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Trying to shuffle cards
Yes, my tongue is out& no I'm not wearing a tent it just looks like I am Monday 25th June
Arnon turned up as we were having breakfast this morning. He’d been around at camp for a few days last week, but hadn’t really seen anything of him, and then apparently he went off to a temple for a few days. He looks much better. We traveled to camp in our new truck, with Gof driving and me trying to absorb landmarks and turnings in preparation for when I have to drive - in between playing with the radio and CD player: equally important! I felt really awful this morning, I think I’m allergic to Bua! It’s been building up for few days and I have running nose and eyes, I’m sneezing all the time and I have a sore throat - but it gets better when I’m at camp. I think it’s worse today because when I went to bed last night bua was asleep on a cushion so I left her rather than putting her in the bathroom like I normally do, but she moved during the night and slept next to me on my bed.
Mondays always seem to be quieter at camp; I’m starting to think the mahouts have a big party on
helping a volunteer
Jam Long looks on helpfully... a Sunday night as they’re always more subdued on a Monday! Today’s entertainment was provided by Anna who landed in a pool of elephant wee getting down from Chan-Dee, I did try to help her get down but wasn’t strong enough so all I got for my efforts was a smack in the eye! And then we had to sit with her all day while she gave off a strange smell and attracted flies! :o) The worst part of this is that when we got back to the apartments the electricity was off so the showers weren’t working, or of course anything else. Due to my apparent allergy to Bua I decided that I had to try and get her used to being outside, so that hopefully she will sleep down here. I’d got her a small tray of cat food, which Osca the dog promptly stole. The bigger dogs don’t seem too bothered by her and just ignore her but Jungle follows her round and keeps frightening her, I think he’s pleased to have found something that’s nearer his own size! Whilst I was sat keeping an eye on Bua Ao sat with a friend drinking home made whisky,
Team Thai!
Lek & Jhor cunningly disguised mixed with apple juice in Fanta bottles, which of course I got to try. I think this would be very dangerous stuff indeed as you couldn’t taste the whisky, just the apple juice, so it went down very easily.
Arnon was still here and kind of apologized for the events of last week, in a very roundabout way. Actually it was more about how people didn’t understand him and how the company would fail without him. Then he decided that Bua was going to sleep in his room tonight and took her away!
Tuesday 26th June
I think Arnon has kidnapped Bua! I kept asking how she was and he just looked at me elusively and kept telling me she/he was fine (still no-one can come to a decision about the kittens’ sexuality- I keep saying she in the hope that it is!) but wouldn’t let me see her. There is a possibility that Gof has decided to cook “it” for breakfast as he keeps threatening to do - he’d be better to wait until there’s a bit more meat on it! Found out why I haven’t been able to get into our email accounts - Arnon
had changed the passwords, which is handy!
Wednesday 27th June
Stayed at camp again tonight and it’s always a really nice day, you have the usual routine throughout the day but then at 3pm, instead of returning to the apartments, you retire to your hut and, usually in my case, watch camp life go by. It also gives us more time to thrash “team Thai” at cards! Today was Lek and Jhors last day. I’m going to miss them, Lek was such a laugh and only had to giggle to make me crack up. Jhor is very sweet and much quieter, I always feel that I can trust him. Sometimes with Lek and Gof when I ask them how to say something in Thai I’m not always confident that they’re not telling me the word for something different. It’s the way they say something and then laugh - I’m much more wary after the “honkie” incident! Their departure was a bit of an anti-climax. They just said goodbye, got in the car and drove off saying goodbye like normal, but this time without the usual “see you tomorrow.” I’d bought them each a small present which was received in
the usual Thai way of embarrassment and not opening, at least I’m getting used to that now. I ended up falling asleep in my hut in the afternoon (actually Gofs hut but I’ve got into the habit of kicking him out to sleep in a hammock on a weekly basis), handily this meant that I missed accompanying the volunteer to the forest in the pouring rain. I asked Gof if he wanted help with the cooking but wasn’t needed (not too surprising after I massacred the carrots last week), he did say that I could help by going to the market and buying him some beer. Aaarggh!! I replied that I would go but if he gave me the money, to which he did his usual trick of getting his credit card out and saying that he had no money. I did go and buy some as I fancied a beer, but I put it in my hut out of the way. When Miriam came back from the forest and sat with us she commented that I kept getting evil looks from Gof. Because I’m way too soft and couldn’t sit and drink beer myself and not give him a
can I gave in. Aaarggh again!! After dinner we watched the latest Pirates of the Caribbean DVD complete with incorrect subtitles which was very distracting. The film was in English, so we could understand it, but the Thai interpretation of what was being said was very amusing. Tha was watching with us and even though he couldn’t understand it he did seem to really enjoy it and find it very amusing. Thai people seem to just love watching people doing comedy falls and slapstick humour.
