After getting a room at the Thapae Guesthouse we had a much deserved rock hard night of sleep. We woke up tired from the sickness but also refreshed and ready to go.
At 9am Brad from the Elephant Nature park picked us up at our hotel (along with several others) and off we went to see the elephants.
This is the most amazing place in Thailand. No controversy here. No, this is a very magical place where an amazing Thai woman called Lek rescues abused elephants and lets then live out their lives in peace in this safe haven she and her staff has created. There are also about 30 dogs and 20 cats too. All friendly and happy to see you. I was in heaven, with a dog or cat to pet every second. This is the best elephant place to go, maybe the only. These are tremendously well cared for and loved animals.
You can read more about Lek and the elephants at www.elephantnaturepark.org, http://www.elephantnaturefoundation.org/
We arrived in time for lunch- the elephants lunch. This is where I experienced my very first elephant kiss. Yum!
We fed the elephants loads of bananas, sugarcane, and pumpkins. The put their trunk out to you and you wrap the food in their trunk. They smile the whole time! This is Max, one of the older elephants. We were told he is quite the ladies man because he is so gentle and sweet to the female elephants!
Then it was time for our lunch...this consisted of a huge spread catered by a local vegetarian restaurant that I think used "happy" food. Then we watched several heart breaking films about abused and misused elephants that brought tears to the eyes of everyone in the room. As humans, even really sensitive humans, we forget that animals are just as sensitive as we are if not more. The elephants being used in the cities for novelty acts like painting and rides are completely devastated and mistreated. They pick up strong vibrations form the noisy streets which makes them scared and shaky, nervous and tired,..
To train the elephant's to bend to their will, many traditional Mahouts will take the baby elephant from its mother when it is time and place it in a small pen and poke it and beat it until it's spirit is completely broken. This is how elephants "learn to paint" as well as do other tricks.
Please take 3 minutes to watch this. It will change the way you think about elepahnts in Asia.
http://current.com/items/88882706/elephant_training_torture_in_thailand.htm
If you ever go to Asia, make sure you do your research and only visit places with a good reputation. Lek is trying to change the way elephants are treated all over the country and to change the way traditional mahouts care for their elephants. The elephants end up being a huge source of income for families and so it is very hard to show then that there is another way...that people will really pay to see the elephants and be with them in their natural habitat.
After the video it was bath time.
We plunged into the chilly river to play in the water with the elephants, who clearly loved it!
After bath time we were shown to our room, a cute little cottage down a small dirt lane. We freshened up and rushed back for the elephants second feeding.
We had fabulous massages after another delicious dinner and then sleepy time.
The next morning we were woken up by the sounds of sweet elephants trumpeting. It doesn't get better than that!
We had a nice breakfast and then we got ready for what will always be the most amazing couple hours of my life.
The most rewarding part of the time spent at Elephant Nature Park was the morning walk we were taken on. I barely have words to describe it. We were able to watch the elephants interact in their family groups. The whole elephants social network at the park was explained to us by our spirited guide, Judy. Elephants social networks so closely resemble our own. Truly amazing.
The lady with the small elephant who has a bell is Judy and the Elephant is Hope.
To get an idea of how the elephants come to be at Elephant Nature Park here is Hope's story taken from the site: "Hope
"Yod Doi or
"Top of the Mountain"
Rescued: 26 Mar 02
Rescued from: Orphaned
Our Jumbo Express team was called out to a trekking camp to treat a female elephant who had just miscarried. We left immediately! The drive to Huy Pak Kood village was over 11 hours away. Arriving after midnight our team saw a baby elephant which appeared to be under one year old.
He was very skinny and looked so depressed, startled and his eyes were full of fright.
He kept hitting his head against the side of a narrow cage. His skin was riddled with parasites and he was in a very sorry state. We offered milk but he would not accept it nor any other comforts from our team.
The next morning the owner of this bedraggled orphaned baby elephant came to talk and asked us to take care of this baby as he still needed to drink purchased milk which he told us his family cannot afford. The cost of looking after the baby was beyond them. He had liver-worm and parasites infested his blood. These were the conditions that had killed his mother. He was not given much chance of survival.
We moved him to a new home and gave him the name "Hope". From the first moment of his arrival he tried to be friendly with Ging Mai, an orphaned baby elephant, already under our care, but Ging Mai did not want to know him and turned away each time Hope approached.
Lek tried hard to make Hope accept milk from her, but he knocked against her, pushing attempting to hurt her many times. He chased the visiting elephant volunteers around the pen trying to knock them down and tried to kick out or vigorously swing his trunk at anyone who came close to him. He was nervous the first three nights and could not sleep at all. He kept everyone else awake trumpeting over and over throughout the night. The fourth night he fell into a sleep and Lek used this opportunity to get close, patting and comforting him. When he would wake up she ran from his pen. She did this every night until finally Hope accepted her. He awoke and slowly opened his eyes then silently tiptoed over to see Lek. She sat beside him and he sat wearily down. He kept laying down letting her pat him and was soon fast asleep again. Lek knew that he had accepted her and released him out of the pen early next morning to walk with him and the volunteers. Hope walked over to join Ging Mai in the surrounding jungle. He showed lots of things to little Ging Mai and shared his experiences while he was with his mother. Ging Mai copied his foot steps and newly learned antics. They enjoy mud bathing and swimming together and Hope brought real elephant experiences to teach his younger sheltered friend.
