last few days in the Surin Elephant Project

Still in Surin, eastern Thailand, with the elephants (if you read the blog you will see that we have one parked under the house). We will be here for about 3 more days then on the bus 7 hours to Bangkok, then who knows how many hours to Ranong then another bus south for a few hours then a boat out to an island off the coast of Thailand and Burma called Ko Surin where there will be some relaxing time, doing some diving. It has been very challenging here and tiring: we wake up at around 5:30 am, breakfast then scooping elephant poop and mucking out their areas, then going to cut elephant grass or sugarcane with machetes, then lunch, a short rest and then on to a school to teach english or to the elephant poop paper factory or taking the elephants for a bath after a 2 mile walk to the river. It was 37 degrees centigrade in the bedroom at 2 pm today. Then it's bucket shower time and then on for dinner, where tonight we had a special treat of fried crickets and super spicey fried pork and some boiled morning glory greens.... all washed down with the local Chang (elephant) beer. I'm "nackered" as the Aussie and English volonteers that are here with me would say, so it's off to bed at 9 pm and up to do it again. Last night was very noisy with growling elephants (that sound just like lions) and fighting wild dogs so I'll sleep well tonite, even though the mattress is as hard as the floor and the geckos are barking

Hard Lessons

So, my thoughts about elephants has been totally turned upside down, except for the fact that they are awesome: they are WAY smarter than I thought, capable of training me in a few minutes to constantly feed them goodies and NO SLACKING. But the most important lesson was a very hard one to learn at first because I had to be witness to an unbelievable amount of cruelty, most specifically in a short movie that I saw on how baby elephants are "trained" to obey, for the rest of their lives, IF they survive the incredibly high mortality rate for babies and the very common result of insanity (in elephants! who ever suspected). The movie in question regarding most specifically elephants that supposedly "paint" wonderful pictures, sort of prodigies. But in essence they are cruelly beaten with metal hooks (the classic instrument of the mahout). My dream of becoming a mahout has dissappeared and now I realize that NO elephant should ever be made to work or perform, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. This is the same with any wild animal show, where the animals never do things because they want to but because they are forced, through cruel programming as babies. Anyway, moving right along, this knowledge was obtained by living closely with them (and I mean closely since there is one chained under the hut on pilings that I am staying in, and in the late afternoon now he is scratching his butt and shaking the whole building very alarmingly) and it has been an amazing and beautiful experience. I will be here a few more days and then move on to the coast perhaps. Anyway, hope you enjoy some photos and I will attempt to include a video... Love to you all.

so i have returned to Chiang Mai to collect my extra clothes and stuff from the Tai Lai Hotel and will return tomorrow to the Elephant Nature Park. This place has been a total eyd and mind opener for me, even after a few days. We are about 59 volunteers that for for the last days from early morning to early night we are split up into work groups which do eveything from preparing the food for the elephants (cutting grass and corn stalks with machetes, mucking out elephants areas, bathing the elephants in the river with buckets and mostly happely splashing each other, scooping out their mud hole every day so they have fresh, not bacterial laden mud (what's tha all about! but it's fun and mud fights ensue). I am probably the oldest person partaking in this elephants melee and I'm thouroughly enjoying it. Our rooms are mostly wooden huts and have cold bucket showers, up on stilts since the elephants roam at will around the park (around 33 of them) as do an incredible amount of dogs which bark and howl at night and keep us all company in the day, jumping up on the tables and licking the leftovers. It's quite.... basic and wild and fun. We awake at 7 am, breakfsst until 7:39 and then it's off to do chores, divided into groups of ten or so.
this park is very different because there are no elephant rides or whatever and the only raison-d'etre of the park is to be a refugs and rescue for abused, old, sickly, traumatized elephants *you can see by some of the photos how crippled and old some of them are from abuse and malnurimente, to let them spend out their days in freedom and joy in an open and loving environment. This is the brainchild of a Thai woman named Lek (small in thai and she is SMALL but a barrel of energy and works among us and all of the thai workers constantly. I would like to start some kind of network for her on Netbook and will work on this when I return to civilsation. I am going to a more remote area, Surin, in southern eastern Thailand to work at a more hard core park which is less organized but you really get down and dirty with the elephants, over a hundred of them for a week of sleeping in huts on the ground and getting up at 6 and working all day to make shelters for them. A huge project, but more about that later. Hopefully I will have learned some real mahout skills, of positive feed back teaching, not the unbelievable cruel ways they have of training the young elephants which I will go into some other time, perhpas sending you a link of some filming. look for it. Then I will go to southern Thailand to some very remote islands and will keep you posted if possible.
much love to you al
giula