Thursday 28th June
Resisted the invitation to go to the forest this morning - I don’t have my wellies with me - and was again given the important responsibility of making the toast for breakfast. I was still admonished by Gof for making it too “black and white” though. I just wish I didn’t give him so many actual reasons to find fault - sometimes common sense just deserts me! Today I couldn’t work out why the water wasn’t boiling; I checked that the flask was plugged into the extension, I checked that the plug was in, I checked that the switch was on - then Gof came over and twiddled the wire at
the back of the flask and it started boiling!! Continued to be the subject of Longs entertainment as we walked around with Chan-Dee today; threatening to throw bugs at me, swatting imaginary mosquitoes off me, pretending he’s a snake that’s biting my leg, that he’s going to hit me with his stick, using elephant commands on me…the list goes on. I do give a fair back too though. Another thing that we do is point at things and say their names in Thai and English, so I don’t know how to tell the mahouts where I’m going when they ask, but I can say butterfly.
One of the dogs, Kanyang, died tonight. He was really unwell today and just lying on the ground gasping for breath. I don't think he's been right for a few days as he started to smell really badly and his hairs been falling out. Mrs. Noi and I had given him medicine and we'd been giving him water mixed with dog food as he could't eat, he just didn't have enough life in him to stand up or eat. I'd asked about taking him to the vets and they said they were going to tomorrow,
but unfortunately he died. I'll miss his dopiness!
A new volunteer was arriving today and we’d already been told that it would be around 10.30pm when she would arrive due to her flight so I’d prepared lots of work to do to keep me occupied whilst I waited. By 11.30pm though there was still no sign of her and bothArnon and I (who’d also waited up) were struggling to stay awake. We had just given up and were heading off to bed when she phoned to say that her flight had been delayed and she was just leaving Bangkok, which would mean her arriving in about 2 hours. We decided to go to bed for an hour or so and I said I would set my alarm for 1am in case she was early. Arnon said he would set his for 2am - quite canny as she would probably have already arrived by then. Which she did so I just put a note under his door. He’s still kidnapping Bua every night too. Every morning he complains that she’s kept him awake playing and that I have to look after her tonight, then each night he scoops her up
and disappears with her!
Friday 29th June
Just about managed to scrape myself out of bed this morning after last night, then had another late night! Gof and I are rekindling our “relationship” mainly because I’m choosing to forgive and forget his recent behavior. Worryingly Arnon has nicknamed us Noah and Allie from ‘The Notebook’ which we watched last week. Arnon has seen it 10 times and was sat mouthing the words and telling us how much he loved Noah…. He’s seen ‘Love Actually’ 26 times! Even more worryingly Anna agreed saying we were just like them, arguing then making up! Despite any attempts or suggestions I will not become part of his harem - despite being married with a new baby he also has several ‘girlfriends’ who he speaks to on the phone on a daily basis, calling them ‘number 1’ number 2’ etc. I think he’s up to number 6 or 7 at present! He gets quite upset when I call him gigolo, to which my response is that I wouldn’t call him that if he didn’t do it. So we are becoming friends again, though not the same as before, which means resuming our late (10pm
- shocking I know) drinking and dictionary conversation evenings. The conversations involve us sitting with Thai and English translation dictionaries and pointing at words, and drawing descriptive pictures on paper. It’s surprisingly effective. Tonight ended with me not being able to find Bua and sending Gof off to find her, I didn’t want to go to bed and leave her outside, but he convinced me that she would be ok. I did fall into a very deep asleep, only to be woken at 1am by the alarm that I’d set for Menaka arriving yesterday, and then had to get up when the next alarm went off at 4.30am as we were going to the floating market at Damnoen Saduak.
