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Published: January 22nd 2007
Soooo, I didn't quite follow through with the promise to try and update my blog more regularly and it's been two weeks since my last confession. So here goes.....
I now have only one week left at the eklephant camp and so go home in less than a week. Yikes!
The good news is that I have progressed a lot with riding Surichok. Inow ride on her neck every day. I take tourists out!!!! How mad is that? And she actually listens to what I say....sometimes!
Since my last entry thae following thuings have happened. After writing my last blog we went out with Ao, Lam and Gof on Saturday night for a Thai meal, which was fabtastic as they just ordered a selection for us which we passed around and took a little of everything. I tried not to let the name of the restaurant "Mr Dog" put me off. On Monday night we had a bit of a bonding party with the mahouts to help Chloe as she was having a bit of a hard time with Hor, basically she never saw him. So we arranged to go over to the camp and have a couple of beers with
Bonding
Honest the beer, whisky, wine had nothing to do with it....them..............5 hours later........ It was a very messy night, as the pictures prove. And bond we definitely did, ending up in a karaoke bar where all the music was in thai. We had a good go though, although trying to get the mike off Hor was more difficult than trying to follow the phonetic lyrics.
The routine of the week working in teh camp continued as normal: Monday, Wednesday and Friday up at 6.45 to be in camp for 7am. feeding Surichok with pineapple leaves, raking/sweeping discarded food/poo and taking her for a shower. Breakfast. Ride her around camp at 9am, sleeping and a bit more sweeping/feeding. Lunch 12 - 1pm, back for a ride again, another shower, sweeping/feeding. Interspersed with this are the tourist rides, and I now get to be the mahout riding on Surichoks neck with the tourists in the chair on her back. The first time I did this I tried to look confident, but in reality I think I was stiff as a board and couldn't turn around to make eye contact. We also ended up in a tree and I had to be helped out by Mr Tong. Much apologising to said tourists! Some
Getting on an elephant....
isn't as easy as you might think days we get lots of tourists and other days are really quiet, so sometimes the spare time is just spent lying around. When I first arrived couldn't imagine lying around sleeping during the day, but it is a skill I have managed to master much easier than climbing up and down an elephant. The best bit of this is getting to sleep in the chair that is on Surichoks ack. The highlight of my day! It's very comfprtable but can be very dizzying if she decides to wander around for food. I've laso helped to put the chair onto her back. I put the blankets on her back and held the rope that holds it in place....must remember to update my CV. The hardest part of this job for me was having to turn around on her neck so that I was facing her bum. I still acven't conquered that fear of heights, and even thiough I do enjoy riding her some of the time I still find it a bit of an ordeal and turn into a quivering wreck and feel as though I'm sweating a lot. Nice! I actually enjoy it more when I have tourists as I
Helping to put the chair/basket on Surichok
I held the rope, a VERY important part of the process! have to be good and confident. I also know that the mahouts have to be aware of the tourists safety so they are always around, walking somewhere nearby, and that makes me feel more secure. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings we take the elephants to the "forset" so that means a 5.45am start on Tuesday and Thursday to bring them back, and a 5.15am start on Saturday to take them to the river for a bath. I have seen lots of sunsets amd sunrises, although sometimes it's so quick it's like someone has turned a light on/off.
On Wednesday we went to see a baby elephant at another camp about 30 minutes away. Into the back of the pick up we piled, and held on a Nippon tried his best to throw us out around corners. Actually that does him a disservice, he only tried to do that on the way back, on the way there he lulled us into a false sense of security. The baby elephant was 6 months old and very cute, but it was upsetting to see elephants tied up on short chains in pens, swaying from side to side because of boredom/distress. It
made us realise that ours are living in paradise compared to this, especially with gullible volunteers (i.e.me) takin them half their breakfast and buying them bananas and pineapples every day. It was amazing with the baby elephant that despite being only 6 months he was quite strong. When he got his trunk wrapped around your leg it was quite a task to get free. Alarmingly on the way out of this canp we also saw a leaopard being kept in a cage!
After lunch we got the saddest news. the little black and white puppy was killed when it was hit by a motorbike. They were all quite blase about it, but we were really upset, absolutely gutted as it was such a sweet puppy. Nippon told me when I got back, and after I said "are you sure?" thinking this could quite possible be the start of some kind of wind-up, he took me to show me him, even holding the puppy up by the neck and swinging it around just so that I could see that, yes, he was actually dead.
