiir, and drink." All the while he shook his hips with a resolve that would impress Shakira. 

Pad Thai

100g rice noodles

50g sliced chicken

2 tbsp cooking oil

50g chives

50g bean sprouts

50g long beans (optional)

1 egg

1tsp of dry mini shrimp they look like sea monkeys

2 cloves of garlic

30g hard tofu cubed

5 tbsp water

3 tbsp oyster sauce 

1 tbsp fish sauce
2tsp sugar
1 tsp soya sauce
1 tsp black soy sauce (2/3 soya sauce, 1/3 molasses)

1. Soak rice noodles in warm water
2. Smash garlic, add to wok with cooking oil. Fry garlic, tofu and chicken on high heat until chicken is cooked
3. When it is almost cooked add egg, keep stirring until the egg is well cooked
4. Add water, fish sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, soya sauce and black soy sauce
5. Add noodles. Keep stirring until noodles are full coated and soft.
6. Add sprouts, dried shrimp, long beans and chives. Cook for one minute than turn off heat.
7. Serve with crushed peanuts, dried chilies, lime and sugar

Makes 1 serving

Coconut Cream Soup and Pad Thai, so good!

On to the Curry!

Making curry paste is hard. There's so many ingredients that need to be finely blended together. I've used a mortar and pestle to grind pigments for paint and pastels before. This is harder. About 25 minutes in to the grinding of the ingredients our instructor informed us that most people no use a blender. 

Yellow Curry Paste

10 chilies I put in 2

3 tbsp chopped shallots

2 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp chopped galangal (thai ginger)

1 shoot of fresh lemon grass

1 tbsp thai ginseng

1 tsp shrim paste

1 tsp chopped kaffir lime leaf

1 tsp coriander root

1 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp coriander seeds

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp pepper corn

Put all ingredients mortar and blend throughly with pestle until it is a smooth texture and constant colour. Or put it in a blender...

Khoa Soy 

Khao Soy is a kind of noodle in chicken creamy curry, exclusively found only in the north of Thailand. It is usually eaten with onion, pickled cabbage and chili paste.

Served with noodles, either egg noodles or wonton

Egg Noodles

100g chicken breast (sliced into 1 inch)

1 tbsp yellow curry paste

1/2 cup coconut cream

1/4 cup water

1 tbsp fish suace

2-3 tsp sugar

2 tbsp cooking oil

1 tbsp curry powder

Noodles:

1. Put egg noodles in boiling water until soft and strain 

for wonton noodle

2. Put egg noodle in hot oil and deep fry until golden brown in colour.

Sauce:

1. Add cooking oil, coconut cream in wok on low heat, add in yellow curry paste, stir for 1-2 minutes until fully mixed. 

2. Add coconut cream and water to stop burning.

3. Add chicken, stir vigorously until chicken is fully cooked.

4. Add coconut cream, fish sauce and sugar. Increase to high heat. 

5. Keep at a boil for 1-2 minutes. 

6. Garnish with fresh chives, green onion, coriander and thai basil. Serve with noodles

Please note that cooking curry is not an exact science 

Makes 1-2 servings 

After this the cooking class concluded, I was already full from the Pad Thai and Soup that I got my curry to go so I could have it on the train. We were present with an official cookbook (printed pages tied together with string) and certificate of completion. We were driven back to our respective hotels. I didn't have much time until I need to leave for the train station. I went to a cafe, got some ice cream and read my book.  I split a ride with two british girls to the train. 

The train ride was perfect. I was in second class which meant that I didn't have a locking room, but my bag was right beside my seat and people were bound and determined to steal my dirty clothes, so be it. The seat was large the view was great. I sat across from an Italian photographer who was working on a series where he photographed rural Thai farmers and recorded their stories about the land. He showed me some of his work and I was intrigued. We talked about art for most of the ride. 