Saturday 30th June
A brilliant day today. We went to the floating market, which I’d been to before and is one of my top 5 memories of traveling in Thailand and Asia. As I’d been before I wasn’t quite so overawed by the whole spectacle of it and could take in more of what was being sold. I made a couple of small purchases including a fan similar to one that Alice had that I’d admired, it smells of jasmine
when you waft it round. After the market we went to a temple with a huge pagoda where we had lunch then spent ages looking around. I made some offerings to Buddha of incense, a candle and flower then did the fortune telling thing with the sticks ina cup that you shake until one falls out. Each of the sticks are numbered and there are corresponding pieces of paper to tell you your fortune. Despite how random it sounds it was actually quite appropriate. There was also a cave temple here which we went into. In the evening we went for dinner at one of my favourite Thai restaurants, which is only a few minutes away. The staff know me and always wave when I walk past, and they know my order without asking - I always have the Thai green curry, it’s absolutely delicious.
Sunday 1st July
Off on another trip today, and again a brilliant day. We had another Noah & Allie AKA Gof & Sam drinking/dictionary conversation night - even later so not feeling brilliant this morning. Gof looks far worse than I feel though! Today we - me, Noi, Anna, Miriam, Menaka, Ao, Gof and
Arnon - hired a boat. We called at 7-11 and stocked up on beers (me & Menaka), wine coolers (Anna & Miriam) and whisky (the boys) and snacks then went out onto the ocean and fished over the side of the boat, barbecued the fish we caught (I caught quite a few!) then ate it and swam in the ocean near an island. Gof, Noi, Ao and Menaka were all quite sick including a hilarious incident (not so much at the time I have to admit) where Noi was taking Menaka into the cabin telling her that she would take care of her and she (Noi) just started projectile vomiting. Right down Gofs back! She was saying sorry but he, bless him, just kept saying “no problem, it doesn’t matter” and kept on fishing. Not sure I would have been quite so magnanimous about it!
I was very pleased with myself today;
1) that I didn’t get sick, especially after last night (there were a few close moments)
2) that I managed to put raw fish bait on my hooks (back home I could never touch raw fish or meat when cooking)
3) ate from a fish that still had
it’s head attached - in restaurants, and even here, I’m normally too squeamish to do that, but here I was happily pulling a fish apart and ripping the flesh off it
I didn’t manage to jump into the ocean to swim though, I still climbed down the steps - that challenge will have to be overcome another time!
When we were sailing back to the beach Arnon thanked me again for everything I’ve done and reassured me that I won’t see a repeat of the things from a week or so ago. He said that we are friends and he doesn’t mind that I tell him if he’s in the wrong, has had too much to drink etc. Feel much better about it all now. I’m not the best person when it comes to confrontation, and will always try and avoid it, but I know now that we can have conversations like that and I can make my point and then we can return to normal.
Back at the apartments I played with Bua for a while then decided to have the beer that I’d save d from earlier….only to find that it was gone. Aaaaaarrrrrgggggggghhhhhh!!!!!!! Gof assures me that
Gof preparing dinner
He enjoys it. Really he does. It's a look of concentration... he didn’t drink it! He was too busy ‘entertaining’ the girl that works in the office at camp. Naughty boy!
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