Traveling with Elephants

Not all of the elephants at the Park are owned by Lek. Some of them are leased, which means that Lek pays the elephants owners in order to look after them at the park. She only does this when they're pregnant or ill and really in need of it. Otherwise she'd have too many people taking advantage of her. It's a pretty sweet deal for the owners - their elephants are happy, well looked after, AND they're getting paid for it.

Mae Toh Koh is one of her leased elephants. She came to the park with her son, a week after giving birth. They've been at the park ever since (they arrive 2 1/2 years ago, when I was last there). Her owner came yesterday to let Lek know that he would be taking both mother and son back to his village for a 15 day burma karen ceremony (many elephant owners in Thailand are actually from the Karen hilltribe in Burma).

At 9 o'clock this morning, Mae Toh Koh and her 2 1/2 year old son, Pupia, were loaded into a truck (no easy feat - it took quite a bit of persuasion, and some force, to get them there). Myself, two other volunteers, and a few of the park staff, then accompanied the elephants on the trip.

We rode in a pickup truck behind them, while their mahout and owner rode in the truck with them. What is normally a 3 hour drive took nearly 5 hours. Mae Toh Koh was relatively calm, but Pupia was agitated, and kept trying to stand on his two hind legs to see over the side. Because he's so much lighter than his mother (mom weighs about 3000 kilos), the truck tilted heavily to one side - so much so, that on a few of the turns, we were all worried it was going to go over.

We finally arrived at the village around 2:30. Getting the pair off the truck was much easier. They were led to the owner's house, where they were chained and fed in his backyard. We didn't stay long, but were assured they would be taken to the jungle to spend the night. No one's quite sure whether Lek will actually get the elephants back in 15 days. Young elephants are usually trained around the age of 3, so there's some speculation that the owner will just keep Pupia, and send his mother back to a life of treking camps.

Cows & Buffalo

When I first came here, I was given the responsibility of looking after a baby cow that Lek had purchased after it fell off the back of a truck heading to the slaughter house. It seems fitting then, that this time, she's given me the responsibility of looking after an orphaned albino water buffalo. Apon is 4 months old. There are currently 5 or 6 other water buffalo at the park, and while they allow Apon to follow them around, they don't really look after her much. I've become her surrogate mother.

Twice a day, I feed her a bottle of milk. She seems to be a bit confused about where the milk comes from. When I walk up to her, she butts her head repeatedly into my calf, trying to nurse. After the feeding, she likes to stand with her head in my lap, or shoved into my armpit while I stroke her neck. I guess I'll take it as a compliment that I seem to be an acceptable water buffalo mother. The rest of the day, Apon stands on the outskirts of the buffalo herd with a slightly stunned expression on her face. The others enjoy wallowing in the mud (and their own shit), but Apon, despite my repeated attempts to lure her into the mud, doesn't seem to like getting dirty. As a result of not having that mud protecting her skin from the sun, the little albino buffalo has turned completely red. Such a pathetic sight.

Veggie, the cow that I first raised, is still here, along with her sister Terrian. Terrian had a calf shortly after my last trip to the park, impregnated likely by the amorous bull. She then had a second calf after another escape, then Veggie had a calf of her own. A sixth cow just showed up at the park one day - no one's quite sure how she got there, and Lek was given (for one reason or another) a bull named Burt. So the final tally is 7 cows, 5 (or maybe 6?) waterbuffalo plus an orphaned albino.

Pictures to come, once I find the time to sort through them all... :)

Another Return

I was picked up at 8am this morning for my much anticipated (by me, at least) trip back to the Park. After a quick stop at the wholesale market for 2 truckloads of bananas, we were off. I noticed the changes as soon as I was picked up. Where we used to have anywhere from 6-10 volunteers each week, today there were around 22 people all heading up for anywhere from 1-3 weeks. Three girls from the Netherlands, a family from Toronto, two couples from the States, a German girl, and a bunch others who I haven't had a chance to get to know yet.

The herd hasn't changed in size much - I think there were 32 elephants when I last left, and there are 31 now. Around 4 elephants have passed away in the past 2 years (most due to old age), and there are a few new females. Medo, a female who had her pelvis destroyed when her owner tried to mate her with a male in musth. She's now severely handicapped, but seems to be enjoying her new life. Mae Lanna is in her 40s and is completely blind in one eye, and about 85% blind in the other. She and Medo have recently forged a friendship, and enjoy hanging out down by the river. Faa Sai is a young elephant who was rescued back in August. I had given money to Lek to help with the purchase, so it was wonderful to see her enjoying her new life. While she hasn't completely joined a new family group yet, she seems to be making friends with the other young elephants.

Overall, the park has become much more of a tourist attraction than it used to be. There's more of an emphasis on safety - people can't get as close to the elephants, and there's a long list of rules to follow - and the volunteer program is much more structured than it ever was before. There are still lots of familiar faces (both human & animal) here though, which is really nice.

Chiang Mai

I spent last night at the Tha Phae Inn. It's this ecclectic (I'm being polite) little guest house in the middle of Chiang Mai. From the front, it looks like an antique shop. You walk in, and there are knick knacks everywhere - old bottles of coke, tins of cookies, old pictures & paintings... The rooms are 200 baht ($7), and probably aren't worth much more. Everything's made of old teak - dark & gloomy and pretty shabby. I like it there because the owner is incredibly nice, but after one night there, decided to move.

Wandered down the street to the Chiang Mai Thai House. I've stayed here once before. The rooms are gorgeous - nicely tiled, big, clean beds, and there's a nice garden & swimming pool out front. All this for $17! Spent the afternoon in the pool, and as I was reading my book, someone said "Megan?" Turned out to be Christina - a girl I met at the Park 2 years ago, and haven't really kept in touch with since. She comes to Chiang Mai once a year for 2 weeks.

Heading out for dinner & drinks tonight. My goal is to stay up until 10 - the sun has been absolutely wipping me out lately! :)

Sleeping on a train

I'm not sure how people manage to sleep on trains. I love the trip, but trying to sleep is hopeless. Once the train gets up past a certain speed, it creates such a rocking motion that your body rolls constantly from side to side. Didn't get a single wink of sleep last night, and the train was 3 hours late arriving in Chiang Mai (as expected, with my luck), but still quite enjoyed the trip. The last few hours, the tracks pass through the hills outside of Chiang Mai, and it's quite pretty....

Playing Tourist

Bangkok's a hard city to be a tourist in. I find most of my time is spent trying to figure out how to get from one place to another. Bought a ticket for tonight on the sleeper train to Chiang Mai. It leaves at 7:30, which gave me the day to do some sightseeing.

Someone recomended I check out the Golden Buddah. They told me it was a 20 minute walk (which in 38 degree heat feels like forever!) I was almost there when a tuk tuk driver stopped me & asked me where I was headed. Turns out the temple doesn't open until 1pm. Shoot.

Spent a couple hours hopping from one air conditionned establishment to the next. Finally decided to take a boat over to Wat Arun (the Temple of Dawn). Arrived at the docks, and the ticket seller told me it would be 1000 baht (roughly $40). Was immediately suspicious, because I know it's not very far away. Turns out, that's for a private longtail boat. After a little prodding, she admitted I could always take the public ferry for 15 baht (50 cents).

Temple was beautiful - unlike most, there were stairs up the outside of it that you could climb to the very top. Got some good pictures, but can't find a computer with a usb... might have to wait until I get home. Huge thunderstorm has just rolled in. Hiding in an internet cafe for a bit, then off to the train station.

Roasting

I felt like a turkey in the oven last night. My shack was ridiculously hot, despite the weather. Around 7:30, a huge storm blew in. It started with gusting winds, which because the area around the huts is all dirt, turned into an absolute sand storm. We were eating dinner at the time, and tried to cover the food, but everything ended up tasting a little gritty. After the winds, the sky opened up, and it absolutely dumped rain.

The breeze cooled things off slightly, so I fell asleep in a hammock for a while. I finally moved into my shack, but it was like an oven in there. They only run the generator here from 8pm-10pm, so there are no fans & no running water.

Woke up this morning at 5. Phot was staying with his girlfriend & their new baby today, so he sent the one other mahout he has on staff, and myself, into the jungle to get the elephants for a swim.

Thom, the mahout, is new to the job, and the elephants can tell. He commands Mali to walk forward, and Som Boon and Kamun wander off into the bushes to eat. He goes to get them, and Mali wanders off. Takes about an hour, but we finally get them to the water. When bath time's over, we have to do it all in reverse.

By 2:00, I decided I'd had enough. There was no where to shower, and the river was so muddy that I felt grittier coming out than going in. We had spent most of the day lying in the shade, and without being able to watch the elephants, I felt like I was wasting my time.

I talked to Phot, and he drove me into Lat Ya - the nearest town. From there, I traveled the 2 1/2 hours by public mini van back to Bangkok. At least here, my room has a shower (ok, a hose on the wall of my bathroom, but still....)and air con. A bit of a splurge, but at $19/night, I guess I can afford it.

Elephants & Friends

This morning, I had made plans to go to a small elephant sanctuary near Kanchanaburi. My plan was to stay there until Friday. Phot, the sanctuary's owner, picked me up at 9am. We arrived at the sanctuary about a half hour later.

Turns out, I was the only foreigner volunteering. His girlfriend had just had a baby 2 days ago, and his whole family was visiting. He showed me to my cabin - a bamboo shack on stilts with holes in the floor and woven bamboo walls. Luckily, he didn't ask me to stay in his newly-built tree house. He proudly asked me to go up & look at it - I made it up the ladder, but couldn't go any further. The floor was a criss-crossing of discarded scraps of wood, with gaping holes. From the outside, it looked like it was missing a key support beam. He apologized & told me it wasn't quite ready yet, otherwise I could have stayed there. Darn.

I dropped off my bags, then myself, Phot and his one mahout, went off into the jungle to fetch his 3 elephants. He keeps them on 50 foot chains so that they have shade and access to food.

Mali is a former logging elephant who had her back leg broken when some logs crashed into her. She's had surgery, but she still has some deformation and favors her front legs. Som Boon's ears have quite literally been torn to shreds - Phot wasn't sure how. Her left ear is about a quarter of the size it should be, and has 3 long tears in it that make it look more like a tattered piece of fabric. Kamun is pregnant and due sometime next year (gestation for elephants is 22 months).

We took the elephants to the river - deep and fast-moving. Impossible to bathe them without sitting on top of them. The elephants enjoy the water - gives them a chance to drink and cool themselves, although as soon as they leave the water, they cover themselves in dirt to protect their skin from the sun & insects.

The trip to & from the river is incredibly slow. Thai elephants normally have a life-long mahout. In Thailand, they say it's almost like being married - the mahout is constantly by his side, and the elephant learns to obey all his commands. Phot has had his three elephants for less than 2 years, and has just recently hired a second mahout. As a result, the elephants aren't as obedient as they would normally be - the half kilometer into the jungle took almost an hour.

Turns out, Phot doesn't have much for me to do here. Once we were done with the elephants, everyone (there are about 10 of his family members visiting) spent the afternoon lying under a bamboo shelter.

Songkran

It's currently Songkran, the Thai New Year. Thais celebrate the festival by standing at the side of the road with hoses and barrels of water, drenching anyone who happens to pass them by, be it on foot or by vehicle. It's good fun if you're "playing songkran", but if you're trying to sightsee, it's a pain. It's not so much the water - for the most part, they're very respectful of cameras - it's the talcum powder & water paste that they smear all over your face.

I'm currently in Kanchanaburi, the city nearest the Bridge Over the River Kwai So far, I've made it to the Burma Railway Museum, and the PoW Cemetary, and that's it. I can't go 20 feet without getting attacked. I've discovered that holding my camera in my hand, instead of keeping it in my bag, actually stops people from soaking me, but it doesn't stop the talcum powder attack.... So I've decided to give up on the sightseeing & am hanging out on the streets, taking pictures of the fun.

Kanchanaburi's a fairly small town, but there's a constant flow of traffic. Those not standing on the side of the road are either on motobikes or standing in the back of pickup trucks (with buckets of water). The streets looks as though a massive storm has just passed by - everything's wet, and there are big puddles everywhere. As soon as I get a chance, I'll post some pictures....

It's safe to say...

I'm cursed. So Mother Nature successfully interrupted my travel plans on Thursday. Friday, I set off (yet again) for the airport. The plane left on time (hurray!) Arrived in Vancouver safe & sound. Had an hour & half stop there, before continuing on to Tokyo, then to Bangkok. Fifteen minutes before boarding, they announced that they were going to have to use another plane, because there were electrical issues with the current one.

They found a new plane, and we boarded about an hour & half later than we were supposed to. Unfortunately, due to a shift change and a shortage of staff, there were only 2 people to move all the cargo from the old plane to the new one. We sat on the plane & watched as they (slowly) moved everything. The captain estimated we'd be off in about 15 minutes. An hour & a half later (3 hours after the scheduled departure), we took off.

On a positive note, the plane was far from full, so I had an entire row (4 seats) to myself. Managed to sleep most of the way. Arrived in Tokyo at 7:30pm - 2 hours after my flight to Bangkok was supposed to depart. Unfortunately, there were no more flights that day, so about 20 of us were put up in a hotel for the night.

The bus picked us up the next morning at 6:30 (despite the fact that our flight wasn't until 11am). Plane took off right at 11am, and arrived in Bangkok late afternoon.... Maybe my luck is changing?

Just my luck

I should have known better than to think that it was finally spring in Calgary. Unfortunately, Mother Nature chose the worst day of the year to remind Calgarians that it's not over until she says it's over.

Arrived at the airport at 7am for my 9:00 flight. At 8:55, all flights for the next hour were cancelled. Called Air Canada, and was pleasantly surprised that someone was able to help me out right away. Re-booked the flight for 11am....

No amount of finger crossing was going to help. By 11, it was still snowing furiously. Unfortunately, that was my last chance at getting to Vancouver in time for a flight to Narita. Re-booked for tomorrow, and spent another $40 on a cab ride home.