Two new elephants

The 4 mother & baby elephants that were supposed to show up last week never materialized - as with most things here, depending on who you asked, the story was always slightly different. Yesterday afternoon though, we were told that there was a mother & her baby that would be coming the following morning. Sure enough, the next morning after breakfast, a big truck came down the road. Rumour had it that the mother was a treking elephant, but had been unwell for some time, and had actually been in an elephant hospital about 3 hours away, where she had given birth to her baby. The baby, AuRa, is now around 7 months old, although she's not much bigger than our 4 month old, Khanun. Personally, I think she looks amazingly like Elvis - she's got this head of thick black hair & these little sideburns... very cute! :)

Their arrival at the park created a scene that I won't forget anytime soon - all the elephants were excited & curious. Khanun & Tong Jhan, the two youngest, seemed excited at the prospect of having another playmate & the three immediately started chasing eachother around. The elephants spent a good hour or so chattering & trumpeting - all getting to know each other, it seemed. It was absolutely beautiful to watch. Family groups were abandoned for a good part of the afternoon, and the elephants actually seemed to form a full herd. It was cool to watch them all go out into the fields together .

I'm happy to say Mae Boon & AuRa seem to be settling in well - they're only leased at the moment, but hopefully that will change!

Such a joke....

I left the park (again) last night after (another) tearful farewell. I was smart this time & actually bought my ticket to Bangkok, so that I'd be forced to head on to Cambodia for my last week. Arrived in Chiang Mai, went to the train station, and....it was dark. There was a bus out front, a couple policemen milling about, but most of the lights were off & there were no travellers around. Odd. Then a woman approaches me to let me know that something has happened to 5km of the track somewhere between here & Bangkok, so no trains are running - possibly for the next 5 days. Great.

I decide to take her up on her offer to take the bus to Bangkok instead. I'm well aware it's something of a scam - the bus ticket turns out to be slightly more expensive than my train ticket (it's normally half the price), but I'm too tired & bummed about leaving the park to really care. I buy my ticket & climb on board. It's a double-decker bus. My bags are dumped unceremoniously on the lower level, in a little nook they've reserved for bags. I'm escorted to my seat on the upper level. This bus makes Greyhound look like a first-class method of transportation. Not only did my seat not recline at all, but my knees touched the seat in front of me, and there was no overhead compartment, so I was expected to sit with my backpack, purse & camera on my lap for the 11 hour trip. I'm fairly open to adventure, but this just wasn't cutting it. I sat in my seat for about 10 seconds, before I decided to get off, ask for a refund (got it), and grab a tuk tuk to my usual guest house in Chiang Mai.

Spent about an hour looking into flights to Cambodia, but they were either more than I wanted to pay for a 5 day vacation, or didn't go to Siem Reap (didn't want to go to Phnom Phenn). In the end, I went to visit Christina, a friend I made at the park who's been living in Chiang Mai for the past 2 months. She just laughed at me & told me to go back to the park. Done. I figure it's fate. I definitely want to see Cambodia (especially Angkor Wat) one day, but I'll save it for when Stu can see it with me. :o) My heart's at the park - at least for the remainder of this trip. I don't think I can completely explain it to someone who hasn't been there, but when I was talking to Jeff (a Canadian who does construction at the park for Lek), he knew exactly what I was talking about. There's this one curve in the road, about 4 minutes away from the park, where as soon as I get around the bend, I just get this feeling that I'm home. It's everything about the place - the scenery, the elephants, the people...

Anyhow, I'm flying back home on Monday, Dec 5th (flight leaves at 5am - yuck!), so my goal is to be back in Bangkok either Friday or Saturday. I'm sure they'll all be ready to kick me out of the park by then - we've had more than enough goodbyes. :)

Another goodbye...

So another week's ended. Had a great time, although there were definitely some sad moments.

On Wednesday, Lek brought aother kitten to the park who was in pretty rough shape. I'm guessing she was about 7 or 8 weeks old, but was so thin & weak that you could feel every bone in her body & when you looked at her neck, you could actually see the red lines of the muscles. I was charged with looking after her. She wouldn't take any food, and was incredibly dehydrated, so I gave her a mixture of water, salt & sugar every half hour. She seemed to gain a bit of energy in the evening, and even wandered around my room a little, but when I woke up at 3 am, she had really gone downhill. Stayed up the rest of the night, but unfortunately she passed away around noon the next day. I burried her in the garden & made a little inukshuk to mark her grave. At least her suffering has ended.

