Advertisement
Published: February 4th 2014
Edit Blog Post
Last night I was feeling like I was getting sick, lost my voice and afraid of going to bed too early do to my
3am wakes lately. So I decided to go to Sunday market. The nice guy Nicky, at the desk called me a. Tuk tuk and she picked me up and we raced around in this cross between A golf cart and motorcycle. She laughed the whole way, I don't know what she was talking about but she was sure having fun! I walked around for a couple of hours, it was so jammed! And played the fun game, "which tuk, tuk driver is the pyco murderer?" Guess what? I won, and picked an old Thai guy that I sized up and was pretty sure I could take if I had to.Full night sleep, check! Signed out of hotel and ready to be picked up be the elephant nature park at last! Soo exciting! Checked in at the office and we took an 1 1/2hour trip up the mountain. The place is like an elephant heaven! Mountain in the background, river at the side, and elephants roaming free along with some cows,and apparently 400 misplaced dogs from after the
flood in 2011. Only a dozen or so dogs run free, and cats and there are pigs (haven't seen them yet)We got the rundown and watched a heartbreaking documentary on how elephants are treated for entertainment and how they are broken, it's just awful! We learned that bob barker actually deposited enough money after meeting Lek and hearing her dream of helping elephants, to buy the beautiful piece of property they have.Then they took us to meet some elephants! I have had to resist bursting into tears about ten times today, it is quite emotional for me. I went up to one of the elephants and touched her side and looked in her eye, it was wonderful. The baby elephant was running around and we were able to pet him as well. There were 4 elephants in this particular "family", they were so cool! When Lek was around they surround her and love her so much, they know she rescued them. The Eli's were roaming around and we were all taking pictures and petting them when all the sudden the mahuts were like "move please,move!" Elephants all started running! The baby had wandered off and got scared and cried, they
all went running to his rescue. Note to self, do NOT get between baby and the big ladies!We then went up to a second floor overlooking the range, there were children from the local town ,a little traditional band (I say that cause I don't know any of the instruments) they played, then a shaman did a blessing ceremony to keep up all safe and protected, and we all got a string tied to our wrists that we are to leave on for 3 to 7 days for luck. We must break the string (not cut it) and keep it for luck.I personally already feel pretty lucky, but ill take it!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.091s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 6; qc: 46; dbt: 0.051s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mom
non-member comment
Jen I can feel your excitement thre your blog! They are so beautiful! Cant wait to hear more. Mom