So that will be just the one pigs head....

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Monday 2nd July
Ao muscled in on my usual role of training the volunteers today so I went off and did some work, I’m currently trying to find out the contact details of travel guides so that I can try and get the projects, particularly the elephant camp mentioned. Menaka works for Lonely Planet so hopefully we will get a mention there, which would be so amazing! My next big job though is to go through the website and check that it all makes grammatical sense, and if not altering it. Arnon has spent the last few days updating the whole site. At camp I’m having to walk around barefoot as some bites on my foot have become infected where my flip-flops touch them. As we walked around I think I was offered 4 sets of alternative shoes to wear by Arnon, Ao, Long and Mr. Noi! Another new volunteer arrived - Jessica - and after dinner Arnon started playing the guitar and making up a song to help us learn Thai - quite effective but also quite crazy! He also started playing, and singing along to ‘Love is All Around Us ‘but the words were “finger, finger, finger, I got a finger for you” we couldn’t quite explain that he shouldn’t really be singing those words! We were also trying to learn the elephant song that Ao sings, complete with dance, and have made that our mission this week to learn.
Bua was attacked by a big cat in the kitchen, it’s not got a roof so any stray cat, chicken etc. can get in. she was really scared and just clung on to me and wouldn’t let go. I was so mad with Gof who didn’t do anything - he was too busy ‘entertaining’ again.

Tuesday 3rd July
I stayed at the office today to work on the website as the computer at the camp doesn’t have internet access. I ended up spending 6 hours on the computer! Bua is still very quiet and I just left her in my room all day sleeping on one of my tops. She seems to have a very sore back and screeches whenever you touch it. Arnon bought me an ice cream before he left this morning - complete with sweet corn and beans in it - and asked me if I wanted to go to Umphang next week, which is where we support the Karen Hilltribe people. I said that I thought it would be better for me to go when there were no volunteers here - it would be good for me to experience the other projects to be able to promote & answer questions about them, but maybe better when it’s quieter here. I also had Noi talking to me about Gof, saying that the manager at the camp had complained about him, saying that he doesn’t speak to volunteers or tourists in English. I defended Gof as he is always really good with volunteers. Noi said that she had to check and she knew that it was really because he was angry with Gof and the way he was carrying on with the girl at the camp, and said that Gof was going to cause fights. She also couldn’t understand why Gof didn’t want to be with his wife and 3 month old baby. Pretty much what I’ve said to Gof already, but no-one really knows the complete truth or reasons in other peoples lives so I shouldn’t really be judgmental, although he never does himself any favours when he tries to explain himself and always says that he loves his wife.
We had another of Arnons ‘movie nights’ tonight. I’d bought Brokeback Mountain as I haven’t seen it but it was the Thai version! So Arnon put on a movie about love in Thailand, giving us a running commentary throughout as it didn’t have subtitles. It was a VERY strange movie. I gave up at about 8.30pm and went to bed, I’m sure I’ll have many more ‘opportunities’ to watch it!


Wednesday 4th July
Another Wednesday so another night staying at camp with the volunteers. The mahouts are wearing new uniforms, I think it’s probably something to do with the changes the manager is making, with the new garden and coffee shop, trying to attract more tourists. Long is not happy at all as the mahouts have had to pay for them themselves, and have had to buy 2 sets. It was funny looking around and seeing them all wearing the same thing and only being able to identify them in the distance from the hats they wear. I hope they don’t all get a uniform hat as well! In the afternoon we had heavy rain again so all congregated at the communal hut and played Pass The Pigs as the cards had got soaked earlier. We had a few false starts as we couldn’t remember how to play and even though the box was right next to us none of us could be bothered to look. I was rubbish at it anyway and kept losing all my points - I never made it higher than 12! Gof was teasing me about Umphang, talking in Thai to Arnon but I knew that he was talking about me. This happens A LOT. You’ll be sat there and the mahouts or someone will be talking and pointing at you, usually laughing, so you know that they’re talking about you, but you’ve no idea what they’re saying! It’s usually light hearted and fun, but I would love to be able to speak Thai and know what they are saying! Apparently Gof was saying that if I went to Umphang and went trekking I would cry because it’s so hard Grr… now I have to prove him wrong! At food prep time Gof and Arnon were their usual stubborn selves, not letting me help because it would take too long to teach me to cook. I have tried explaining that I’ve done a week long Thai cookery course but I think I’m just going to have to buy myself an electric wok and prove it to them. I did get extra responsibilities tonight though - I was asked to wash up. I was so happy! After dinner we watched Notting Hill on DVD - not sure how many times Arnon has seen that one?

Thursday 5th July
I went with Chan-Dee, Long and the volunteer to the lake this morning which was fantastic as I hadn’t been able to go last time due to Long leaving suddenly. I have been with the other elephants but it was much more special with “my” elephant. I’ve had really mixed feelings helping the volunteer. It’s been brilliant to be working with Chan-Dee and Long again but I’ve also been a little sad as she’s got to do things that, with Long going so suddenly when he was my mahout, I didn’t get the chance to do. When he went I didn’t really get another mahout and was just accompanied on a couple of rides around the forest for the remaining days. I didn’t get to help with putting on/off her basket, didn’t get to go to the lake and didn’t get to prove to him that I was able to be a mahout! Still at least I had experienced these things at the other camp last year. I came back from the lake and thought I would be good, and show my capabilities, and light the barbecue thing to toast the bread. So I found some wood to break up and start the fire, got some charcoal, and was just about to light it when Gof came over and pointed at the toaster. Typical! After breakfast (not brilliant, some kind of creamy soup cooked by Arnon - he kept looking over to see if we were eating it - luckily I was invited over by Daa and Mun to share their breakfast. That was much better - rice with fish, chilli sauce and beans. Unusual to westerners for breakfast but believe me it was an improvement on the soup! Gof was now saying (so I thought) that he would go to Umphang instead of me, so I agreed - I’ve now found out that it’s right in the rainy season there so I’m happy to wait to go! Either me or Arnon had got the wrong end of the stick though as he seemed to think that Gof was saying that he and I would go together?! We spent most of the morning trying to learn the elephant song, then later as I was heading back to camp from the hut Long called me over and he was laying in a hammock feeding his little girl Pikun She is adorable and I spent about 10 minutes making smiley faces at her and going all gooey. Luckily she was making smiley faces back at me - yay she likes me. When we’d got back to the apartments I decided that I would go to a yoga class that I’d found on the internet. When I got there though the times had been wrong and the class was almost over. I still had a look around though so I’ll know where I’m going to next time.

