Happy New Year - with a difference

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Yesterday at the elephant camp was pretty boring as I haven't been introduced to the elephants yet. I was having serious doubts as to whether I'm going to be able to stick it out for long as listening to the others that are here they don't seem to do much. I'm hoping that things will improve once I actually start working with the elephants and have decided to give it a week, then I will decide whether I am going to stay for just 2 weeks and move on, or whether I can cope with the (at the moment) apparent boredom. I spent ages on the internet, then set off for a walk to find the beach and see what was around. The beach was packed - I'm near to Jontiem rather than Pattaya thankfully - so I just walked to the end and then back again.
In the evening I went out with the other girls to buy some drinks to have ourselves a little New Years Eve party, and we ended up stopping at a restaurant and having a delicioius Thai green curry with chicken. Back at the apartments we cracked open our beers/bacardi breezers/ wine coolers....and started playing cards. I'm not sure how, as I didn't know any of the games and didn't listen to the rules, but I ended up winning a few games on the trot! Then Ao and Lam and a few of their friends asked us if we wanted to go with them to the beach for the new year countdown. So we all piled into the back of a pick up truck and coasted through the streets of downtown Pattaya. After a few turns (in the middle of the road, blocking all the traffic) as it was too busy to park anywhere, we ended up parking and walking up the steepest hill EVER. After a while at the top the boys decided that we would be better to go back before midnight to watch the fireworks as we would get stuck in traffic with it being so busy. We had 8 minutes so sped back through the streets, then all leaned out of a window at the top to watch the fireworks! Eventually got to bed at 1am and sleep at 2am.......
And then I had to get up at 6.30 to meet my elephant and mahout. I wa supposed to meet the manager of the camp at 7am but he wasn't there (there seemed to have been a big mahout new year party - lots of empty bottles lying around) so Ao showed me around. Found out at breakfast about bombings in Bangkok last night. They are all places that I have been to - sacry! Then Nipon, the manager, met me after breakfast at 9am and did the same thing again.
My elephant is called Surichok and she's 40 years old, and my mahout Mr. Tong. I spent the morning walking around with them, learning what to say to the elephant to get her to move, stop, turn....and how to chain her up. I also had to do lots of sweeping and getting pineapple leaves for her. Apparently it will take a few days for her to get used to my smell and the sound of my voice to feel comfortable/confident with me. In the afternoon I took Sirichok for her shower and my mahout did a disappearing act (not that I'd seen much of him anyway except to point at me and say "Sam, pineapple"). So I'm all alone with a huge elepant tring to get her to walk in the right direction...... But I managed it. t's a very surreal feeling having a huge elephant walking along calmly by your side! At 3pm the working day is finished and I headed back fro a shower. Not much else to do except read, sort pictures, surf the net.... but I managed to keep busy all day. Still not sure if I will last a month as you spend so much time just sitting around all day. I'm going to try and use the time tomorrow to carry on trying to learn Thai as I have let that drop over the last few weeks.

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