:(

Oy. Feeling rather melancoly at the moment. Just arrived back in Chiang Mai after two absolutely incredible weeks at the Elephant Nature Park. The one comfort I have is that I'm going back in 10 days. :)

I'm heading to Laos Tuesday morning, and was going to fly back to Bangkok after spending a week there, but realised that all flights stop in Chiang Mai. SO, I figured Imay as well head back to the Elephant Park for 4 days, then catch a sleeper train to Bangkok (from where I'll be heading on to Cambodia.)

Anyhoo, stay tuned for my exploits in Laos! :)

A typical day

For those of you wondering, here's what a typical day consists of:

7-7:30ish: I usually try to haul my butt out of bed so that I can enjoy the morning. The light's soft & things are relatively peaceful in the valley (unless, of course, the 34 dogs are barking at something...)
7:30-8: Watch Tong Jhan (8 months old) & un-named baby (2 months old) play together. They're allowed to roam free for a little while, while the mothers & auties are still in their shelters. They're just like a couple of toddlers!
8:00: Breakfast. Always consists of white bread & jam, coffee, and if we're lucky, there's fruit salad or a hard boiled egg waiting for us.
8:30: Let the cows out of their pen, get them some water from the river.
8:30-11: Relax, muck out the cows' stall, work up enough of a sweat so that the cold water shower (a big bucket of water & a ladle) will be bearable.
11:30: The day people arrive with the bananas that have been purchased in the market. After Michelle gives them a quick rundown on the park, we set about feeding them. I grab a few bunches of bananas & head off with Yosu - the mahout of Tong Jahn & her mother. He knows how much I love the little one, so he makes sure I get to feed her each day. :) Involves peeling each individual banana (unlike the older elephants who eat the bunches peels & all).
12:30: Attempt to wash all the mashed banana & mud off my clothes & then I grab a plate of food. Yum! With 8 or 9 different dishes to choose from each day, lunch ROCKS!
1:30: Down to the river to give the elephants a bath. This isn't really necessary (as soon as they get out of the water, they cover themselves back up with dirt - a natural sunscreen & insect repellant), but it gives the volunteers & day people a chance to interact with the animals & everyone seems to enjoy the water.
2:00-7:00: Free time. Some days, if it's not too hot, we work at clearing some of the driftwood that was washed onto the beach during the floods (a never ending job!) Other days we just hang out in the main shelter & read or chat. VERY strenuous! ;)
7:00: DINNER! :) It's even better than lunch.
8:00: The first week, it was either cards or a movie, the second week, I started teaching one of the Mahouts English in the evenings. Kopi's 17, from Burma & speaks very little English, and no Thai. Hard to learn much in a week, but I guess it's better than nothing....
10:00: BEDTIME!

Two new guests arrive...

We've got two new guests at the park today. One's name is Veggie & the other's name is Tarian.

Lek was driving up to the park, when she came across a cow lying motionless in the middle of the road. She was about to drive past, thinking it was dead, when she noticed it's ear move. She stopped & saw it was still alive, just unconcious. Turns out, the cow had just fallen off the back of a truck, on its way to the slaughter house. Lek insisted they call the cow's owner & after some negotiating, bought the animal for 3500 baht (just over $100). Then the owner mentionned that the cow's sister was also available...

So now we've got two cows on the property (as pets, not for Saturday night's BBQ ;) Veggie (the one who fell off the truck) is pretty cut up & seems to have trouble walking on one of her legs, but the vet checked her out this afternoon & thinks she'll be fine. Tarian is pretty wary of people, but seems to be in good health.

Current animal count at the park: 24 elephants, 34 dogs, 11 cats, 2 cows.

A bit about Max...

Maximus (whose official name is Pang Somboon) is believed to be Thailand's second largest elephant. Max was rescued from a life of walking the streets & begging. After logging was made illegal in Thailand, mahouts resorted to earning money by taking their elephants into the cities & having tourists pay inflated prices to feed their elephants.

In 2000, Max and his mahout were walking down the side of the super highway, when an 18-wheeler struck Max & dragged him some 5 meters. The mahout lacked the money for medicine, and was only able to provide food for his elephant. It took a year before Max could walk again, but his leg wasn't completely healed. His gait is awkward & slow, and his front right leg barely bends. Still, he was put back to work.

Finally, in 2002, Max was saved by a British couple who helped bring him to the Elephant Nature Park. While he still requires ongoing treatments & medicine, Max is a much happier elephant, now that he's at the park.