Friday 6th July
Woke up this morning to find a huge cockroach in my bedroom. It was on its back dying but that didn’t stop me worrying that it had been in my room all night (I tried to convince myself it had just come in though the closed balcony door) or spraying it - from a distance - until it was white with insect killer (ahem the Buddhist precept of not intentionally killing anything doesn’t apply to anything gross like cockroaches and spiders or annoying like ants). I traveled in the back of the truck to camp in the rain and discovered that my new nickname from Tha is penguin because of my black raincoat with the (admittedly) big, floppy hood, I think I might regret wearing the white trousers today. Yep - as soon as he sees me he cracks up laughing!
The new elephant we’ve been waiting for finally arrived during the night (will I ever get a picture of one arriving) so we now have 9 elephants. I’m still hoping that we’re going to get the babies. It rained heavily all day and, as we have 5 volunteers at the moment, I have to travel in the back of the truck to get back again - volunteers obviously get priority for the dryness of the seats inside! Trying to keep dry has made my hat into the weirdest shape! I’d lent my ‘penguin’ coat to Arnon who has ‘man flu’ and was cowering in the corner looking miserable. As it was Anna and Miriam’s last night tonight we had planned on going to the Thai karaoke bar but we ended up just putting on some English karaoke DVD’s (you can get quite an, um, varied selection here) at the apartments. We had some drinks (they’d bought me a bottle of vodka as a thank you present - they obviously know the way to my heart) and ended up singing along for about 3 hours. Due to the rain we’d moved everything inside and were most hurt when Gof and Ao preferred to sit outside with the window closed! What were they trying to say about our singing?!

Saturday 7th July
Today was Anna, Miriam and Jessica’s last day at camp so they had their closing Pa-Kam ceremony. That meant they needed a pigs head, a chicken, some Thai whisky, orange juice and sweets. Normally Arnon goes to the market early and buys these but this morning hadn’t gone, so we stopped on the way to camp. I hadn’t been to the pigs head market before so it was a real treat…… After the ceremony I went round with Anna on her last ride. As she’s been here for 3 weeks and knows what she’s doing Long and I sauntered along and about half way round he started shouting me over to where he was. He’d found a snake and wanted to take pictures of it. We were so distracted that the next thing we knew we could hear Anna shouting in a random order “how” (stop), “ben” (turn), “toy” (back) and “help” (help) as she disappeared further into the forest on Chan-Dee having missed her turning. It took quite a lot of shouting from all of us (which apparently was heard around the camp) to convince Chan-Dee to turn around go the right way rather than heading for the other hills!
Then it was time for the volunteers to say goodbye to camp. They were given rings by their mahouts made from the tail hair of their elephants and when Long gave one to Anna I was really happy for her, but also had a tinge of sadness as that was something else I’d missed out on, but of course I just smiled and was pleased for her and the others as it’s a very special and unique gift. I was made up though when Long then came over to me and gave me a ring too! I just hope he didn’t feel obliged to give me one as I’d tried asking him if he made them. Then Ali, Vi Lai’s wife came over and gave me a ring made from Dok-koons hair. So I’m now up to 5 elephant hair rings & currently wearing 3. I have the 2 given to me today, one from Surichok my elephant at the old camp that I wear and one that I left at home, and I also have one that Ali had given me before that has started to unravel. I don’t really want to wear 3 rings, but I also don’t want to offend anyone - which ones do I take off? I could take off Surichoks but that’s a really intricate one so I like to wear it and I can’t really take off the ones that I was given today. If this happens every time a volunteer leaves I’m going to have at least one on every finger and toe! Back at the apartments we said our goodbyes to Anna and Miriam and welcomed two new volunteers, Jane and her 13 year old son Conor. This meant that in the evening I held my own welcoming ceremony - the trip to Tesco Lotus and the night market!

Sunday 8th July
Stayed at the apartments all day so that I could leave antibiotic cream on my various bites and injuries and spent ages working on the computer and tidying my room, trying to stem the seeming never ending army of ants that had set up camp in my things. I also discovered that some of the DVD’s that I’d bought at the market last night are Thai versions. Not again!

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Photos

my elephant picture
made with the help of Jhor and showing the parts of an elephant in Thai & English

a skull at camp
...possibly a pigs head

Red ants!!!!
they bite so hard & REALLY hang on

Elephant mountain overlooking the camp
It is really! From L-R: trunk, head, back. Obviously it's lying down

Arnon teaching us how to make Thai green curry
yes I did learn on my weeks Thai cookery course but.....

Inside my bamboo hut
actually it's Gofs but I'd kicked hom ut for the night!

and very (far too) early in the morning
about 5.30am. Yawn.

Comments

[Tess]

PIGS!!!
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!! You're playing Pigs!!! Playing it constantly here at the moment! Hope you've got the hang of it! All looking fab out there! Still missing it! Tess

[SamC]

Rubbish at pigs - still!
I'm just too much of a risk taker!