About four hours into the ride we stopped at a station. On came more people, the empty birth across the aisle from us was filled by a Thai woman, her older mother and her two fat girl. These children were awful and neither the mother or grandmother did anything to control them. They ran up and down the aisles, threw food at each other, went through everyones bags, and when told to stop the mother piped in that they weren't stealing anything, just looking. It was awful. At one point we couldn't take them anymore and me and the Italian grabbed our valuables and made our way up the train to the dinning car. Once in there we were bombarded with late 90s pop music and drunk French retirees. We squeezed into a booth beside a Thai man who spoke no english and looked like he hated his life, and a Canadian jade miner from BC. The car was loud and mostly just starred at each other and the drunken bar dancing of 60+ French people. Grinding is awkward in a dark club to begin with, people grinding who are older than your parents, in fully lit dinning car is on a whole other level. When we finished our drinks and made our way back to our birth, the beds were made and the two girls were asleep, thank god. I climbed up to the top bunk, pulled the curtain shut. There was the sound of the wheels on the track and the boot step on the ticket inspector as he made his rounds. I fell asleep to the gentle rocking of the train. 

Thailand Day 9: MORE ELEPHANTS!

I awoke to the sound of some mediation music being blasted through a speaker, echoing through camp, it was still dark. I was not impressed. Mediation music should never, ever be loud. Once that happened at 4:30, it was a never-ending orchestra of elephants, and roosters, and dogs. Sometime just before 7, when it was actually light out, I got out of bed. From the window of my cabin I could see elephants playing in the field. 

I made my way down to the main building for breakfast after which Apple took us on a walk around the grounds to visit the various elephant families. The number one rule was when they said, "Run", you ran. 

The first family! This family is made up of 4 elephants; the oldest one who came from a logging camp is very protective of the baby. The one elephant on the left, who was also rescued from a logging camp, her back right leg was severally damaged by a land mine, but she has now adapted to walk using only 3 of her legs. The last two members are the mother who is in the middle and the baby who is one of the newest additions to Elephant Nature Park, and is the son of Hope. The baby is already showing signs of being a head strong boy, he's bold, fears little, and clearly does not listen to the women in his family. But he's very cute. 

Our next group of elephants seen below invoked the number one rule. As we were watching the family, all of a sudden the baby started to come towards us, and picked up speed, followed by who I assume was mom. This is when Apple gave us the instructions to run, we ran into a shelter, death by elephant trampling was not on my list of things to do in Thailand. 

Next we meet the old ladies, this pair is well into their 70s. The one elephant on the far side was here, from a trekking camp, her back damaged from over use and improperly giving people rides. She didn't seem to fit into any family group. When the elephant on the left, she was completely blind. It was the first fully blind elephant they had in the park. Quickly the former trekking elephant adopted her. She makes sure the blind one can find things and helps take care of her. They never leave each others side. These two are the most gentle in the camp. You see their friendship is strong by the way they interact with one another.  

Here they pull apart Banana trees to get the hearts in the centre, which is soft enough to eat and hold a lot of moisture. 

This is one of the biggest elephant families in the park. Families in the wild are normally made up of bloodlines, solely females and their babies. Males once they hit puberty go off into the wild by themselves because of their aggressive nature. Here the families are made up of various rescued elephants with no relation. They simply choose to be together. This family group has two babies. Two sisters, a baby only a couple of months old, and one 5 year old Faa Mai, whose birthday it was today. She was the first elephant born in the camp. When the mother came to Elephant Nature Park, they didn't know she was pregnant. Surprise! 

Above Fa Mae is the elephant in the centre of the photo, below is her sister and mother.

Elephants getting at the mango trees. They've stripped almost all of the leaves and mangos from the bottom branches. One of the Mahouts later climbed the tree to get down some more green mangoes for the elephants. 

We're taken around the rest of the grounds; we saw the enclosures that are being built for the two male elephants. Our guide Apple explains that there will be a two-gate system which will be operated by the Mahouts. So that when the various girlfriends want to go visit the boys they can be let in, without fear of the boys escaping. 