On Thursday night a group of us went to the Thai boxing. It was amazing, I really
enjoyed the whole spectacle and ceremony of it as well as the skill of the fighting. The first few fights were between 10 year olds!! There was also a prize fight near the end, the main event, and the Thai man beat the French title holder. that'll teach him to come out to "We are the champions"
Chad and Chloe decided to saty on for another few days, which I was very plased about otherwise I would have been on my own. Their last night was Saturday, and this was also when another new volunteer arrived, Tessa, again from England which is brilliant. So we went to the beach and had a few drinks.....I hadn't realised until writing this quite how often we do this! I got a bit of unwanted attention from a very drunk Thai friend of Whichas, so sat as far away from him as I could. the beach was beautiful at night, you could almost imagine that Pattaya was a pleasant holiday spot...almost. From here we ended up in the karaoke bar again . This night ended up with me being one of the last to leave (I know you won't believe that for a minute.....)
and being taken home on a motorbike by Hor, with a very drunk Gof making up the rear. I was in a motorbike sandwich!!!!!
On Sunday Chad and Chloe left which was very sad. I'm sure Whicha had a tear in his eye...... Lam mentioned going to the market later and asked if we wanted to go with him, so in the afternoon I introduced Tessa to the delights of Pattaya beach. We ended up sitting in a bar for a few hours (drinking pepsi!!!!) and watching the world go by. This included seeing an ambulance screech by, followed by lots of tiourists with camcorders. We later found out that there had been an accident with a boat, a jetski and a giant banana. One man was killed instantly, so the body we saw carried into theback of the ambulance (a pick up truck) was a deadman. I should point out that we were'nt amongst the ambulnce chasing tourists, this all happened outside the bar where we were sat.
Lam had mentioned going to the market tonight so on the way back I tried to remember the short cut I'd taken to the beach when taking Surichok to her forest.
I managed to find the way ok, but we were stared at all the way back. A reason for this may have been that part of the short cut involved walking past some peoples shack/houses where they were taking a shower. I definitely went that way with Mr Tong and Nippon!! When we got back to go to the market with Lam he made it seem as though it was a real chore, so we just ended up going to Tesco, not daring to look at anything because we felt as though we were holding him up.
Then back to monday and the routine satrts allover again. This weeks interesting things included: me falling on my bum.....off an elephant. there I was trying to get off all gracefully and it all went wrong. i thought I'd got away with it and would just about keep my balance, but no, down I went. And worst of all it was in slow motion. And did anyone step forward to catch me and stop me falling, no they stood there laughing. My mahout, my elephants owner, his girlfriend, the dog....... And to add insult to injury the story obviously did the rounds. There
I'd be chatting away and a random mahout would wander/ride past, point at me, his behind and crack up laughing. Oh dear.....
In new this week we have had live elephant porn for three days. On Tuesday a truck arrived carrying an elephant, a new lady friend for Monchun. I actually missed the arrival, and first bout of "action" as I was asleep, along with Mr Tong and Hor. That sounds incredibly dodgy so I should explain that I was on top of Surichok, Hor was in a hammock and Mr Tong was on a table. Apparently Chicken (a mahout, not an actual chicken) was sent to get us to partake in the viewing (a large crowd had gathered to cheer Monchun on) but we didn't stir. We got to catch up later though as there were several repeat performances over the next three days. Tessa and I spent lots of time sprinting back from the apartments or hanging out of the windows whenever we heard the distinctive noises that announced a little lovin' action was on the way. I have pictures which are available at a special price....not for the squeamish though. Also on Tuesday we discovered that Serweng
had been woken by his elephant Camoon at 3am. She had slipped her chain and gone for a wander around. Obviously the elephants talk to each other when we're not there so Docoon slipped hers to try and stop the lovin' happening opposite her. Very inconsiderate of them. Surichok tried to get in on the act on Wednesday but couldn't quite get the hang of it so she just pulled her chain out of the ground. It wasn't until I realised I was near a tree that she shpouldn't be ab;e to reach that I relaised what she had done!
As a reaction to this I think (that's my excuse anyway) on Tuesday night I bought a bottle of vodka for us to have a drink, I was so sick of beer. I ended up having rather a lot (probably not by usual/previous standards, 2 cans of beer and I'm all over now) and was late on Wednesday morning. I forgot to set my alarm and didn't wake up until 7.30, and then thought it wasn't worth it until after breakfast. I got a bit of the silent treatment from Nippon for about 1/2 an hour and then all would
have been foprgotten. Except obviously for the mahout grapevine. So I got called mau (drunk) alot. I'm sure their respect for me will have gone up! I felt bad later though as I managed to convince Nippon that my feeling ill wasn't a hangover and he became all concerned, telling me that I could go back to the apartment and sleep if I needed to, and that if I didn't feel up to it I didn't need to go back at 6 to take Surichok to the forest.
