With all the new happenings going on in my life right now I thought a blog might help everyone stay connected with what I am doing. I hope it helps!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Leaving Chiang Mai

We're just about to head to the train station to catch a bus to Sukkothai. We're making our own pilgrimage to the Buddha hand we've seen so many times and have fallen in love with so we can take a picture. The bus ride should take around 5 hours. We'll stay two nights checking out the ruins and then head back to Bangkok to catch an overnight bus to Krabi (the beach!). If we plan it right, we won't have to stay long in Bangkok.
The last two days in Chiang Mai have been AMAZING! We did two different excursions. The first one was called "Flight of the Gibbon" and it was a zip line tour of the rainforest. We spent the whole day zipping from one tree to the next sometimes as high as 225 ft in the air! It was incredible! We were on the trip with a couple from Ireland, a couple from Israel and one guy from England. None of us knew eachother before the trip but we all got along really well. We took pictures of eachother and exchanged email addresses. We even took a small trek up to a waterfall together after the zip lines. It was so much fun and the most beautiful scenery. I can't even describe how gorgeous and massive these trees were! Hopefully we can post some pictures later.
The second excursion we took was to the Elephant Nature Park up north. You might have seen something about it on the Discovery Channel or National Geographic. Basically one woman is trying to change the plight of the Asian Elephant. Those elephants are revered here in theory, they are seen mainly as a source of revenue. Elephants were mostly used in logging but when logging became illegal in 1985, the domestic elephants were out of a job and had no where to go. Many of them were just released into the wild without the skills necessary to survive. Others have been taken into the cities to enthrall tourists. There are no laws around domestic elephants, they are viewed no different than livestock. So many of them are overworked, beaten into submission and live very sad lives. Lek Chaillert has single-handedly tried to save these domesticated elephants. She now has a compound that houses over 30 elephants that she has rescued. Some of them stepped on landmines in Burma or were beaten blind my their mahout (owner). She has a staff of over 85 employees who take care of the elephants and she has started a program called Jumbo Express that takes medicine and vet care for elephants to secluded villages. She hopes that, through education, the elephant in Thailand can have a future. It costs her $250,000/year to run her compound and it is funded solely through volunteer work and donations. We paid to go for one day but you can stay there for weeks at a time as a volunteer if you wish. We were picked up in a van and taken to the local market to help pack up their truck with elephant food (bananas, pineapple, corn, etc.). Then we drove over an hour to the compound where the moment you enter, elephants are roaming free. We got to feed the elephants and help bathe them in the river. It was extraordinary! Something you could never experience in the States because of liability. They train and retrain all of the elephants using positive reinforcement. Brandon and Martha, you would have LOVED this place. I think you should study the Asian Elephant Brandon!!!! They are beautiful and so sweet. We even got kissed my a baby elephant...it feels like a little suction cup:) We'll post pictures soon.
Ok, I have to go so we don't miss our bus. I'll write more later!

Love you all!

1 comment:

Julie Clarke said...

I'm SO going to Thai Cafe today for lunch.