Said goodbye to Katerina on Saturday. She's heading back home (currently Malaysia) on Tuesday, so she had to get back to Bangkok. We had a really good time together, so the park seemed a whole lot quieter after she left.

We were expecting 4 new elephants at the park (2 babies & their mothers) a couple days ago, but things seem to be running true to Thai time - no one's sure where they are, and it'll likely be another few weeks before they arrive. We lost an elephant this week as well - Boon Rod's owners came to collect her to take her back to a life of carrying tourists. Doesn't sound that bad, until you see how they go about training an elephant to carry tourists....

Why bother?

Ok, my "travels through asia" are quickly becoming a joke. Should probably re-name this blog "adventures at the Elephant Nature Park". It's probably not going to come to a huge surprise to anyone when I say I'm in Chiang Mai right now, but am heading back to the park tomorrow for another 8 days. But THIS IS IT, I PROMISE! :) I've booked a train for next wednesday night, so I have no choice but to spend my last week in Cambodia. I'll have just over a week to see Angkor Wat, so that should be enough. I'm skipping the beach, but that can be seen some other time.

Arrived back in Chiang Mai Sunday night after a tearful farewell at the park (at this point, I was quite sure that was it). Spent Monday sightseeing around the city with Katerina from Kazakhstan and Christina from England (we met at the park). Rented bikes & explored the old city (surrounded by a moat & wall). That evening, the three of us went out for dinner & spent about 3 hours talking about the park. In the end, Katerina and I both decided we really wanted to head back (Christina's going back at the end of the month), so this morning, we went to the office & signed on for a while longer.

It's currently the Loi Krothong festival, which is essentially a light/lantern festival. The sky is absolutely FULL of these meter tall paper lanterns that float WAYYYYY up (they have a little candle in them that creates the hot air). You can buy them for about $1.50, and as you release it, you make a wish. Tonight's the day before the full moon, so there aren't any stars visible, but with all the lanterns in the sky, it looks like a starry night. It's absolutely gorgeous. Wish my camera was good enough to take a picture... If I get a good picture, I'll be sure to post it on my flickr page (see the "my travel pictures" link).

Anyhoo, I'll be sure to keep you updated once I finally leave those pachyderms! ;)

Yet another change of plans....

Well, today's the day I'm supposed to be leaving for Laos, but I've decided to scrap those plans. Heading to Laos would involve a 3 day trip there (a 7 hour bus ride to the border, and 2 days on the slow boat down the Mekong), then I'd only have 5 days to see the country before having to fly back to Bangkok. Decided that all just sounded to rushed, so instead I'm saving Laos for another time.

At the moment, I'm in Chaing Mai. Came in from the Elephant Park to do a little sightseeing, and I'm heading back to the park Monday morning. Not sure how much longer I'll be staying there. It's been two & a half weeks so far and I've loved every minute of it. The people there are amazing, the elephants provide hours of entertainment, as do the dogs, cats & cows.

So right now, the plan is to stay at the park for a bit longer (probably no more than a week), then take a sleeper train down to Bangkok & find my way to Cambodia. I'll keep you posted! :)

Change of plans...

Ok, so I've had a slight change in plans... Woke up Tuesday morning, and was scheduled to leave for Laos at noon. Decided to run to an internet cafe first, but as I was walking past a temple, I noticed a tiny black fur-ball running down the walkway. Walked up closer & there was a man, shooing this tiny little kitten out onto the street. When he saw me watching, he motioned me to take it. Not knowing what else to do, and not seeing any mother cat nearby, I picked it up.

Decided to take it to Lek's (the Park's owner) travel agency, thinking she might know what to do with it. In the end, we agreed that I'd delay my trip to Laos and take the kitten up to the Nature Park, where I'd look after it until Saturday. Re-scheduled my trip to Laos for Saturday at noon.

So far, the kitten seems to be doing great. We've named him Suwa Dam, which means panther, or black tiger. He's all skin & bones, and he was a flea hotel when I first found him, but after a few good meals & some flea powder, he seems much happier & more energetic. Michelle (the Aussie who works at the park) has adopted him, so he's now living with her other 5 cats and 4 dogs. They all seem to be getting on reasonably well....