When I did go back I found out that Mr Tong was leaving to go to Surin to see his baby, who wasn't well. It took a while to find this out though. When I got over there Mrs Tong started talking to me and I couldn't understand a word she was saying. I may have been distracted by her orange and black teeth though. After looking pleadingly at Hor for help in understanding (no such luck) I finally managed to piece enough together to understand. Mr Tong then confirmed this in his (very) broken English by waving his arms round and saying Surin, and doing pretend car driving. I knew something
Crossing the road with Surichok to the forest
The reason the picture is blurred is that I'm running for my life, dodging cars, motorbikes....When we cross without an elephant Mr Tong holds my hand! was wrong when he had clean hair and had had a shave. Serweng then came over and I was told for about the 6th time that Mr Tong was leaving to go to Surin to see his sick baby. He would be gone until Sunday, Surichok would not be going to the forest tonight and Nippon would be my mahout. So I sat and had a beer with Hor (I remembered the hangover about 1/2 way through the can, eeuugh) and watched them load up the car. Big bottle of scary looking alcohol, check....
The next day Nippon was nowhere to be seen so Hor ended up being my mahout. He'd obviously been told to look after me and hardly left my side. He wouldn't let me do anything!! When I took Surichok for a shower he took the bucket, he put her chair on and he made her sit down for me to get on and off....actually I quite liked that bit. I tried to make conversation with him but he speaks virtually no English, so I switched to gambling instead and we palyed cards all afternoon. We have now reached a happy state where he babbles on at
The first view of Surichok
On a morning when we have to bring her back from the forest she's quite grumpy at having to leave all that varied, juicy grass behind. This is the time I most think I'm going to fall off...and pray for a soft landing me in Thai and do the same to him in English. If something's really important we get our point across by pointing or picking words out in a phrase book. It works for us!
Friday and there is still no sign of Nippon, so I'm with Hor again. Much the same as yesterday, in fact it's a really slow day. Some of the mahouts decide to have a party at 10am, dancing away to some dodgy thai music and drinking even dodgier whisky, which of course it's obligatory to taste. I try to get away with the pepsi I have in my hand, but they're having none of that and I'm quickly given a beer. I last the whole morning with one sip but feel like a naughty schoolgirl when Num, Tessas mahout, comes over and gives me a look of oure disgust at the beer can in front of me. I sit there looking shame faced, secretly wanting to tell him that I haven't drunk mine but she's had a full can, it's under the table!!!! The "party" whiles away the morning until they all need to sleep it off and so they put an elephant DVD on for
Thai karaoke
No pics of singing I'm afraid. First rule of karaoke bar....what happens in the bar stays in the bar us. Liam, one of the mahouts (I think I can safely guess that it's NOT spelt like that!) talked me through it, explaining where it was etc.
Saturday was an early start to go to the river, so I was up at 5am to have a coffee before we set off. 5.30 came and went and no sign of Hor. At 6 o'clock I was woken from my sleep across the table by him slamming the stick on the table..... We walked to the river, Hor gave Surichok her bath (still no sign of Nippon) and I rode her back. And ended up in a tree, hanging onto her ears while she tried to pull it up. Then spent the rest of the morning playing a warped version of connect 4 with Nums daughter. Mainly this involved throwing the pieces on the floor, picking them up, throwing them....you get the picture. We also presented Serweng with two very gay pink and purple collars for his 2 puppies to try and protect them from the same fate as other puppy (he'd been reminding me that I said I'd do this all week - dog collars are surprisingly hard to find in
Thailand). Locky (Rocky) one of the puppies was really out of sorts. i'd had to break up a major dog fioght between him and Neil yesterday (watched and encouraged by all the mahouts from the tops of their elephants taking tourists) and Serweng says Locky came off worst. I hope he's ok. In the afternoon I went for a quick snooze after lunch and woke up 5 hours later!!! Where did my day go? Went for a delicious Thai green curry then took Tessa on at the card game I had taught her. I taught her too well. Then Liam came over and we practiced our Thai on him. I don't think he quite knew what had hit him, as of course we were trying out very useful phrases - not - and he left looking a little bemused, especially after witnessing us completely corpse at what he probably thought was a perfectly reasonable Thai phrase. There's nothing wrong with "easy tiger" is there???
Today (Sunday) we went on a trip to The Temple Of Truth. Sounds scary, was actually very beautiful. A big temple entirely handcarved from wood that took 20 years to complete. We had to wear hard
Monchun the lone male elephant of the camp
If he's coming towards me I have to hide behind a tree as he doesnt like women.... hats! And now I've spent, ooohh about 6 hours updating this. I really will try and update more regularly this week!! Still no sign of Nippon or Locky, I'm really worried - about Locky.
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