and then the flower market: absolutely amazing what they are able to do with the flowers: from orchids to frangipani from bamboo to jasmine.... most of the plants I''ve never ever seen

so many images... let's break it up

starting with the ghosts: these little temples? They are placed on EVERY property, garage or palace: because you must provide a little "temple" where the ghosts that belong to the land or property can stay and so they aren't unhappy and jinx your business. This is Chinese New Year so there are special offerings for all of the little ghosts.

Footnote to Zoo and Acquarium Pics

I have a few moments to add some commentary to the zoo and acquarium photos. First of all the guy is Lothar, a very nice German fellow that was here at the same hotel (Lai-Thai Guest House) in Chiang Mai, after having visited a few islands off of the coast of Thailand, where now I would like to go when I return from my Elephant camp (Elephant Nature Park) for 2 weeks where they do rescue and rehab work with the elephants. I will be helping take care of them and maybe learning some "mahout" (elephant driver) skills. So Lothar and I kept each other company for a few days and explored the city a little bit and today he left for Germany (boohoo). It's nice to have someone to explore with and makes me miss having a companion... sometimes! Only problem with Lothar is he doesn't eat fish so in Thai cooking that can put a little crimp on your culinary explorations! But we visted a bunch of roadside foodstands, Anthony Bourdain style! Today and tomorrow are the mega celebrations of the Chinese New Year so most places are closed, but it's beautiful walking along the Ping River and just strolling under the trees. I'm feeling a little blue today, Lothar left, I left Piero and Clarissa behind and I miss them and who knows when I'll see them again and Eugenio seems so far away, I miss Daddy and Merryl and my family and friends. I was thinking about returning to Baja and what I'm going to do there and just doing some serious soul-searching.

Some more pics of the zoo and Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai and a day at the Zoo

Ok, that settles it, I'm moving here....

I just had my 3 hour body massage and facial, super luxurious at the
Spa, for my birthday, all for $30 (not to mention the ginger tea to begin with, the fresh tamarind juice to end with and all the nice little things in between. Eugenio said a few months ago "Dai Mamma, vai in Tailandia, cosi' prendi una casa li' e ti veniamo a trovare!" translated: "go on mom! Go to Thailand, that way you'll get a house there and we can come and visit you".. He was either trying to get rid of me or really thought that I could do this. anyway, he's not too far out there: it's really wonderful here and I realize perfect weather season but in any I can imagine it heaven. Promise the pics later... gotta dig into my $2.00 Pad Thai...

New Place, New Format!

