Final Week in Thailand

Let me first outline the intended plan for the final week.  On Monday leave for Journey to Freedom (Elephant Nature Park's new program where you go into a hill tribe a stay with a week and see elephants in their natural habitat), arrive in the afternoon, spend the remainder of the week in the hill tribe visiting the elephants and helping with their care, leave on Sunday, change clothes at Spicy, leave for the airport.  I present this as a reference for what actually happened.

On Monday morning we left for Journey to Freedom (ok...so far so good!).  At this point, it had been raining for about 24 hours off and on.  We had great rainy season weather our first four weeks in Thailand but it looked like this week we were going to get slammed with some serious rain.  The van ride was supposed to take about 5 hours.  With the rain, it was taking a little longer.  Then we came up on our first obstacle; a mudslide that blocked the road. Road crews were already on the scene and attempting to clear away the mud.  This was great and all but how do we get around and on our way.  It was decided that we should get out of the vans, walk past the mudslide, and then the vans would go around it on the shoulder.  It worked and after a short time we were back in the vans and on our way.  By about 2:30 we made it to the end of our time in the vans.  This meant that it was time to switch to the pick-up trucks because the vans could not navigate the dirt roads we needed to take.  By this time it was only sprinkling which was promising and we split into two groups and climbed into the bed of the trucks.  I was encouraged by the beginning of the trip because the roads were decent and we seemed to be making ok time. I was starting to wonder why the vans could not take us on the roads and then I figured out why.  Soon we started onto roads that were once dirt but were now large, potholed, mud pits.  Every bump we hit you could feel and every hill struggled to get up.  Eventually we got to a hill that the truck and its 12 passengers could just not climb.  This meant ----- EVERYBODY OUT! Up the hill we walked.  This was fine until my foot went deep into a mud hole.  I extricated my foot but without my flip-flop.  NOOO!! I needed those so I dug down and retrieved it but accepted that I would be doing the rest of this climb barefoot.  Needless to say I was covered in mud by the time the truck made it up the hill after us.  All muddy, we climbed back into the van and continued our journey.  It took another couple hours to get to the village we were staying in.  Coming in the mountains were hazy and the scenery was breathtaking as the sun began to set.  At our site we unloaded our luggage and set up our beds in our houses.  Ours unfortunately did not have light but that was fine because I was exhausted.  After eating a little dinner, I quickly feel asleep under my mosquito net.

The next day it became clear that the rain was not going to let up and we started to discuss our options for the rest of the week. Because of the rain there was not a lot for us to do because hiking around in the mud was a little tricky.  We started the morning with a blessing ceremony from a local shaman.  This was similar to the blessing ceremony our first night at Elephant Nature Park.  Then it was time to go save trees by tying blessed monk robe fabric around them.  After lunch we decided that it was probably best if we depart early due to the rain.  Before we left, though, the villagers wanted us to see the elephants.  They spent the afternoon going and getting them in the forest.  While we were eating dinner, we heard that they had made their way back.  We could hear the familiar calls that we woke up to every morning at ENP.  So we decided to venture out in the rain to go see them.  Upon coming up the road we saw three adults and got our first glimpse of the twins.  Yes, that's right --- twin 1 year old girls!!!!!! I was with a few of the students walking up the path when we heard some yelling by the mahouts at the top of the path.  We backed up and simultaneously saw the source of the commotion.  The 6th elephant they brought down, a boisterous male juvenile, was barreling his way down the road towards the rest of the group.  After he calmed a little, we moved to the porch of one of the houses to watch the elephants from there.  It's hard to describe how cool it was not only to see them in their natural environment but to see twin babies as well.  With the mist and the trees, it was magical.  Many of the villagers also wanted to watch them and they joined us on the porch to watch the group.

We decided that we should leave Wednesday morning and that we would go back to Elephant Nature Park for the remainder of the week.  We left early in the morning in the pick-up trucks.  Luckily we were in a different truck this time that had cover and four wheel drive.  We were much better able to deal with the muddy roads but still felt every bump and dip in the road.  After a long trip on the back roads we loaded up in the vans again and began our long trek to ENP.  We had to deal with a few mudslides again that were blocking parts of the road but eventually by about 7 pm we made it to the park.  They had saved dinner for us and we enjoyed a nice meal before getting some much needed rest. 

The remainder of the week was very similar to our previous time at ENP; chores, elephant feeding, elephant bathing, other chores, hanging out, amazing food, and movie time at night.  Compared to the more rustic conditions in the jungle, ENP felt like a palace.  We did some leadership/wrap-up activities during this time and learned a lot about the kids while they learned a lot about themselves.  Sunday we left ENP and headed back to Spicy to clean up before our overnight van to Bangkok.  After that it was time to head home. 

