Look out there's an elephant behind you!

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I had such good intentions to keep up to date with my blog, but now the email has been down for the last few days. On Sunday night we watched the united-arsenal game in a bar. Wish I hadn't as they lost! This meant that I didn't get to bed until 1am and had to be up at 6.30 - not enough sleep for me! Before the game we went to the local night market. We were very proud of ourselves as for the first time we managed to pay the going rate of 10baht per trip rather than being completely tourist scammed and paying 100. On the way back the bus/taxi was full so we had to stand on the grill at the back!!!! We went for dinner at an american rib house which was very nice - live jazz music, the owner came over and introduced himself and everyone was lovely. The food, delicious (a burger - I haven't had one for soooooo long), ended up taking 35 minutes to arrive. This wasn't too much a problem for us as they had said when we ordered that as the burgers were cooked fresh, they took a little longer. The owner though went ballistic. He asked us a couple of times if we had them yet and when we said no the third time he stomped off, presumably to have a go at his chef, kicking over a bench on the way!! He then told the band, the friends he was having dinner with, had a staff meeting in the middle of the restaurant to reprimand them....we ended up feeling really bad and we hadn't even complained. To make things worse they arrived late, and they had given us free nachos due to waiting so long, so we weren't hungry enough to eat them!
Today Nippon was back, and Mr Tong. After a very drawn out conversation I found out that the baby is actually Mr Tongs brothers. I was a bit concerned when I asked Mr Tong how old the baby was and he said "oh, 2...or 3..."
I also found out that Locky (Rocky) the puppy is dead. He didn't recover from the mauling that Neil gave him. After 3 days of asking Serweng and him telling me that Locky was sleeping, I marched Nippon over to him and got him to ask. They just laughed, and said it was my fault because I hadn't broken up the fight sooner! So of course then my eyes started to fill with tears and they didn't have a clue what to do! (I think) to try and make me feel better Ao drew a picture in the sand of a little dog with a halo above it's head i.e. Locky is in heaven.
Bit of a boring day today elephant wise, not many tourists . Rode Surichok a few times, posed in Whichas sunglasses, stuck a (fake) frog in my hair and had funny pictures taken.... In the afternoon we had rain. We were praying for it to be a real downpour as it was so hot and humid, whereas the mahouts were all trying to keep out of it as though it would do them serious damage. The only time it did rain really heavily, typically, was when we were riding back from a tourist trip. Hor nicked one umbrella and put it up over him, Mr Tong sat in Surichoks chair with another over him....and I rode on Surichoks neck getting soaked!
Then had a VERY strange evening. It went like this......
At 6pm went over to the camp to take Surichok to the forest for the night. I rode her there and was probably the most scared that I have ever been whilst riding her. We went along a really busy road. The cars and bikes...and lorries...were driving really fast and they hardly move over to the side at all, so are very near to Surichok. Of course with her one eye she tries to look at everything so her head was all over the place. And Mr Tong decided to ride with me, rather than walk...and I was sat right on the chains around her neck, so I didn't feel particularly steady. Whilst I'm sitting there trying not to look too petrified I have the constant ringing in my ears of "farang on a chang, farang on a chang" from all the children that run out to see us go past! I forgot all this though when we sacred 2 German women to death. We were walking along behind them and I was thinking I wondered if they knew that they had an elephant following them. Turns out no, because when they turned around they jumped a mile and ran across the road. Of course we were hysterical with laughter. On the way back Mr Tong and Nippon were picking herbs in the fields for dinner and chattering away to each other in Thai. I just admired the view. Nippon had driven down to collect us in his pick-up truck as it was raining and we stopped and collected a couple of stray mahouts on the way back.
Got back to the apartments and had dinner, then we were planning a shower and trip to Tesco, but we were hijacked. As we were eating Anon put a DVD on from when the camp started, which was very interesting. Hor came over with some beers and we drank one whilst we watched the DVD. Then Anon put another DVD on of the monkey conservation project in Phuklet...and we watched that and Hor went and got some more beer. Then he put one on of the tsunami project...and we watched that. Then he put a concert DVD on, which again was good..... and we watched that (Hor kept having to go and get more beer in the pouring rain). But we couldn't understand it as it was in Thai. So Anon and Hor were laughing away, and we picked up on some bits..... Then Anon put a music CD on.....and started doing robotic dancing........ By this time it was about 10.30 and we still hadn't had a shower. I wasn't too bad as I'd had one at lunchtime, so when Tessa said she needed to go I hung around, thinking I'd make my excuses pretty quickly. We did! Within a coupel of minutes Hor and I looked at each other, yawned and stretched and scarpered. A bizarre evening indeed.
Tuesday was pretty much the same. A few more tourists to take out during the day, but nothing too exciting. We had planned to go to Tesco again....but got hijacked again! This time we were having a drink after dinner when Ao asked us if we wanted to go to the beach to celebrate New Year (! I presumed he meant Chinese New Year, although I didn't think that was yet!)
