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Sorry lots of pictures with this one, as well as those from previous 2 blogs, as it wasn't uploading!
I'm spending much more time "working" now at the camp, so I spend quite a lot of time in the office - which is brilliant actually as it has air con! The only problem I have is that the manager of the tourist section falls asleep at his desk and snores very loudly!! I haven't even ridden an elephant this week!
On Monday evening we had a new volunteer arrive. Lam has been ill so we had a takeaway delivered....but it's not quite the kind of take away I've ever had in England! It was Korean food and they brought lots of bags of raw food (fish, chicken, pork, vegetables, soup) and 2 pots with coals in which were placed on the table and lit. Then they sat a metal plate thing on top which had holes in the top and a wide rim around the edge. Soup was poured into the rim and when it started to boil we put the vegetables and noodles in the soup to cook. Then we took pieces of fish or meat, whatever we wanted
to eat, dipped it into the soup and then placed it on top of the dome/plate with holes in, and it cooked! It was fantastic, a real experience, although I did bite into something thinking it was fish and it actually turned out to be pork fat. We later found out - about 2 hours too late - that you're supposed to put the fat on top of the meat/fish to help it cook!
I spent the rest of the week at the camp helping Tracy the new volunteer. I walked around with her on Tuesday teaching her the commands to use with her elephant Kam-moon, then spent the other days following her taking pictures with her camera. It gave me chance to get to know her mahout a bit better too so that I can write about him and Kam-moon for the elephant adoption on the web. He's been her mahout for 6 years and you can really see the trust that they have with each other. he never raises his voice with her and she is so obedient, she just listens and does as she's told!
On Tuesday we went to Nong nooch Gardens in the afternoon. Part
of this was watching a show. The first part was good as it was Thai dancing and demonstrations of Thai boxing. The second part though was an elephant show. I walked in, and then as soon as I saw that they had bicycles and things I turned straight around and walked back out again. I stood at the back and so did see a bit of it. It was horrible. They had them painting, dancing, riding a bicycle - obviously all elephants naturally do that??? That was the worst thing, knowing that the only way that they will ahve got the elephants to do that was to bring them up and train them by hitting them. Actually the worst thing was the number of people there watching - and enjoying - this kind of show. I wanted to go around to each one of them and tell them what the elephant will have gone through to be made to do this. In a perverse way it was probably good for me to see this as it certainly made me passionate about what we are tring to do at the camp. We had a walk around the gardens after the show,
they were massive and involved a scramble down a rock face. I don't think that's the official way that you're supposed to get back down to the car park, but anyway.......
Wednesday involved grass cutting. I'd been 2 weeks ago and my arms had just healed from all the scratches from carrying the grass to the truck, now I'm covered in them again! Today I was promoted to a cutter, so I scythed away. I was nowhere near as good as mahout Daa's wife though, I was getting about three handfuls of grass with each cut. She'd cleared 3 fields in the same amount of time!
We satayed at the camp for 2 nights running this week - tuesday and wednesday. Tuesday was fairly subdued, we ate dinner alone after taking the elephants to teh forest and then it was an early night. Wednesday was better as I asked Kop to ask all the mahouts to eat with us, so we had the big mat on the floor again and all shared. Kop and ended the night again sharing the vodka!
The biggest problem I've had at the camp this week is trying to get the mahouts to wait for
the volunteers to go to collect teh elephants from the forest in the morning. The same thing as last week happened, they told us 6am but we ended up just sitting there, only to see them come back with their elephants at 7am. On Wednesday morning I thought I'd prevent this by being outside at 5.30 but they still agve me the slip! So on tuesday night I tried to get the message across with a few Thai words that I knew - tomorrow, 6am and wait! It worked though - kind of - on Thursday morning they knocked on our huts at 5.30am and we actually got to go with them. It's something I really want the volunteers to get the chance to do as the mahouts take the elephants to the lake on the way back to give thema good wash down before bringing them back to the camp. Breakfast was scrambled egg again. Kops been doing most of the cooking, good news as he's a brilliant cook. I keep offering to help but he won't let me. he enjoys cooking, but I feel awful sitting there letting him get on with it. He did let me toast
Chinese temple
This is Lek, he is one of two work placements (the other is Jhor) who are spending 4 months at the end of their 4 year tourism management degree at the elephant camp. Lek is funny. That's all I need to say!the bread over the coals this morning, but then told me that I'd over cooked it on one side ("black and white!!") then he dropped it on the floor trying to scrape the 'burnt' bits off. Ha!