Now that I've been home for about a week and a half and I'm back in my regular routine, the trip is starting to feel like a dream.  This was definitely an adventure from the elephants, to the trips, to the injury.  I met some really great high school students who I have no doubt will do great things in life and I miss their constant entertainment.

I can't wait for the next adventure --- what should I do next???

More photos!

The rice field that we helped plant.  What you can't see are the 10 fields that the locals planted during the same amount of time.  Oh well! We gave it our best effort!

Elephant feeding time!

After we made our Buddha Day offerings that we were going to take to the temple.

The friend I made at the school visit

The whole group (with Aek) on our last day at Elephant Nature Park

Me (and my lovely feet) after rice planting.  I don't know if I've ever been so dirty in my whole life!! Mud, mud, and more mud!
 

To see all the other uploaded photos from the trip, check out our Flickr!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/loopabroad2011/

Day of Tigers and Gardens

I realized that I forgot to tell you about our day of tiger adventures and garden visiting.  To put it in context it was 6 days after my injury and the day before I got my new teeth.  I'm not sure how this eventful day got forgotten in my last post.  Anyway, this particular weekend I was feeling a little down because I was still recovering and was missing home a little.  I was told however that this day would cheer me up.  We departed Spicy early-ish.  Ok, it was like 9 but that was early for our crew.  We departed for Tiger Kingdom which was about 45 minutes from the hostel.  Upon arriving we had to decide what tigers we wanted to go in with ---- wait...go in with?!?! The little ones looked harmless enough but I wasn't quite sure how I felt about the big ones or even the "medium" ones.  It was decided we would go in with the small and medium tigers.  The entire walk to the area where the small tigers were was soundtracked by the ooohing and aaahing of a few students who I figured would attempt to take the tigers out with them.  There were 4 small (2 year old) tigers that we got to go in with.  They were all siblings and behaved just as you would expect 2 year old siblings to behave.  They ran around us to explore and played with each other.  There were a lot of very cute moments.  I have to say the small ones seemed more like playful house cats.  I kept having to remind myself that they were tigers.  The staff in with us simply had to tap them on the nose and use voice commands to get them to move or stop playing so hard with each other.  After prying everyone out of the small tiger area it was time to go see the medium tigers.  In coming up on the area I quickly decided that "medium" is not an accurate word to describe the size of these tigers.  They appeared large to me.  After receiving a few warnings and reminders, in we went.  Now, for me and my previous zoo experience, going into a holding area with 2 "medium" tigers was absurd.  They are NO TOUCH animals but we were just going to go in with them.  Hmmmmmmm....ok!  We made are way to the side of the exhibit where the tigers were and most waited back a little.  One student (I wonder who!!) marched right up to cuddle with the tiger.  However, in maneuvering around the large animal she managed to step on the tail.  While Jane and my hearts started beating again, the students got comfortable with our new friends.  We got a lot of pictures with the tigers and started to actually feel fairly comfortable with them.  Below are some pictures with our friends.  I still had a lot of the stitches in my mouth and chipped front teeth (hence the weird smiles).

After leaving Tiger Kingdom we headed to the orchid and butterfly garden.  We roamed around and looked at all the beautiful orchids and went into the butterfly garden to watch them fly around.  After that it was off to the caves.  When we arrived, I decided not to hike around in the caves because I was still nursing my lip and teeth and didn't want to further injure myself in a dark, damp cave.  I went in though and explored the opening to the cave.  What I found very interesting were all the statues every little crevice and outcrop.  Everywhere you looked there was some small (or large) shrine or statue or sculpture.  After leaving the group and exiting the cave, I made my way around the grounds outside the cave.  There was a crystal clear pond of waterfall water surrounding the cave entrance that looked almost like a mote.  I was tempted to find the waterfall that fed but again was trying to be careful with my face.  Therefore, I continued to roam and explored the numerous temples on the Chiang Dao cave grounds.  There were so many and each one was intricate and unique.  As I was walking around one near the front, I looked up and there were about 10 dogs just lounging on the temple.  About that time, I also heard what sounded like a little thunder.  I decided that it was time to seek cover.  I found a covered hut with a small bench in it.  This was the perfect spot to watch the storm and read some of my book.  It rained, I read, and then eventually the group came out of the cave.  In speaking to them I definitely made the right choice.  At points during their exploration they had to crawl through small passages in the cave and climb up and down slippery rocks.  Eeeek!

Eventually we made our way back to the house, had some dinner, and spent the rest of the evening chilling.  I went to bed early to rest up for my trip to the hospital the next day.