The volunteers were made to work hard all the time, preparing milk, trekking with them and, at night, putting the exhausted playmates to bed. They now had 24 hour care as the volunteers took shifts during the night to answer calls for milk. Hope always showed to every one how different he was from Ging Mai. He is so confident and naughty and this contrasts greatly to Ging Mai’s gentleness and shy demeanour. Hope is continually playful and likes to smash everything in front of him. Both orphans loved their time together and never left each others side day or night.
After Hope had been with us for eight months, his owner came to take him back. He was to be trained for work. Lek told him that the youngster still needs milk and cannot let him go back. The more Hope stayed with her the more she loved him and she really couldn’t let him go back to cruel training and arduous work. With the help and kind support from Jody Thomas (USA) and Leonor Gonzo (Australia) Hope won his freedom to stay with us. These kind volunteers became Hope’s foster parents after helping to buy his freedom.
After the untimely death of Ging Mai, Hope stopped drinking and taking food. He was totally devastated and kept calling out for his young friend. He used his trunk to smell and looked all over the area for his little brother. Finally we had to move him to another place. It was just too sad to see this devastated boy stay in this land surrounded by painful memories and sadness.
For the safety of the two remaining babies Lek decided to move Hope and Jabu to another house in a remote location. They became firm friends and played relentlessly. A few months later he was moved again and found a permanent home."
This is just one of the many heart-warming and life affirming stories on the site.
The rest of the day was spent hanging around the center and happily repeating what we had done the day before.
Michael was also able to help a vet clean out an abscess that Max has from a long standing injury.
We were very sad to go at the end of our time at the end of our trip!
PS Thank you so much to Michael's mom Alice, who made the trip possible. I hope you are able to get there one day too!
Here is a quick video of a sweet little baby elephant playing.
The Next day we took a cooking course which was just alright. It's called the Chiang Mai Thai Farm Cooking School. It's the cheapest I saw..at 900Baht..they come and pick you up and take you to a market and then to the farm. The market we went to was amazing. Huge and colorful. Buzzing with conversations, purchases, people. We go to have some fresh coconut milk from the coconut milk guy, right out of his coconut press. Cool.
Here is a picture of our teacher and a bit of the market behind her.
We had a good time and the farm was nice, but more like someones backyard garden than a farm per say.
We all had a neat little station to work at with our own burner and tools. Everything was pre-cut and handed to us, which I thought was weird. There was not much measuring or explanation of the items being used. The smells of course were amazing!!
It was bit crazy for me and my stomach though. First I made yellow curry. We mixed all the herbs and spices in a mortar and pestle until they were pasty. It was cool to make curry from scratch. Then I made Thai vegetable soup and then tofu with basil. Whoa! We sat down to consume all of this and really, no one could. So we packaged it up in little baggies for later.
After an hour break to digest as fast as we could. We headed back to our stations to make pad thai ( which we bagged and ate on our hotel bed later that night) and pineapple sticky rice (which we ate on the spot, even with the threat of possible belly explosion).
That night we went to a night market and walked through many sidewalk stands full of either cheap clothes, name brand knock offs, or beautiful Thai jewelery and art. Every moment of it was crazy and we only lasted a little while.
We also spent a little time at a cool farm called Pun Pun. Here is what their website says about it "Pun Pun is an organic farm, seed-saving operation, and sustainable living and learning center. We feel that only by living in a sustainable way ourselves, is it possible for us to create a model from which others can learn and live. Through natural cultivation on our organic farm we display ways of transitioning to, and living more sustainably. Through the living and learning center we experiment with appropriate technologies, organic farming, and natural building techniques. We discover the practices that work well for people and are practical. We then spread this knowledge to those individuals and networks that will put it to use. Through our seed-saving operation we seek to bring back indigenous and rare species of all kinds of vegetables, fruits, and medicinal herbs. We propagate them at the farm and then exchange them for greater use amongst farmers and other interested people, thus empowering and improving the health of the general public." Pretty cool stuff!
There was not much going on here but we did get to help scrape bricks for adobe dwellings and learn more about seed saving. It was really beautiful and everyone was really nice. I wish I had been there when a class was going on or more people were there to talk more about the building and gardens.
Here is where we stayed. We heard all kinds of strange alien-like noises from the frogs and birds that inhabited the pond below our hut.
There were several foreigners there working on the farm, one from CO! They share meals and the work load and help run workshops. Good Folks!
Beautiful sunsets!
Then it was back to Bangkok where we went to a cool Forest Wat. Very cozy, nestled in the woods. And stocked up on fruit for our journey back to Bangkok at a local market.
Thailand was the perfect trip. I miss the fruit already!
And then overnight train to Bangkok and plane to Korea....
I am officially blogged out. Time for a nap.
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