For the Love of Elephants

We spent a wonderful 3 days in Lampang, Northern Thailand, at the Thailand Elephant Conservation Centre where now redundant elephants get to live out their lives because the logging trade has been made illegal. There is not enough forest left for all of the elephants in Thailand to live freely. Their only future lies in tourism, fortunately or unfortunately, whatever way you look at it. They are well cared for at the TECC and get to earn their keep.

Let me introduce you to 'Som Choi': 10 years old, large and grey, quite hairy, weighing in somewhere around the 2 tonnes mark. Som Choi was my elephant for the duration of our mahout training course and lovingly called 'naughty Som Choi'. I quickly found out he does his best to live up to his name! He's a typical young boy: restless, inquisitive and always looking for the next mouthful of something tasty. He's also gentle, obedient (most of the time) and very patient with stupid tourists like me making a hash of his commands and trampling all over him in an effort to get up and down.

From Thailand

From Thailand

So Mahout training school involved each tourist being assigned to an elephant of varying ages, sizes and temperaments, along with the elephant's regular mahout (also of varying ages and temperaments, but all basically the same size - small!). The first thing to learn are the basic commands to get up onto the elephant and back down again; make the elephant sit down, lie down, pick things up etc. After a short while of practising these commands and getting up and down several times I established that although Som Choi may be small in terms of elephants, I still couldn't manage to hoist mayself up onto his neck. This inevitably resulted in me half way up with one leg sort of over his back, completely unable to get any further. A strong push on the backside from my mahout was always required! We then proceeded down to the lake for the first of what would be many elephant baths over the next few days.

This bath marked the start of the elephant show for the tourists visiting the centre for the day. They got to watch as we waded into the water and sloshed water over the elephants to clean them. My mahout didn't speak much english but thought it was hilarious to get me as wet as possible during these baths, usually by instructing Som Choi to lie down in the water so that he was completely submerged and I was dunked to my waist.

Now this wasn't a nice clean lake that was inviting for swimming. It was opaque brown and full of floating elephant dung; it was probably 50% made up of elephant pee and it was also full of the debris washed from the elephants 2-3 times a day. The bathing was great fun though and we just tried not to think about the state of the water! Most of this bath time was spent by the elephants filling their trunks with water and then squirting it high into the air and over us - so the bits that didn't get wet from being dunked got wet from showers! My Mahout would then spend the walk back to the show ground giggling about my dripping condition and saying things like "You wet ha ha ha":-).

Now started the tourist show "proper". Each elephant was introduced by name, and they would bow to the audience, we would then walk around the show ground each holding the tail in front whilst the audience were given various elephant facts. The new mahouts (us) then had to demonstrate to the audience the commands we had learnt - get up on the elephant, get back down, get the elephant to sit down, lie down on their belly, lie down on their side, pick up the stick etc, etc. Som Choi knew all the moves off by heart and upside down but he wouldn't do them until the command had been repeated several times. All that was except for the 'lie on your belly' command, and it always took me by surprise. Having clambered back onto his neck, rather ungracefully in front of the watching audience (clutching my sodden trousers, which are so heavy when wet, and hoping they wouldn't end up around my ankles at that precise moment), I got Som Choi to sit down and pick up the stick I had dropped on the ground; then Som Choi would lie down straight away without a command being given. This sudden movement left me, for the tiniest fraction of a second, still sitting at the height we were at but now minus an elephant underneath me. Gravity would then take over and I'd drop back down to his neck now a meter of so lower than the previous second, leaving my stomach behind. This was of great amusement to my mahout as I let out a little yelp of surprise each time Som Choi disappeared, momentarily, underneath me!

This was the end of mine and most of the other new mahouts role's in the show and the real mahouts would take over. There would be a demo of pushing and pulling logs as the elephants would have done in the logging trade. The largest elephant, Jo Jo, would then walk a log like a balance beam, stand with just 2 legs on the log, turn 360 degrees, then come back off. Their awareness of their feet, weight distribution and body position is amazing for animals so big. This show sounds a bit circus-esque but I assure you it was all done in the best possible taste and the elephants are treated very well.

From Thailand

From Thailand

Mike then got his star turn in the show riding his elephant, 'Patchya', whilst she pulled logs using chains. Mike's elephant was bigger than mine and an old timer at 29. She was very stubborn but very well behaved. Mike got to bathe Patchya by himself as his mahout didn't like getting wet and he was told several times that "Michael good mahout"!! I'll let Mike tell you more about his elephant experiences later.

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The end of the show saw the elephants showing off their artistic talents. 3 elephants would have an easel set up in front of them and with the help of their mahouts, who put the paint on the brushes for them, they would paint pictures. Some were very abstract swipes of the brush and some with more practise drew flowers and even elephants. I have to confess that this was more down to the mahout's skill at guiding the trunk than real elephant artistic talent but they were still very good! After the painting 5 of the elephants, including Som Choi, would play the Thai national anthem on a musical instrument that was like a set of wind chimes. The elephants were so enthusiastic at playing the chimes that they stood practising in anticipation - so cute! The show ended with a bow and then the audience could feed them sugar cane and bananas. At 2pm each day we would take the elephants to the forest, where they would stay for the night and gorge themselves to their hearts content.

From Thailand

We did 2 shows a day, and 3 baths a day, and all in all it was really exhausting (and really wet), but a truly, truly wonderful experience. We all had aching limbs from sitting on the elephants neck's, which was surprisingly comfortable but you had to hold your knees up and put them behind the ears (a bit like a jockey position but there's no stirrups so you have to hold them there using muscle power alone). By the 3rd day it was preferable to be on the elephant rather than off because walking became very painful!

There is a nursery at the centre with 2 babies there currently - Seven (born 07/07/07 hence the name) and Piannoud (no idea how to spell it) who is 4 months and cute beyond belief!

From Thailand

From Thailand

I can't wait to go back again!

Northwards...

So we had to venture out of our little haven of Kanchanburi after 5 days and we took a bus to Ayathaya (the old capital of Thailand) where the new city is built around the ruins of the ancient cuty, quite literally. Totally unimpressed with Ayathaya as a new city, (it is crowded, dirty, smelly and a mosquito breeding ground of small streams in every street), the way the old and the new are sitting side by side is interesting though. There's a few wooden shacks, a few shops built of cement, and then a clearing and a tumble down ruin of a temple or a palace from a time long before. By night these ruins are lit and are pretty impressive.

From Thailand

From Thailand

Whilst in Ayathaya we climbed to the top of a temple to watch the sun set. It was a lovely view across the rice fields to a gorgeous orange/red orb gradually sinking to the horizon, when suddenly it wasn't an orb any longer. First the bottom disappeared in a perfct straight line, then it became a semi circle, then there was nothing at all, and the horizon was nowhere near. Smog - it's not only in Bangkok we have discovered, in fact it seems to cover the majority of the country, making the sky seem permanently cloaked in grey cloud. It was a very strange sight to watch the sun set above the horizon!

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The temples of Thailand (Wat's)

Just a quick note on the Wat's we've seen so far. They are huge, sprawling, elegant edifices that are decorated to the highest possible degree in gold leaf, large murals and colourful glazed ceramic tiles. We've seen sitting Buddha's, standing Buddha's, reclining Buddha's and every stance in between. Some are covered in gold, some are carved from wood and some are carved from stone. Some are in perfect condition and others are battered by time, but all are impressive.

I do however feel Buddha fatigue coming on :-)

From Thailand

From Thailand

From Thailand

Beware the fierce monkeys

It is interesting to be part of a world again where computers do not exist. Everything is handwritten in carbon copy triplicate and business is conducted by phone (albeit mobile phone). Nothing is fast. Patience is the key and whilst not quite running on "African" time, schedules and agreed times for meeting are somewhat flexible.

Three hours drive outside of Bangkok we arrived at Kanchanaburi, home to the bridge over the river Kwai and the Death Railway. Picturesque, on the banks of the river, with a bit of night life - perfect! The museum about the treatment by the Japanese Prisoners of War in WW2, and the cemetary, were extremely moving and it was very interesting to hear about the war in Asia/Pacific as we were not taught any of that in school. In fact I don't remember the Japanese being mentioned at all.

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Our first tour whilst here saw us walking to the top of a seven-tiered waterfall and swimming in the picture perfect turquoise pools beneath the falling water. What a beautiful introduction to Thailand's countryside.

From Thailand

We were highly amused by the sign that greeted us at the start of the walk that warned of fierce monkeys that would steal our belongings. We saw one such monkey but he didn't look particularly fierce, more cute and cuddly - but it's always the quiet ones!

From Thailand

From Thailand

At the end of the day we rode a train on the railway tracks laid down by the POW's. I would have liked to have some time to reflect on the circumstances that bought the tracks into being but any poignancy was totally lost in the tourism of it all unfortunately. Hundreds of tour groups all jabbering away and falling over eachother to get one more photo out of the window of the train. Hey ho.

We are now trained in the art of Thai cooking and pretty darn good at it, if we do say so ourselves! We were taken around the local market and ingredients were explained, tasted and smelt before heading back to the kitchen to start cooking our 4 chosen dishes. We cooked a Thai salad, Pad Thai and two different curries. Mike cooked the salad which was pronounced "Great" by our teacher, Noi, and I cooked the Pad Thai which also got the seal of approval (actually the Noi said the Pad Thai was "Perfect" - Mike). We then broke for the first part of our lunch and enjoyed the food we had just cooked. It was then back to it with Mike cooking the red curry. This had to be done really quickly and as a result was quite stressful but it tasted good - only half as spicy as the demo one that Noi did which was blow your brains out spicy! The last dish was a bit if a strange one with loads of ingredients and not much sauce, and was really fast too. I let my pan burn and got told off! I don't think we'll be making that one again, but we can't wait to try out our skills when we get home.