Elephant Haven

Yesterday after lunch, the volunteers, mahouts, 4 dogs & 9 elephants set off for Elephant Haven - a large piece of land that Lek owns, on top of a mountain. It's about a 3 1/2 hour trek with elephants (although if you were walking without the slow beasts, I'm sure you could do it in about an hour). Once at the Haven, the elephants are allowed to roam freely throughout the night, and then we round them up the following morning.

Accomodations were basic. It's a bamboo shelter set high off the ground, with three rooms & blankets on the floor for sleeping (we all chose to sleep outside on the bamboo deck instead). Dinner, despite being cooked over an open fire, was incredible. 8 dishes, plus rice - yum! Managed to sleep well until 3am or so, then I started getting really sore from lying on the bamboo. Didn't sleep after that, but it was nice to sit & watch the sun come up.

Managed to find all the elephants but one (Lilly's apparently a rather sneaky elephant who likes to shove dirt in the bell around her neck, so that her mahouts can't hear her.) We set off with the 8 elephants & left 1 mahout to search for her. Set off for the Park with 8 full & happy elephants.

Day 1 with the Elephants

The Elephant Nature Park's van picked me up at 9:00 this morning. There are 8 volunteers who are all staying for one week, and 6 day visitors. After hitting the market to pick up the elephants' food (208 big bags of bananas), we set off!

Before arriving at the Park, I wasn't really sure what to expect, but the experience exceeded all expectations. It's about 1 1/2 hours from Chiang Mai & as you approach the park, the landscape looks like something out of Jurassic Park. Set on a river in a lush green valley are 350 acres of land, dedicated solely to these elephants. When we finally pulled into the Park, we were greeted by 24 pachyderms. Well, I guess they weren't really greeting us as much as they were the bananas :o)

We were all introduced to Michelle - an Australian who's been working at the park for the past 2 1/2 years. She plays host to all the day visitors & keeps an eye on all the volunteers. Her husband, Carl, is currently back in Australia, but usually works as a mahout (elephant handler) for one of the park's elephants.

Michelle told us a bit about the elephants, the goals of the park & what to expect during out stay, then we set about feeding the elephants. There's really not much to feeding them - it mostly involves ripping open all the bags of bananas & about 1 minute after that's done, all the fruit is gone. They get two meals a day - bananas/cucumbers/watermelon at lunch, and huge bales of fresh grass in the evening (plus they're constantly grazing in the fields throughout the day).

After that, the humans got to eat - the food here is incredible! There were 8 different dishes - none of which contained nuts or coconut. We took a little longer than the elephants, but enjoyed it just as much. Once the plates were cleared away, it was time to round up all the elephants & head down to the river for a bath. Armed with buckets & brushes, we were all thoroughly soaked by the end - I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, though. Some of the elephants just sit there while they're being scrubbed, but others seem to have a blast splashing & floating around.

After the bath, we all went to watch a video produced by National Geographic (in conjunction with Lek - the Park's owner) about the plight of the Asian Elephant. You can watch parts of it at http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0510/feature5/video.html It's a painful video, but as Michelle pointed out, its important to watch it, to get an idea of what these animals really go through.

After the video & a bit of free time, the day people left & the volunteers had dinner (even better than lunch!), then we all hit the sack around 9pm.

"Relaxing in Bangkok"

Arrived Wednesday at 11pm after a 30 hour trip. Had a 5 hour stop in Chicago & a 3 hour stop in Tokyo, where I managed to get a little sleep on an airport bench. Spent Wednesday night at a non-descript hotel near the airport, then bussed over to Khao San Road (the main drag for foreigners), first thing Thursday morning. Met a german girl on the bus (Anna), and ended up hanging out with her for the entire day. She's spent the past 5 months here - 3 of those months were spent teaching English in a small town a couple hours away, so she's fairly familiar with the city.

Haven't done much thus far. It's been so insanely hot that I haven't really had much desire to do anything other than sit & watch the world go by. What a world it is! It's amazing all the different characters that Thailand attracts :)

Have two more hours to kill before catching the train up to Chang Mai. Will be spending the next 13 hours in relative luxury - splurged & bought myself an air-conditionned bunk on the over-night train. At $15, I guess I can afford it....

Not really sure what to expect at the elephant camp. From the sounds of it, they've had a rather rough rainy season... http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/news/0509c.htm After 3 floods & a landslide in the past couple months, I'm guessing I'll be kept rather busy! Luckily rainy season should be over in the next week or so....

Eight more days....

I don't think it's really sunk in yet, although I'm sure that when this friday rolls around, and I'm officially unemployed, it will all seem a little more real. :) This week will be a flurry of packing, cleaning & saying my goodbyes - should fly by rather quickly!