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Published: August 21st 2007
Difficult. Jing jing? (really?) Jing! (yes really!)
I haven't updated my blog for a-g-e-s because the week after my last entry the server went down so I was trying to find the lost entries. Thankfully now they've all been retrieved!
After the last entry we didn't have any volunteers the following week so I spent a lot of time in the office working on marketing things. I updated a folder for the volunteers and got a bit carried away doing an A-Z section like they have in hotels too! I also decided to start having Thai lesons as it's very frustrating not being able to talk to people at camp, and because I've been there for a while now they all just come up to me and talk away in Thai at me and I can't understand what they're saying. So I've now had 8 lessons - it should have been more but the teacher is a bit of a nightmare, cancelling, not turning up - and it is SO difficult. I did have this crazy notion when we thought we wouldn't have any volunteers for 2 weeks that I would go every day, returning to camp dazzling them with
Being a tourist again
with Jacqui who did the 1/2 day. Long was riding behind us with tourists and he kept asking me for my 200 Baht for the ride. It was very enjoyable but not a patch on actually driving an elephant!my new Thai conversational skills. Not to be: 1st we got a late booking so were only about a week volunteerless and my brain started to fry and I had to beg for some days off in between to recover. I suppose I am getting better as I can recognise words in sentences now - a good start! - and even if I can't work out exactly what they're saying to me I get the idea and can try and answer them. Sill doing a lot of pointing though!
In the middle of all this we had a couple book a 1/2 day elephant care on a Sunday. I'd never been up to the camp on a Sunday and couldn't believe how busy they were with tourist rides. Mr. Soem the camp manager (maybe I should say manager of the camp so I don't give any wrong ideas about him?) is trying to make the camp more tourist friendly - they're building new gardens, we have new toilets (western - hurray) and he's trying to get more elephants. We've had about 6 arrive in the last 2 weeks so it's really weird being at camp and not knowing everyone, and
them thinking (and treating me like) I'm a volunteer there for a week or so. They were a lovely couple that did the 1/2 day and it was the husbands birthday so we had cake as well. They came back a couple of weeks ago with a big crate of fruit & veg for the elephants. It was very amusing to watch which elephants liked tomatoes and which didnt, which ones liked tomatoes, apples, carrots etc. Dola the 5 year old ate everything, even the beans! After they'd been the first time we called up to where they live to leave some brochures. I was driving, accompanied by Mrs. Noi. Now Mrs. Noi is lovely but she can be confusing at the best of times. Driving with her was definitely an experience. She got her left and right mixed up giving me directions, then told me I was going the wrong way when I'd checked with her 30 seconds ago that I was following the white car....... She had me doing U turns and allsorts on the highway!
We then had some volunteers arrive so it was back to camp (except for a day when I had to stay at
Birthday party at the camp
with Mrs Noi, me, Mr Soem and Ken the office because all the work I'd done for the website got deleted by a virus aarrgghh) and I was really glad to be back, especially after spending a week sat in front of the computer. They all thought my skin coulour was quite entertaining as I've started to go pale again after being stuck indoors. I was going to go to the beach everyday after working but it never happened.
We've had a few changes with elephants too. As well as new ones arriving, Sang Dow the 7 year old has gone back to Surin but her mahout has stayed here and has a different elephant - also called Sang Dow. That was a very confusing conversation between me & her mahout Daa with me asking where Sang Dow was and him pointing at an elephant that was obviously not the 7 year old I was talking about! And sadly we had an elephant die. Arnons elephant Natalie/Saancome - he gave her an 'international name' (?) - picked up a parasite and at 85 was just not able to fight it off. It was horrible the day she died. Pi Tha who looks after her had walked her up
to the top of the camp for some water to try and get her moving. Unfortunately it didn't work as she couldn't make it back. She managed a few paces and then just collapsed. She laid there in the rain for hours. Just after we'd got back to camp we got a phone call to say that sh'e died. Arnon, Ao, Mrs. Noi and Gof all went back to camp where they'd organised a JCB and some monks to perform a ceremony for Natalie. I was really sad that I couldn't be there but understood (even though it wasn't said to me & they didn't even seem to consider me) that someone had to stay at the apartments and be with the volunteers. When I went back to the camp on Monday I tok some flowers and put them where they'd buried Natalie. I spent Saturday, after the volunteers had left, cleaning all the rooms with Ao. He kept telling me to relax and seemed to find it very bizarre/amusing that I was cleaning. I think he does still see me as "volunteer" and can't quite get his head around the fact that he doesn't have to look after me.