10 million people and an awful lot of fumes

As we left Sydney I told Mike that I was bored of Western culture and I wanted my senses to be assualted. I certainly got my wish - Bangkok has just about battered my senses into non-existence! It's hot (really hot) and the fumes are so thick and cloying it's like the city is permanently shrouded in fog. It hurts your lungs and stings your eyes and even the smallest flight of stairs leaves us gasping for breath.



After a night of luxury at an airport hotel (lots of granite and bowing waiters) we took a taxi into the city amd it pretty much met expectations - thousands of cars, not much in the way of road rules, deafening noise and sky scrapers lost in the fog/smog. Our first attempt to see some of the smaller sights started badly as we wandered hopelessly trying to follow tourist maps that were not to scale and do not depict sights geographically where they actually are. Our wanderings eventually attracted the attention of a very "helpful" guy who told us that today was a Buddhist holiday and the Governement was giving Tuk Tuk drivers free fuel for the day in celebration. This meant, he said, we could get a Tuk Tuk to take us round any sights we wanted to see, all afternoon, for the bargain price of 20 Baht (50p) - great we said, lets go!



Our Tuk Tuk driver was a very nice man who first took us to a tourist office so that we could book the bus tickets we needed, then he took us to the Sitting Buddha (a very under whelming collection of Buddha's all in the sitting position). This tikki-tour of Bangkok then turned into one sales pitch after another as we were ferried first to a tailor's then to another tourist office, then a jeweller's and finally to another tailor's. This was all explained as necessary so that he could get his free fuel (he even showed us his free fuel coupon) because apparently the Government wished to boost tourist spending in this current economic climate. We were under no obligation to buy, he just had to take us there. He was very nice, and very convincing, so we felt sorry for him and went along. Oh what naive fresh arrivals we were! We later discovered that this is a well known tourist scam to get commissions on tourist's purchases and there's no such thing as a Government promotion for free fuel; there probably wasn't even a Buddhist holiday. Oh well, despite it being a bit harrowing having to listen to all these sales pitches, then say no, we didn't part with any money, so no harm done!



The rest of our time in Bangkok was spent wishing we'd already left, to be honest. We saw the main sights - The Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Wat Arun - and went on a Long Tail Boat ride on the river and canals. We also visited a night market but it was mainly fake designer goods and guys trying to get you to go into 'Go Go' bars where girls do unimaginable things with parts of their bodies you don't even want to think about. Not really the cultural experience I was looking for! Overall the heat was stifling, the dirt pervaded everything and I don't think I'd go back. Bring on the rest of Thailand, quickly :-)

Road Trip USA. We're off to Hollywood

The uber long drive to LA, through the desert, stretched before us as we listened again to the scary warnings of death by the roadside if you were reckless enough to travel unprepared for breakdowns. Cheery! We broke the journey and stayed overnight in a town called Needles that certainly fitted the saying "We're not in the middle of nowhere, but you can see it from here!" I suppose it must have been an oasis in the desert at some point, but all we could see was dusty, sweltering concrete and no fathomable reason why anyone would want to live there, let alone how they support themselves. It was boiling - 105 degrees - so we hid out in our room with the AC going and enjoyed some TV!

We had booked a hostel in Hollywood (our last Dormitory stay of the trip YEAH!) and we managed to negotiate the labyrinthine freeways leading into LA with only a few wrongs turns. Hollywood, as it turns out is not very glamorous, more seedy and fraying round the edges but the hostel was nice and very sociable. We dropped the car off at the rental agency and discovered we had done 4000 miles in 3 weeks - not bad going! We walked the hall of fame on the way back t the hostel, shouting excitedly when we saw a name we recognised. There are an awful lot of people who have a star on the sidewalk that I have never heard of!

From USA

We went on a limo tour of LA that night, although we weren't really dressed for it. Everyone else had shirts, trousers, make up etc and there was us in our combats and the same old T-shirts! It was a real party tour with free beer and champagne, and the tour guide's sole mission seemed to be to get everyone as drunk as possible. As a result we didn't get to see that much of LA, and as our main aim was not to fall over drunk, it was a little under whelming!

From USA

The following day we went on a walking tour to the Hollywood sign which was really hard work! It was worth it though, as we walked through the Hollywood Hills and saw the houses of the rich & famous (well mainly just the rich), the sports cars in the driveways and the pools out the back. We stopped at points along the way so our guide could take photos of us and the sign:

From USA

From USA

Lunch was next to the Hollywood sign itself whilst we gazed across LA to the ocean.

We spent our last day in LA, and indeed our last day in the States, at the Warner Bros. studio tour. Now this was great! We were driven around the studios in a giant golf cart and we saw, and walked on, streets built for the outdoor scenes of programs/movies, and were told how each program dresses the streets to make them look like different cities; we saw the ambulance bay from ER and the fire escape that Spiderman hangs upside down from, whilst being kissed in the rain by Kisten Dunst. We also saw a jungle/lagoon area that has been used for everything from scenes from the Vietnam war, to Japanese mountain tops, to grisly body discoveries in Cold Case.

From USA

From USA

We then got to go into one of the sound stages and saw the set of Two and a Half Men (no actors unfortunately), and a museum of cars from the movies: the batman cars, the Scooby Doo van, the flying car from Harry Potter, the Dukes 0f Hazard car and motorbikes from the Matrix. A movie buffs dream! Next up was a museum housing scripts, guns, costumes and memorabilia from movies across the ages; AND Heath Ledgers last costume worn in The Dark Knight! After this was a Harry Potter museum with the sorting hat, snitches, the marauders map etc and then the prop warehouse - a pretty unexciting collection of tables, chairs, mirrors and the like, until we saw the retired set of Central Perk, from Friends. It was great!

From USA

And then it was time to leave. We took a taxi to the airport and it was a really strange feeling to be ending that part of our trip. We'd been on the road for 4 months and yet it seemed like yesterday we waved mum off at the train station in Southend. We were ready to stop for a while though, to have a base, and a wardrobe instead of a bag felt like luxury. A bit of 'normality' was required to balance all of our adventures, but that feeling wore off very quickly!

Road Trip USA. A great big hole in the ground

The Grand Canyon, Arizona

As with all distances in the States the drive from Vegas to the Grand Canyon was a lot further than we thought. We went over the Hoover Dam, saw some wild mountain goats and lots and lots of flat desert. We eventually arrived at about tea time and pitched our tent for the last time on our trip. We then found the bus to take us to the canyon, but as we arrived an almighty great storm broke and rather than get soaked we got back on the bus and decided that the Grand Canyon would still be there in the morning!

It is yet another place that words just cannot do justice too - breath taking, vast, spectacular, dramatic... here are the photos to prove it.

From USA

From USA

From USA

From USA

Road Trip USA. The bright lights of Vegas.

California to Nevada

The 8 hour drive to Vegas, from Yosemite, took us through the Navaho Desert which was an amazing sight to see. Flat, stoney and massive; the sun kept getting hotter and hotter and the warnings on the radio about how breaking down in the desert with no water supplies leads to death, more frequent. We began to think we were never going to get there.

Lunch was KFC - yes they really do get everywhere - in a place that doesn't usually see 'outsiders' judging from the stares we got, and the petrol was twice the cost, but I suppose where else are you going to go!

Eventually we saw buildings on the horizon and we thought we were there, but it turned out to be an out of town shopping mall/rollercoaster park/theme show - just a taste of what was to come. When we eventually got to Vegas there was no mistaking it: nothing for miles around and then suddenly a pyramid, the New York skyline, a King Arthur castle, 12 lane roads and the MGM. We were staying at the Tropicana, a slightly less flashy hotel but at $40 per night we weren't complaining!

Walking into the hotel was exactly what I imagined Vegas to be. The whole ground floor was a casino full of fruit machines, poker tables, crapps tables and roulette wheels. Croupiers in smart suits and showgirls in high heels and tall feathers completed the picture. Every wall in the casino was mirrored, there were no windows, no clocks and no exit signs, which succeeded in its intention of making you walk helplessly around, getting more and more disorientated until you succumb, sit down at a table, and gamble your sorrows away (unless you are penniless backpackers like us) .

We dumped our bags and explored the strip, well some of it, because the 105 degree heat was punishing. We saw the Eiffel Tower at Paris in Vegas, the Bellagio and loads more. We headed to the ticket booths and scored ourselves half price tickets to the Phantom of the Opera and a half price dinner too. The Venetian hotel/casino and was everything I had heard - canals, gondolers, guys in stripy t-shirts singing the Cornetto song! The canals went into the hotel and were lined with boutique stores and the ceiling was painted like the sky. Amazing.

From USA

From USA

The following day we joined the pool party at our hotel and spent the afternoon trying to get relief from the heat, and then went for our meal at a Brazillian BBQ restaurant that was all you can eat. We rolled out of there!

All in all Vegas was amazing and lives up to all expectations. It's cheap, it's tacky and I couldn't spend more than a couple of days there, but it was great to experience. Maybe if we were into gambling a little more, or had more money to lose, we could have stayed longer, but I don't think that $5 in a fruit machine machine means that Vegas will miss me!

From USA

From USA