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Published: June 12th 2007
Monday11th June
Anne was supposed to have left for the Dusky Langur project this morning at 5am so I was quite surprised to see her walking down the steps towards me at 8.15. It turns out that the volunteers that were supposed to be going, and that Arnon was going there to take care of, had cancelled late last night due to illness. So they weren't going. I could tell that Anne was upset as she had been really looking forward to going. So i put my negotiating skills to use and managed to persuade Arnon to take Anne, even if it's just for a couple of days. Then there followed the usual confusion being told first that they would go after lunch, then this evening, then suddenly it was "right, we're setting off in 20 minutes!"
Camp today was strange. There didn't seem to be anyone around. The mahouts had all disappeared, there were no tourists around.... and the mood wasn't helped by Gof seeminly being in a terrible mood.
We called on the way back at Carrefour so that Alice could get an anklet she'd bought Anne for her birthday altered and we did another leg of the
marmite quest. I should explain. Alice had brought marmite with her and I now feel that I can't live without it. The jar that she brought is running low so we've been trying to get some more. We scoured Tesco, Foodland, 7-11 and now Carrefour and still no marmite to be found anywhere. The situation is getting desperate!
On the way to Carrefour we had a bit of an unsettling experience. Basically we saw a dead man. There had been an accident and this poor man was lying in the road with a trail of blood running from his head and he was in an awful twisted position. We weren't sure if he was dead or not, but when we stopped and asked Lek he said yes, he was definitely dead. I couldn't believe that they'd just left him lying there and hadn't put a screen up or covered him. I know that they have a slightly different attitude to death here but it wasn't very nice to see. And the boys just weren't affected by it at all and thought it was funny that we felt sick after seeing him. At least Lek asked us if we were ok.
Tuesday 12th June
A really nice day at camp today. As there's just Alice here at the moment I spent all day with her and we hung out at her mahouts (Peter - it probably isn't "Peter" but he answers to it!) house. We spent the morning taking pictures and lounging in a hammock (they thought it was funny that I was lying upside down in it but it was good for my circulation having my feet higher than my head), then Peter taught us how to make a grasshopper out of pineapple leaves and made us little blowy horn things from straws. I think he might regret doing that (I think the rest of the camp does already) as we've been blowing them and making lots of noise all day. Very childish, sometimes the simplest things in life can bring the greatest pleasure! We had a new elephant arrive today but we missed the actual delivery. I don't really know much about her yet but we're all agreed that she's very beautiful and pretty. She's perfectly in proportion with matching light stripes on each ear (highlights?) and very dainty ankles - for an elephant. I think her name
is Noi. Her mahout sems really nice - he helped Emily with Sang Dao last week - and he has his girlfriend (I think) with him. The have moved into the hut next to the one I am staying in, and when we exchanged introductions I think he said that he was called Dick (again that's obviously the Western interpretation), his elephant is Noi and his girlfiend is Moi. I wonder which came first - elephant or girlfriend? And was it a prerequisite fpr them to have similar names?
Tonight after dinner we'd planned to go to the cinema to see Shrek 3. It's at Big C which incorporates a few shops (including a fantastic Jim Thompson Silk discount shop and a brilliant book shop) and a supermarket. No marmite I'm afraid! We didn't find the cinema but ended up looking around the sjops for a couple of hours.
Wednesday 13th June
After we'd seen the dead man the other day Alice didn't like sitting in th eback of the pick-up, so this morning I sat in the back by myself. Felt a bit down today - not sure why. At camp had a VERY lazy day. Fell aslepp in
a hammock after lunch, then spent an hour or so in the hammock by Chang-Dee taking a few pictures. I did spend the morning doing lots of raking and sweeping. I cleaned out the communal elephant area by myself and cleared Chang-Dees area a couple of times, practicing my song that I've composed for her. At lunch one of the kittens was taken away by someone who's giving it a home.
Thursday 14th June
Stayed at the camp last night and even though I didn't sleep particularly well to begin with, I did have a major breakthrough.... I got up to go to the toilet during the night. And I used the Asian toilet!!! Had a good nights sleep then and even managed a lie in as I didn't need to go to the forest with Alice. Today was even more of a lazy day! We started off reading our books after breakfast (almost as good as last weeks post breakfast watching of Harry Potter in Thai), then had a snooze and went for lunch. At lunch we played with the remaining black kitten, and the woman that does the cooking came over to talk to us. Oof course we
didn't understand a word she was saying but we smiled politely anyway. When Lek and Jhor came over we discovered that she had given the kitten to us. of course when I say "us" Alice leaves on Saturday, so I guess that means me. I didn't know what to do. The kitten is gorgeous but I'm not sure I want the responsibility or cost of having a pet here. I think there was a very real danger of Alice causing me physical damage if I'd not taken it though, so I'm now the proud owner of a beautiful, teeny tiny black kitten! We took it down to the hut, so of course that meant that we couldn't do anything and had to sit watching it. When Gof saw that I had it he gave me a hard look and said "you take care?" I don't think he's much of a cat lover! He had given it a name (Chok Dee, meaning lucky) but as he's been mean and stingy with me over the last couple of days, and hasn't exactly been kitten friendly, I'm not going to let him have the honour. So the kittens new name is Bua, meaning
lotus flower. There is still a large amount of debate and differing opinions (accompanied by lots of undignified - for kitten - tail lifting and holding upside down) as to whether the kitten is male or female. Lots of my time is now going to be spent playing with and cuddling Bua, and of course detailing his/her (maybe I should call it Ladyboy?) development alongside mine.
Not much after returning to the apartments and showering Annie arrived back from the Dusky Langur project having loved it. Her pictures were amazing and it looks so beautiful, she stayed right opposite the beach, and the langurs looked so cute! Mr Pe, who had driven them there, showed off his previous life skills by making us all cocktails, after which - perhaps unwisely - we wnt shopping so that Annie and Alice could buy presents for their mahouts and I could buy cat litter! Amazingly when I got back and fed Bua she hopped straight into the litter tray. I hadn't expected her to be house trained. What a relief! As she's so tiny (it's not determined yet but it's easier to stick to one gender) I'm going to let her sleep in
my room for a week or so until she's big enough to at leat put up a fight with the melee of dogs we have here. Being at the Dusky Langur project seems to have done Arnon a lot of good. He's nice & relaxed and was quite happy for me to go to Bangkok with Annie & Alice on Saturday (they're leaving & are going to travel to Bangkok early to do a bit of sightseeing & shopping & have asked me along for the ride), to take care of our volunteers, thanked me for everything that I've done so far and even said that he's going to get some business cards made for me. Crikey!!
Friday 15th June.
Went to Bangkok today to collect 2 new volunteers from the airport. Spent the morning cleaning up a bit and playing with Bua, watching her amazement at every new thing she found. She already seems really settled. Left for the airport at 1pm & got a bit overexcited when I found some up to date English magazines. I also bought a Thai cookbook (no-one seems to know anything about the one from my course that I left here before)
so that, as Gof won't let me help with the cooking, I can make something at camp when we stay. As it was my first time meeting someone from a flight I was a tad over cautious and was at the arrivals gate at the time their flight actually touched down, forgetting that they had to get off, collect baggage & go through immigration. So by the time they did come through I probably looked like I had lost the will to live after sitting there for an hour holding a sign up with their names on!
After eating tonight we decided that we wanted to go out for a drink and someone suggested Walking Street. We had a wander, taking in the ladyboys and classy bars, such as Climax, and then sat outside a nice looking bar at the end of the street to have a drink. We ended up back at the apartments sitting outside until 3.30am drinking & talking - Gof & I doing our usual conversing with our dictionaries. It was an unusual end to the night. Initially at the bar we'd got really annoyed with Gof as he did his usual trick of not even
The difference between an elephant and human foot
The first one to say 'not much' gets it!My ankle is still a bit mishapen from the step class "incident"offering any money towrds drinks when it came to pay, whether we're just stocking the fridge or drinking/eating out. We have been so sick this week of drinks going missing (we'd bought pack of beer & had a drink each out of it, then the next day it was all gone - a regular occurance) that we decided to make a stand tonight. So when it came to paying the bill we each just put enough in for our own drinks. Gof then had to ask me if he could borrow the money as he didn't have any with him. I think he got the message when I put the money on the table & stormed off. I wonder if he'll offer to pay it back? Then when we got back to the apartments and sat talking Gof & Pe told us that Arnon had told them he didn't want them working with him anymore & they had to leave at the end of the month. Gof spent alot of our 'dictionary' conversation picking out unsavoury descriptive words for Arnon! Arnons greeting for me before we set off for Walking Street was that I should go to my room whilst
A naked lady!
What a letdown! A nice Thai boy has engraved this on a tree where we walk throught the forest! the others talked! I also discovered that he had told everyone that he, not I, was going to Bangkok tomorrow!
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Tess
non-member comment
Grumpy Cat
Wotcha!!! Did the grumpy cat at the studios ever have it's kittens? I would have thought that after all the gratuitous unceremonious squeezing of her stomach we did would have helped them along?!! Still missing it all - will write soon! Tess x