Both of the boys have injured other elephants, for some reason young males have a tendency to attack older female elephants. In addition both mahouts have been injured, even Lek, the founder, had a couple from ribs broken from Hope. As Apple explains that teenage to early 20s males are "Giant assholes. Same as humans."  These new enclosures will insure better safety for everyone. The enclosures are more humane and less likely to break than the chains that the elephant now must wear most of the time. 

We see the two boys from a distance. Naughty Boy's girlfriend comes over and they share a meal. She's very much aware of how far his chain can allow him to go and continues to flirt with that line. Apple tells us that she likes to play hard to get, but they all know she's not that proper. Several weeks ago Naughty Buy broke his chain to go and see her at night in her shelter, it was pure chaos apparently as they tried to get the elephants back to where they need to be. Young love. 

At one point it was Lek's hope to be able to reintroduce the two males into the wild, but because of poachers and their exposure to human they would probably not be able to survive. This has lead to creating long term plans of how to care for these large animals. 

By the time we got back we had some free time and we had to check out of our cabins. We stacked our bags in the main building. As part of the birthday celebration there were monks at ENP. We attended while the monks did their blessing. Apple explained to us in hushed tones what was proper procedure. When you sit as a part of a Buddhist ceremony, your feet must not face towards Buddha or the monks. So as you sit on the ground you must tuck your legs underneath you. A small procession started go up to the front to receive the blessing from the monks. You're not supposed to stand while you do this. You also cannot have your feet point towards them. You must shuffle on your lower legs. We all slowly shimmied our way up to the front, awkwardly. The monks wrapped a white string around my wrist three time while saying prays, broke the string from the spool and then knotted it. I then shimmed back to the back of the room, while facing forward in a long skirt, unable to stand. The Buddhist woman had this down. I struggled and looked insanely awkward. As the prayers closed Apple took us down to the main part and we had lunch, which again was amazing. 

After lunch we help make Faa Mai a birthday cake. It was made of cooked squash, banana tree hearts, bamboo leaves, green beans and watermelon. All squished together and decorated for the new 5 year old. 

Next came bath time. This was our elephant, she was covered in mud, and soon because of the back splash from the buckets of water, I was also covered in mud. But she got clean!

After which it was the birthday party. The family was brought to the one feeding area. Out came our cake, and other food for the celebration. 

The Birthday Girl!

Lek the founder presenting the cake.

Lek

Me and the elephants

After our elephant party we changed out of elephant bathing clothes and headed to the elephant kitchen to make some food for our elephants. Several of the elephants are on special diets. We were cooking for one of the older ladies. Our recipe, Squash Sandwiches. First we steam the squash so it was soft and easy for her to chew. We then took pieces, and placed them between slices of whole wheat bread. Pretty simple. Very messy.

Once we made a bushel basket full of them, we (aka the two men) carried it out on to the grounds to our "old lady" as apple referred to her. Naughty Boy had attacked her once at the feeding platform, ripped her ear with his tusk, and she now has a scar on her neck from it. She now no longer goes to the feeding platform and avoids contact with other elephants. Her Mahout is a young man, around twenty, he new to her but you can see that although they've only been working together for a short time they are already very close. She has very poor eyesight and relies on her smell and the calls her Mahout gives her for her to navigate her way. He brings her over and she's very excited to see us, touching each of us with her trunk. From the bushel basket the Kiwi woman produces a sandwich, places it in her trunk, and it's almost immediately dropped.  Because of her age and clumsy nature Apple advises us to make sure she has a good grip on it before releasing it. I take a try, I put my hand out on her trunk, she extends it out, I place the sandwich on it, make sure she wraps the end of her trunk around it. I remove my hand, and she drops it. The Mahout shrugs, the other Canadian girl gives it a try, but nothing. "Maybe she's not hungry" Apple suggests. 

Off we go to find another elephant that will appreciate our cooking. Along the path I hear someone hum the tune of Oh Canada. I look over and there's a man standing in a Canada hat, I realize that I had then put on my Canada shirt, post elephant bathing. "Where ya from?" He asked.

"Toronto area."

"Where abouts?"

"Like around Peterborough."

"I know Peterborough."

"Oh, well, I'm actually from around Lakefield." 

"Oh where around Lakefield?"

"Clear Lake."

"I know Clear Lake, yeah there's a summer camp there I used to go to!"

"I live a kilometre down from the camp. Where are you from?"

"Well I grew up around Orillia. You know it?"

"Yeah."

This lead to a very in depth conversation about these parts. Turned out he was Lek's husband. He had come here as a volunteer several years ago, feel in love and stayed. It always amazes me the connection that that you find when travelling. There's been countless time where I've been at a bar an event or a hostel, where people say "Have you meet mike, he's also from Canada, you probably know each other." At this point you try to explain that Canada is a large place and you probably don't. I've never had where I actually know the person, more often than not, they attended the same university a couple years apart from myself, they're from the next town over, they live a block from my dad's house, or they attended summer camp a kilometre down the road from me. We have friends in common, know the same places, and are related to an old roommate of mine. The smallness of Canada always surprises me. 

We found an elephant family who was very excited to be feed the specialty sandwiches. We headed back to the main building, said our goodbyes to the park and our guide Apple, and headed out on our way back to Chiang Mai. 

When I got back to my hostel my bag was still intact and not sold off by friends I had made two nights before. They had left for Pi that day, there was a note tact to my bag that gave me the name of the place they were staying if I changed my mind and wanted to join them. Unfortunately I was on a tight schedule. I had one more day in Chiang Mai before I took the overnight train back to Bangkok. My goal was to take a cooking course the next day. I booked one with the hostel from desk and got my key and headed up to my room to take a shower and de-elephant myself. 

I meet two teachers from New Mexico on their honeymoon. Once I told them that I was also a teacher, but working internationally, they invited me out to dinner in order to pick my brain on how they might break into to international scene. We headed to the night bazaar. We haggled over various souvenirs, they got soaps, little Buddhas and t-shirts, I bought a pair of Thailand tourist pants.  We had dinner via food stalls, and I picked up samosas and some amazing Vietnamese spring roles (its all about the sesame sauce). Then as we wondered down the market further I came across a stall that had Lacquer bowls carved from mango wood and intricately carved. I had only brought a little bit of money with me and was dishearten when I realized I couldn't afford to buy more than one. On the plus side it made transport home easier. Shortly after se headed back to our hostel, stopping at a pub first to get a spirt for us girls and beer for him. We talked more about what it was like to live abroad, and how I got into it, what makes a good international school, how to apply. We left around midnight, and walk the two short blocks to our hostel. 

Once there we I went to say goodbye, at their door, my dorm room was on the top floor. Which is when she stopped me and said "Wait, you want to come in?" 

"To your room?"

"Yeah, for a threesome." Which he said so casually like he was commenting on the weather. 

Before I could even filter what I was thinking I blurted out "You're on your honeymoon, aren't you still supposed to be into each other?!" They laughed, I graciously declined, and climbed the steps to my dorm room wonder if I had somehow missed the signs that they were hitting on me throughout the night. 

Thailand Day 8: Elephants!

My car arrived at 8am, I had had far too little sleep. And of course for some reason I was lucky number one on the pick up route. I had grabbed some of the things I would need and left my bag with the group of people I had just met and went out with that night. The hostel had no bag holding service, so I trusted some strangers not to sell my stuff. I was working on two hours of sleep and was hoping for the best. 

We proceeded to pick up some other people, a couple from Christchurch New Zealand, a couple from Seattle, and a girl from Calgary. We drove about and hour, hour and a half north of the city to Elephant Nature Park which is where I would be staying overnight and spending two full days with elephants. This park came highly recommend, because unlike other "Elephant Parks" in the area this was a place built to rescue abused animals and help to boost the elephant population. Many of the others are simply created as a tourist attraction where the elephants are often mistreated and overcrowded. ENP was a sanctuary first and brought in tourist to help finance the organization. You can find out more about the park here: http://www.elephantnaturepark.org

This was by far one of the highlights of my trip. It was amazing, I was exhausted. I first saw them as we start to head down a winding mountain road, and there in the distance on the plain below where elephants! The various families traveling along in their tight knit groups. We made our way closer as we pulled in to the sanctuary we were greeted by a wide variety of dogs and cats. We were informed that Lek, the founder was a big believer in help all animals. We get the the main building where we dropped our stuff off at "our" table and were ushered to an area by a very pushy woman to receive safety instructions. 

The safety was pretty much common sense, elephants are large animals, they can hurt you, many have been abused, give them their space and always listen to your guide. This talk then went into exhaustive detail, which always makes me wonder what idiot has tried stuff in the past to make us have to listen to this. We came out of the talk just in time for the first round of elephant feeding. 

They were lined around the platform, which had a red line painted on the floor to indicate a safe distance while feeding. Their lunch consisted of watermelon, squash, corn and bananas. And they were eager to be fed. Many of the elephants are blind, because of mistreating, so it requires a little more help when getting the food to them.

Me feeding the elephant. My guide kept taking pictures of me, but unfortunately she wasn't very good a using my camera. Needless to say most of the pictures of me with the elephants are blurry. 

This elephant is blind in both eyes, the left eye was from an accident that occurred in a logging camp where she worked. After this she was hesitant and clumsy, her trainer or mahout then damaged her right eye with a sling shot when he was trying to encourage her to work harder. 

Baby Elephant! He's supposed to be on a special diet, but keeps coming to the feeding platform to steal he other's food. 

Baby and his mahout, each elephant has a mahout, who helps look after the elephant, there is a deep bond between the elephant and mahout. Often the manhout will stay with the elephants through the night when they first arrive to the park. Many of the mahouts here are refugees from Burma, and they describe that both them and their elephant counter parts have been given a second chance here. At ENP the mahout train the elephants by rewarding good behaviour, as opposed to the more traditional method where elephants are beaten into submission. 

After feeding the elephants the six of us and our guide go for a brief walk around some of the ground to meet several of the elephants. We made our way to the veterinary station where two elephants were receiving treatment. One elephant had on a boot, she had stepped on a land mine while logging on the Thai-Burma boarder several years ago and sense then she has been susceptible to infections in her foot because she now lacked the strong padding on the bottom of her foot. Another female was there getting  IV antibiotics for an infection.

While on the grounds our guide made sure to point out the two teenage males to us, named Hope and Naughty Boy. Male elephants are highly aggressive towards both humans and other elephants and can attack at any moment. Because of this in the wild male elephants travel alone and are not apart of family groups. Here they remain solo, but are still a little too close to the family groups and several of the females have been attacked. The are currently working on creating large outdoor enclosures for the two males. Until then when people are out on the ground the two male must be chained or "leashed" as our guide referred to it in order to ensure everyones safety.

After our brief tour we headed back to the main building for lunch. Everything was vegetarian and cooked in traditional Thai ways (minus the meat) and it was all incredible. We had some free time and then there was going to be a video presentation in the one common area.

The video was a documentary from a couple of years ago about Lek's project here. It showed the horrors of how elephants are traditionally broken and then trained to preform, give people ride or work in logging camps. Because elephants are classified as livestock in Thailand there are no laws here to protect them despite their endangered status. The elephants as babies are taken from their mother, confining in cages no bigger than themselves and beaten for several days until they stop resisting. For some elephants, often male elephants this may take weeks. As part of the outreach that Lek does she bring vets to the elephants undergoing this process so that the wounds that the elephants sustain can be treated. Another part of the out reach is to try and show that there is another way to train elephants that doesn't include abuse, but instead using a model where good behaviour is rewarded. Of course this process takes longer, but the elephants are then less likely to turn on the mahouts or other people and attack. The documentary then went on to talk about her sanctuaries, as the one in Chiang Mai is the first of three that are now operational. Many people were deeply moved by this video. I walked away feeling guilt over the elephant I had ridden early that week. Although it was a cool experience, I now know that the chances are very high that that elephant went through a horrible experience in order for me to have that experience.

After mild guilt trip we went and bathed the elephants. It was much happier. Bathing elephants consists of throwing buckets of water on the elephants to remove the mud and dirt off them. It was fun, the elephants were cute, I got soaked. 

After bathing came feeding time, again. Elephants need to eat an insane amount of food, which basically means that for the 22 hours a day that they are awake (I crazy who needs that little sleep?) that they are almost always eating. 

We then finally got checked into our rooms, they were rustic, but mine still boosted a king size bed complete with mosquito net, a hot(ish) shower and view of the elephant shelter. Where I could see some young elephants playing. I then took a quick shower, followed by a nap. When we went back to the main building we were left by our one guide and introduced to Apple, who would be with us for that evenings meal and then next day. After one more feeding and then hand washing it was time for dinner, after which the 7 of us sat around the table talking about our lives, experiences, the travel we've done and planned to do. It was good to get to know these other companions. It grew dark, and then a storm came in, we quickly lost power, and we all decided it was time to call it a night. We were warned that the elephants would have us up at dawn, so perhaps a 9pm bedtime wasn't all that bad. 

Day 7 : Songkran

While at breakfast in the morning I picked up some brochures from the front desk of spa's in the area. I was feeling stiff and I thought it might be a good idea. I settled on one,  planning to spend my morning there and then check out the Elephant Project in the afternoon. The Elephant project is an NGO that uses art to raise money to support elephants with in asia. 

I checked out of my room and left may bags with the front desk, I would be transferring to a hostel that afternoon. I gathered my things that I needed, put the important stuff in ziplock backs to prepare for Songkran and headed out. Luckily it was early and most of the water throwers were still asleep. I got to the spa around 10, and it was beautiful, small paths lead along little rivers and fountains where flowers were artful arranged on the surface. I was greeted with tea, and taken to a private villa where I enjoyed three hours of massages and relaxation and herbal baths. It was wonderful. As left the spa feeling so much better and that it was no longer painful to walk I was received by the full chaos of Songkran which was a pick up truck with about 7 guys in the back which all through buckets of water on me. Then immediately after there were two british guys with water guns. "HAPPY SONGKRAN! WHOHOO!" I spent the rest of the day trying to get the water out of my ear. 

I wandered to the street market for lunch getting a good a mount of water on me as I went. I spent I went back to the hotel to get some dry clothes when I discovered that the city was shut down, there was no way to get to the elephant project or to get to my new hostel. After much frustration I sat by the pool and waited until it was 7 and then things would be accessible.  

I arrived at my new hostel just after 7, was greeted by a tall older Thai woman whose face was painted white with red lips holding a large glass of wine. Her name she told me was Stella and she said that she would make me friends. She took me up to my room for the night where there were 3 other travellers who took me out to one of night markets for dinner. Then out for drinks, then out for dancing. And before I knew it we were making our way back to hostel around 4am. I being the only sober one in the group and having just arrived at the hostel that night was not sure where it was located in the old city exactly. And the rest of the group, slightly inebriated weren't much help despite them having been there several days. There was a shop that was just starting to open up and the two guys helped give us directions back. Turns out we were only a street over. So just before 5am we strolled into our hostel. I had 3 hours before I was going to be picked up that day for the elephant sanctuary.