Ah, finally I made it to Chiang Mai, after over 30 hours awake, about 20 of which were taken up in travelling from Kathmandu to New Delhi to Bangkok to Chiang Mai. But it was worth it and even if I am in this so-so place in the city at least it has a little, clean pool and I've already chatted up some people. The most exciting thing, and funny now that I've survived it, was that I thought I was so good at driving a motorscooter, after all of those years in Italy, that I rented one of their motorbikes. This turned out to ba a MUCH LARGER VERSION, with the gears managed by your left foot (1, 2 , 3, 4, N) and the brake with your right and so on and it was a miracle I made it back to the Hotel! I had a helmet and all of the Thai drivers were very patient and never honked once at me, but they drive on the wrong side of the road and I was too afraid to cross the busy streets so I kept driving in circles to my left, my left, my left... despairing of ever finding the hotel again and being far too concentrated on my driving to see a damn thing: marvelous temples whizzed by, monastaries came and went, canals and fountains passed unheeded. I almost gave up and was going to ask a rickshaw driver to guide me back but I stuck with it and eventually, a miraculously, ended up back at the Lai-Thai Guest House, on a very busy thouroughfare and handed the motorscooter guy the keys and the helmet! he grinned but I think he was rather surprised that I did as well as I did and brought it back in one piece! but I will try again in the next few days perhaps when I want to go outside of Chiang Mai to explore in the hills. It's hot here but not terribly so and after Nepal it feels wonderful. I've ordered some Thai whiskey, to mix with lemon soda, and it's horrible, and some fried prawns, Thai style. When I asked him if it was like Goong Saroong he looked at me as if i was speaking Greek so I desisted and reverted to "fried prawns please". I think this is men's paradise: it is full of "western" men wandering around that probably haven't been very successful in finding a mate in the States... but there are also many couples, obviously retired, wandering around, as well as young people. I can't wait to explore tomorrow and get some photos...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DqpAni2M5o

tell me if you can't see this: it's too funny. Tomorrow's my birthday and I can be silly.

Ok, last day in Kathmandu (here's the dawn sun) and then my new roomates Francoise and Sonam, delightful young people and he made me some yak stew (his mother had just brought the dried yak for him from Tibet) for breakfast before my departure. It was delicious and a good time was had by all. They accompanied me to the taxi "stand" near Boudnath and saw me off, sort of surrogate children since P and C are still at the Vipassana meditation retreat. Tomorrow is my birthday... I'm very lucky since I was able to scope out the "First Class Lounge" in the transit area in New Delhi where I now have a 7 hour layover. Thank God, and Daddy, for the American Express card that got me in here anyway (unlimited food, drinks and Internet!) Yahoo. I'm looking forward to Thailand. Anyway, here are some photos, among which a couple of the lounge area and what the "big shots" read...

some photos to match yesterday's blog

Nepal… what to say about “poor” Nepal? I could never live here, I know that much. This country infuriates me, stuns me with its beauty, enrages me with its poverty, entrances me with its food, embitters me with its greed, thrills me with its industriousness, annoys me with its laziness, delights me with its generosity, saddens me with its cruelty. I can see how many people do come here and decide to stay forever, totally unexpectedly. I can also see how some decide never to return. I have had a tattoo made for every country I’ve been to: Singapore, Malaysia, India, and will be doing one in Thailand (been saving the elephant for that one!). But I still have not wrapped my mind around one for Nepal. And I only have 3 ½ days left. Yay…. Boohoo. Because there is not “One Nepal”, but any means. Just here in Kathmandu the influx in the last few days of Tibetans, given the upcoming Tibetan New Year festivities (on February 12th I believe), has been incredible and the streets are so crowded with them, especially around the Boudha Stupa, that I feel as if I must be in Llasa rather than Kat. Their dress is spectacular, both men and women, young and old and I have a strong desire to “dress up like them”! They wear beautiful fabrics, woven on looms, very colorful front panels, belts, against backgrounds of woven wool dresses and skirts, red boiled wool hand-sewn boots with bells and tassels, silk brocade jackets lined in yak fur, colorful yarns woven into their long jet black hair, high cheekbones, wide spaced beautiful eyes and nut brown skin. And the “local” Nepali people are feeling resentful, and crowded out, although happy for the added commerce, since Tibetans are comparatively wealthy. The Chino-Tibetan restaurants are doing a booming business. These Tibetans are NOT vegetarians, I can say that much, and eat tons of pork and buffalo… they are also great business people apparently and many of the stores are owned by them. I’m going to look at a Tibetan rug that’s being made in a dark, dank “factory” around the corner that I’ve spied during my walks with “Biscuit” the dog from the house where I’m staying.
Anyway, perhaps the tattoo will be the sign signifying “Om” requiring contemplation of one’s inner spirit, instead of looking at the outside for it… perhaps that is the lesson of Nepal…. for me.
I'm ready for Thailand and the elephants and Thai cooking school...