To get there we had to hop on the back of Ao and Gofs motorbikes. This was very scary, especially for me as Ao is teeny, tiny and I didn't feel confident that he was much in control. So I just hoped for the best. Anyway we went to the top of the hill where we'd been on actual NY Eve. And stayed there for 10 minutes. Then we got on the bikes again and went to the beach. And stayed there for 10 minutes. Then came back!! I think I opened three cans of beer but only got one sip out of each!
Wednesday day again pretty much the same. Apart from my ticket fiasco. Because Tess is leaving on Saturday, I thought it made sense to try and get my ticket changed to later so that we could travel to the airport together. I asked Noy in the office if she could phone the airline for me and gave her my passport and tickets. To cut a long, long story very short, over the period of a few days she misunderstood me when the flights were full and I suggested trying them again on Wednesday or Thursday to see if there had been a cancellation. She booked my flight for thursday. then it changed to Wednesday. So I'm not entirely sure when I'm going home. And I still haven't got my tickets and passport back. Oh, and she wants to take me to her house on Sunday......
When we'd finished at 3pm Hor called us over for a game of cards. Half way through all the mahouts got called to tourists. So we sat around watching them, sharing banter as they passed. Basically this meant that I tried to say something to them in Thai, and they looked back at me quizzically and said "huh?". Num eventually rode past shouting "Fanta, Fanta (my name apparently - Samantha is too difficult to say) is crazy....."
Then we were supposed to be taking the elephants to the forest, but just as we got the basket off Surichok she was called to do a ride, so I was told to go home. I had a shower and dinner when Tess got back, then when we were finally thinking we would get to Tesco...... Ao came in and told me I was going to cut and collect pineapple leaves with Hor for Surichok and Saancome. I didn't mind this, and had wanted to go, but a bit of warning would have been good. Literally I had just finished eating and was told I was going. I needed to dry my hair!!!! There then followed a crazy 10 minutes where I ran upstairs to try and dry my hair, then realised they were here to collect me so ran back down again, then everything I came downstairs wearing was deemed no good. So initially after being in my usual elephant uniform of t-shirt and flip flops I had to run up and down stairs 4 times until I was in long sleeves (raincoat - the only thing I had) and trainers. Ao and Gof were coming too, and Tess managed to wangle a place too - thankfully. So we climbed into the back of Mr Tongs old truck (the one that needs hotwiring to get it started) and bounced along the highway and country lanes. We eventually arrived at a farm, got to the pineapple field, almost got the truck stuck..... then in pitch darkness Hor started to hack down pineapple leaves and we had to throw them into the back of the truck. Not easy in a truck with high sides. I got one full in the face from Hor, then I got my own back by getting Gof smack across the face....and we all got extremely hot and sweaty. I was so glad I'd had a shower, I felt so much better for it. I'm also still convinced that a farmer came down on Thursady morning and went "where are my ******** pineapples!" On the way back I sat in the front while the others perched on top of the pineapple leaves in the back. After thinking that I had the better deal initially, having to see Hors driving first hand was enough to change my mind. We went through a pothole and stalled....so up goes the bonnet.....then we hit a dog - I heard the squeals and it bounce off the wheels but after hanging out of the windowq I couldn't see it, they seemed pretty unconcerned - probably quite a regular occurrance. Then we almost hit another.....and alll the time Hor was driving on the wrong side of the road, only pulling over when there was something heading towards us.....
When we got back, we supervised while the boys unloaded the pineapples, then Hor got out the loony 98% Thai whisky that knocks you out with one sniff. There was only one glass so the routine was one person got a measure, downed the drink, glass refilled and passed on..... a good few times over. Maybe I shouldn't mention that Hor had been drinking this earlier in the day too...... (this seems to be the favoured drink of the mahouts when they want to "unwind" and was the drink of choice at the 10am party. I have been treated/subjected to this on several occasions!)
On Thursday morning after not taking Surichok to the forest I wasn't sure what time I needed to be up the next morning, but Tessa said that she thought it was 5.30am for everyone. So I set my alarm and went across at 5.30....and the whole place was in darkness. I stayed until 6am and when there still wasn't any sign of life I went back to bed for 1/2 hour. Sleep time is precious!
Again the day was pretty regular. I took afew tourists out, earned 40 baht in tips, stingy b......
Learnt a bit more Thai, played cards and connect 4.....then at the end of the ay we finally made it to Tesco....mainly so that Tess could buy her presents, one of which we had decided was a karaoke achine for all the mahouts. We bought a few DVD's the other day and had a little practice. I'm not sure how I'll do in this as Tessas "other life" is as a professional singer!!

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Photos

Sanctuary of Truth
This is a self portrait of us in the hard hats we had to wear

Me in a bar
not quite sure which one it was, I can remember it was a Saturday night....Check out the tan lines. I have a tanned face, forearms and feet!

Another picture of Neil the puppy
and there we are playing connect 4 behind him. Neil has now taken to following me home every night and sleeping under the table. In fact he follows me everywhere, even to camp and back in the dark. I am always falling over him!

Mr Tongs brother and his daughter
I'm pretty sure it's a girl....