On Friday morning I was taken to see where the new 'resort' is that Arnon is hoping to have for volunteers to stay at. It's in the countryside about 15 minutes from the camp and is beautiful. There is only one house there at the moment which would be a central building with dining area & kitchen, TV room, computer etc. Then there will be 6 or so smaller buildings with a bedroom, toilet and open-air shower. I wanted to move in there and then. The back of the 'big house' has a veranda leading straight onto a lake!!! All the buildings will be traditional Thai style built in wood on stilts. It will be amazing if it does happen and would really enhance the experience of working and living in a natural environment with the elephants. I'm not getting carried away though, from previous experiences with misled translations it could well turn out that I've actually been to see somewhere where someones
staying at the mahout village
we shared dinner with the mahouts and their families brother is working and we'd just been to drop them their lunch off! Also on Friday I had another Pa-Kam ceremony. Aline and Tracy needed their closing ceremony, and Arnon had been saying to me all week that I would have one too. I kept protesting, saying that I didn't need it as I wasn't leaving, half worried that I'd get back to the apartments one day and find all my things in a bin liner on the road. But he explained that mine wouldn't be a closing ceremony but would be to ask the spirits to help me protect volunteers at the camp. Or something like that!We enede up only staying until afetr lunch, then went back to the apartments where I did some work and Arnon slept off his Thai whisky!
I didn't go to the camp on Saturday, but stayed at the apartments working on the computer. I've made a newsletter (or rather finished one that had been started) to go out to previous volunteers. I'd been doing it on the computer at the camp but it kept crashing, and obviously I'd kept forgetting to save the work every so often. Finally did get it finished and
staying at the mahout village
& this is what we ate! (some of it anyway) made a database of volunteers emails. So feeling pleased with myself at having got alot of work done. In the afternoon Kop took us shopping for a few things (and got us lost!) then we went to a cocktail bar that Aline and Tracy had been to yesterday (Tracy went home this morning) and worked our way through the list during happy hour (or rather 4 hours from 2 - 6pm!) we only made it there from 4 - 6pm (probably not a bad thing) as we'd taken so long with the bits of shopping (and getting lost) that we needed to do. As it was Alines last night it developed into the usual drinkathon!
So Sunday now and I'm holding the fort. Aline left this morning for Bangkok and home, with Kop traveling with her in the taxi as he's also going home to Bangkok for a week (I think - it started off at 2 weeks, then he wasn't going, then it was a week - all these changes of plan happening in the space of about 30 minutes last night), he's taken the things with him to make a new sign promoting the camp whilst he's home.
Yay! 2 more new volunteers arrived today, so we now have 4. As is the law I took them for their initiation ceremony. No, not Pa-Kam...the trip to tesco Lotus! We had a good look around the night market first and then went back to the apartments where we had a good gossip and ate marmite. How yummy was that? During the night we had a really heavy thunderstorm. I have never heard thunder as loud as this! It sounded as though someone was trying to blast their way in through the roof, and the lightening was lighting up the whole room. The elephants in the camp next door were obviously getting a bit distressed so that just added to the noise. Then just afetr getting to sleep from that at about 4am Arnon decided to wake us with an alarm call at 6 of the Cranberries screaming "zombieeeeeeeeeee oh oh oh oh ohhhhhh"
The quiet and peaceful life of Thailand!
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anonymous
non-member comment
i'm sorry to tell ya that whatever you had was definately NOT korean food. esp. not korean BBQ