SamC
Sam Clarke Joined: November 15th 2006
Logged in: September 23rd 2009
Logged in: September 23rd 2009
Travel Blog Posts
wassana shower
I've not been updating my blog as I'm currently back in England due to personal reasons - and my life here is far too boring to write about. The project is continuing with help from Thai friends and I'm helping out 'virtually' so I thought I would put some of my favourite pictures from the project instead of a blog! More can be found at www.theelephantmahoutproject.com ... read more
pepsi the pup
with no elephant stories!!! We don't have any volunteers at the moment (some are arriving on the 26th) so I haven't been going to the camp and have been busy with moving. September is the month with the highest rainfall here so I think that puts people off coming, and I don't think the recent political problems have helped although it hasn't affected us in any way, except for everywhere being quieter because tourists aren't travelling. Being a biy quieter though has given me time to get settled into my new house, but I am now starting to go a bit stir-crazy and will be glad when the volunteers do get here. I'm spending a lot of my time watching Thai music videos (which can't be good for me) and now recognise the songs and can ... read more
New House
I moved house on Tuesday, to the one that's on Mr Boonserms land. I think basically he has this house that's empty and so was happy to have someone living in it, and for us that's very good news! Have a look at the 'before' pictures! I went to Mrs. Noi's on Tuesday morning and was tapping away on the computer, but she kept coming up to me and saying "you need to go or you won't be ready when the truck comes," so I went and packed my things - my Thai worldly goods - and I was ready by 10.30am....the truck arrived at 2.30pm. Moving, as with seemingly everything else in Thailand, involved quite a bit of beer drinking. The 'lads' arrived at the camp in the truck after having sorted out the electrics ... read more
Hello nellie!
I forgot to put a few pictures on, actually I 'lost' them on the desktop. I swear they were hiding! I might as well give a quick update.... Yesterday Tia & me were at Mrs Noi's as he's helping her to do her garden. His task is to cut the whole lawn...with a pair of shears! I whiled away the time on the computer, mainly playing on-line scrabble with Louise, trying to redeem my absolute thrashing from the previous game. Once the gardening was finished for the day we went to see the house on Mr Boonserms land that we might be moving in to, we had a key this time so that we could look inside. It has a reasonable sized bedroom, a kitchen area and a small bathroom....slight problem though in that the toilet ... read more
Elephants at Tai Tai Elephant Garden
I'm almost caught up! Now all I have to do is try and get back into the habit of keeping up! Whilst I've been catching up with writing my blog I've been reading back things that I'd jotted down in my notebook. It's interesting to read back my feelings from when I first moved to the camp. On one day I'd just written a highlighted note 'lunch - bugs!' I'm pretty sure that I won't have indulged... I'd also written about making a cup of tea by and having to boil the water for it in a wok. I can't believe I went to so much trouble, so much easier now I've got a kettle! Foodie Dreams When I first moved to the camp I didn't have any transport and obviously didn't get to Tesco's much. ... read more
A lotus flower at The Grand Palace, Bangkok
More animal updates..... Mrs Noi has kittens. One of her 2 cats has just had 3 kittens which are loved by everyone. We were a bit worried about one of them at the beginning as it wasn't feeding so we had to give it milk formula via a syringe. She's doing ok now though,a nd apparently it isn't just me that's 'animal gender confused,' I recently corrected Mrs Noi on her assertion that all 3 kittens were girls when one of them got its 'lipstick' out. Luckily he's called Silver so it's not too girly a name! The other 2 are called Taylor and Golden and they're now at the playful stage and just big enough to jump up onto tables...especially fun when you're trying to do something on thre computer. Why do cats do that, ... read more
Bobbi
The last update came up to around March time when I had moved from Tia’s family’s house into my own ‘shack’ so I was feeling more settled. To prove this settled-ness….I got a puppy! How could I say no when someone brought a ball of fluff to me and said it needed a home? Bobbi So now I have Bobbi. When I was asked what I wanted to call ‘it’ I said the first thing that came into my head, and that was a name that I thought would be easy for them to say…but I didn’t think they’d let me/take me seriously and would want a Thai name. So I said ‘Bob’ and they said ‘ok!’ At that time, true to my track record, I didn’t know if ‘it’ was a boy or a girl. ... read more
Baby elephant Em trying to get into the elephant bath
I knew that I should start writing my blog again as I watched a 14 year old Thai lady-boy (suspected) swinging in the hammock outside my house singing along to a CD. The house was swinging, although that was more to do with his bulk rather than his singing abilities! There have been quite a few changes….. I now live at the elephant camp, in a house made from eucalyptus, bamboo and pineapple leaves. House may be stretching it a little I suppose, possibly it’s more of a shack! I’ve actually recently moved house and was in a smaller one before, now I even have a garden!!! And before that I was living with a Thai family…. Arnon and Ao are no longer in my life. For various reasons I decided to leave them. Things just ... read more
Heading back to the camp from the forest at sunrise...with Tia doing a pretty good genie impression
I've had a few tellings off recently for not keeping up to my blog....... so in anticipation of an update I might as well publish this one that I had apparently saved and forgotton about - I've had a lot going on!! - from February! Yep, the last time I wrote was in February! I'd finished off the last one with the line "is it officially lying to say that you're full just to avoid eating flattened frog?" I really hope it isn’t…because when I was invited for breakfast at Tia’s house the next morning…the frogs were back! That’s one of the things I love about this place….there’s no waste…… This week started with uncharacteristically rainy weather - all day! But it’s still better than English rain as it’s warm, and you dry out quickly. Unfortunately ... read more
February 5th 2008
Heading back to the camp
Update from the Elephant Mahout Project: 28th January -3rd February On arrival at the elephant camp this morning, I was quietly sat contemplating the volunteer garden (and its failures) when I was called over by a mahout, Tia, with a tortoise in his hand and told to follow him and another mahout, Mr. Choi. I did. We walked through the camp, across the road, through the gardens in front of the Buddha Mountain, climbed over the fence (I think that might be illegal) and put the tortoise in the pond at the foot of the mountain. I have no idea where the tortoise came from. I can only assume that they had found it and wanted to liberate it, at the same time making some merit for themselves. I decided that it was just too difficult ... read more