Mr. Suaey (beautiful) apparently?!
showing us how to make jewellery from elephant tail hair I feel awful sometimes though when they're cleaning and I'm sat tapping away on the computer, and I wanted to make sure the beds were made right - they have a habit of only putting a sheet on the bottom and then a blanket on top. I thought it was easier to do them myself rather than try to explain, and hopefullythey'll just copy the 'western' way I did!
We've also had a visit from our travel agent partner in the UK so I went with Mrs. Noi to collect her and her family from the airport in Bangkok. Mrs. Noi had talked about me driving (to/in Bangkok!!!!!) but thankfully she decided that we'd get the bus and then organise a taxi once we were there. Saddo that I am I also saw this as a good opportunity to get the bus times to Bangkok and the airport and wandered around the bus station taking pictures of all the timetables as they didn't have any printed ones. It was a nice couple of days with Nikki and good to put a face to her after we've spent so much time emailing.
The last week we've had no volunteers again so
I've been in the office, it feels like I've got a proper job. I have breakfast, go to the office, finish at 5....... I'll be glad to get back to the camp and out in the open air again! Arnon had a mad clearing phase last week and has changed things around. One of the downstairs bedrooms has been changed into another office and we've got a sofa in the 'lobby' which has been completely taken over by Bua as a sleeping place. Talking of Bua it is DEFINITELY a boy so he is now renamed Mr. Bua and is very confused having thought he was a girl for the 1st few months of his life! He's now at the naughty stage of his kitten life and so far in the past week has got stuck on the roof, got his head stuck between the bars of a chair and last night got stuck on the top of my wardrobe. He's very good at climbing up things, not so good at getting back down again!
I have been teasing Arnon (not sure he realises that it is just that yet) because he put some computers in the new office and
some in the volunteer room/old office, then told me that the new office was so that he, Ao and Mrs. Noi could work. When I asked "what about me?" he took me to the old office and said this was my computer next to the volunteers, so I've been stuck in an office by myself all week. Quite like it actually - much less stressful and i can play my own music! What this has also meant is that I now don't have to worry about me being moved into the room downstairs (as Arnon has kept mentioning) - I say worry because it is easier creepy crawly access downstairs and I'd have their music blaring in my ears at 6am every morning, at least upstairs it's a bit muffled! So I decided that I would girlify my balcony - another plus to staying up there - and have attached some tinkly bells to the railings, given it a good clean and bought some citronella candles. Only problem is that last night, after having the balcony open for most of the day, I came back to find the biggest, ugliest spider EVER in my bathroom and was convinved it was
Ao & Mrs. Noi gardening
as part of our "renovation/rejuvenation?" because I'd had the door open. So the bottle of wine I'd treated myself to to enjoy on the balcony didn't get opened. Not that I could have opened it anyway as I don't have a corkscrew, although I have managed to do it before with just a butter knife! Yesterday turned out to be a really relaxing, easy going day. After cleaning in the morning I was going to set off for the beach. I kept getting delayed though as Serweng (a mahout from the old camp) turned up for a chat, then Jhor of Lek & Jhor fame. It was really good to see him again. And he was awake. And sporting facial hair!!! I did make it eventually to the beach, but I didn't manage to even out my dodgy tan i.e. American tan socks due to cropped trousers but with a white flip flop mark, tanned face, chest arms and upper back. The rest is milkbottle. Attractive! I need to sort it out! My plan is to fade back to pale and then try to keep up with the uneven tanning process with fake tan. In theory, at least, it sounds possible. On the way back
from the beach I fell over in the middle of the road! I thought Thai people were supposed to be nice? A motorbike taxi driver just cracked up laughing at me as I was sprawled in the middle of 4 lanes with my shopping bags crashing down around me. I was mostly worried, however, about the previously mentioned bottle of wine that I'd bought!
Gof went back to Bangkok on Saturday. We've been getting on ok again after our 'falling out' - he randomly started being nice again...some of the time. I'll keep in touch with him and give him a call when I'm going to Bangkok. Before he left on Saturday he sat with me for ages, I kept trying to make conversation but it was quite difficult with the language. He just sat there, wherever I was. I resoted to trying out my Thai on him. Poor bloke. He did finally admit that he and his wife have split up, which goes some way to explaining his moodiness lately, or does it? He's always had his girlfriends on the go and the last time I discussed this with him, about a month ago, he was still saying that
he loved his wife, although there was a bit of a hesitation and she'd moved down the list from number 1 to number 2 in his ranking. Thai culture has a lot to answer for!
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Tess
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Saancome
Huge condolences about Saancome. On my first day, after my bizarre journey and heavenly shower, I ventured downstairs on my own to find Saancome standing outside the accommodation. That was my first elephant experience!!!! That's so sad. Thai people are SO much less sentimental than us!!!! I shall send a facebook flower for you both. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx