Mostly tigers and elephants

---

The next morning I was on my way to Thailand. After breezing through customs and immigration and luggage collection upon arrival, I decided to take a few minutes to figure out the best way to proceed.
As I was hoping to get a sleeper train up to Chiang Mai, in Northern Thailand, that night I decided to catch the Airport Express bus to Hua Lamphong Train Station to get a ticket as soon as possible. I was informed, though, when I got there that unfortunately the trains were fully booked, so I decided to take an overnight bus instead. This was actually very roomy and comfortable and included a free bottle of water and snacks, as well as a food voucher for the midnight stop.
After arriving in my hostel in Chiang Mai at 6am I was straight away given a bed to rest for a while. When I finally got myself back up and out the door I took myself on a walking tour to a few of the local temples, with the aid of my Lonely Planet. The temples were amazing to behold. Beautiful buildings with lots of gold leaf filled with various Buddha figures.
Along the way I also stopped at a travel agent to get some info on visiting an elephant park for a day. When I started looking into the various parks around I found out that I could do overnight stays at a few of the parks and even a week volunteering in one. This would cost $400, however, and I just wasn’t sure whether I could afford it.
The next morning I was able to speak to Mum on Skype, and straightaway she told me, without hesitation, that I should do the week volunteering. It was less than half the cost of the one I had been looking at before I left home and as it was what I had really been wanting to do, I would regret it if I didn’t take the opportunity.
It was really good to be able to get the opinion of someone else that knows me so well. So I took Mum’s advice and that afternoon I went down to the Elephant Nature Park office to make arrangements. I found out there that volunteering groups always start on Mondays, which meant I would only be able to do five days before I needed to head back down to Bangkok for my resort week, but I booked it anyway. I wasn’t going to change my mind again now.
That evening I decided to head down to Julie’s Guesthouse, which I had heard is always very social. As I was trying to find the place I met a guy who was on his way back there. This worked well because he then invited me to join him and the group he was hanging out with. I had a few drinks with them there, then three of us headed off for a bit of a wander around town.
I knew that the next day the group I had toured with in Vietnam were going to be going to the Tiger Kingdom, so I made sure I was there early so as not to miss them. They were very surprised to see me and it was great to catch up with them.
Most of the group decided to see all of the different sized tiger groups, but I decided to only visit the smallest and the biggest. The keeper in with the babies had fun taking lots of photos for me, but I was only able to get a few with the big tigers.
After everyone had had their turn with their chosen tigers I went back with them to see Rod, the leader. He was the most surprised and excited to see me, which was cool. I had just walked in with the rest of the group as if I had always been there to see how long it would take him to notice me, but I hadn’t even been in the room for 10 seconds when he jumped up and came rushing over to give me a hug. I am really glad that I was able to see them all again.
That night I hung out with people from the hostel, the owners, some of their friends and other guests. One woman there was concerned about my bad posture and, after poking a few points around my body, said she could tell that my energies were crossed, blocking the flow of energy, and that she would like to set me an appointment for a special massage the next day. I figured I might as well, so the next day I went with her to the private home of an old lady. It was an interesting experience, but I don’t think it did anything to improve my posture.
In the evening I went for a wander along the Sunday Walking Street. It was absolutely packed with people and stalls for the entire length of the street, a couple of kilometres. There was lots of local handicrafts, clothing and food, and seated in several spots down the middle were blind buskers. I would definitely recommend taking a look if you are ever in Chiang Mai. I would like to go back again myself as I was only really interested in finding a few items that I would need for the elephant park, so I didn’t really take much time to look around. One thing I couldn’t help but notice though was that everyone stood and went completely still when the national anthem played, but were busy again as soon as it finished. We would hardly even pay any attention if our anthem played in a place like that at home.
When I was getting ready to leave for volunteering the next morning I heard and felt a pop in my ribs. It really hurt and I was worried what might have happened, and also that it might mean that I wouldn’t be able to do much of the work that needed doing around the farm.
That first day we helped feed the elephants, got kisses from one and watched a few documentaries/ videos. One of these was a very short, but horrifying, look at how young elephants are trained just to pick up a paintbrush for shows.
We also got to meet the founder of the park, Lek. It was so inspiring to meet the lady who has been through and continues to go through so much to save these magnificent creatures and improve their lives everywhere. We got to meet her a day earlier than most volunteer groups as she was flying out the next day to the White House, to meet with Barak Obama himself.
Elephant Nature Park is set up on a big property where elephants are given the opportunity to live as normal lives as possible. The elephants have been rescued from places where they were tortured or given up by families that knew they couldn’t look after them properly. Many have terrible stories of their lives before the park.
That evening a traditional welcoming ceremony was put on for us by some of the elders of the local village. After which was dinner and a chance for the volunteers to learn a bit about one another. I have to mention here that all of the food we were given while at the park was absolutely scrumptious (aroi mark mark/ very very delicious).
The volunteer group consisted of Katie, Meg, Abby, Roxy, Alyx (a vet nurse) and Molly (a vet) all from the US. Then there was Lauren from Canada and Kelly (zoo worker), Megan, Ryan, Misty, Angela and myself from Australia. And last, but not least, Coen from Holland who wants more than anything to work with elephants. Then there were also Nat (or Nut,) the group leader, and Dino, the volunteer coordinator.
The next day I wanted to take it easy so as to allow my ribs to heal as quickly as possible. I wanted to do the work, but not at the expense of my health. So in the morning I helped the overnight visitors scrub fruit and vegetables for the elephants’ meals and, after lunch and elephant bath time, I took the afternoon off.
On the Wednesday it was Lek’s birthday, in honour of which we were to spend the day planting trees along a section of the property border. It was great to see that most of the parks workers joined in for the occasion, as well as many local children, even though Lek herself was not there.
Most of the planting was done before we stopped for lunch and, thanks to some staff that stayed behind, it was completed before we had finished eating.
After lunch and bathing time the volunteers were presented with a surprise opportunity, to go to a remote jungle village for the following night where an elephant was due to give birth at any time. Without hesitation, we all put our hands up for the chance to go.
So the next day we all clambered into the vans for the 7hr drive to the remote Karen village, situated towards the border with Myanmar (Burma). The elephants were allowed to roam through the forest near a hut just out of the village. So we stopped off there on our way to see the pregnant elephant, as well as the fathering bull, an auntie and a little toddler. We were able to get up close and personal amongst the herd, watching, patting and feeding them.
A little while later we were taken down to the village along a steep zigzagging road, the likes of which I had previously only seen in pictures and movies.
That afternoon we followed the Elephant Nature Park vet through the village as he administered worming tablets to the various animals, including a two day old water buffalo calf. Then after dinner we dressed in traditional Karen tops for another welcoming ceremony, followed by stories from Pom, the second in charge to Lek.
None of us wanted to get our hopes up that the baby would actually be born that night, but when we arrived at breakfast the next morning it was to learn that the elephant had in fact given birth to a baby boy. Then during breakfast we were told that it was actually a girl.
While we were waiting to be taken up we saw a couple of men heading up with shotguns. There was a rumour that noises had been heard and that they feared the presence of a tiger, drawn to the smell, but they found upon inspection that it was in fact a second baby girl. The third ever recorded elephant twins had just been born and we got to see them when they were only hours old.
It was so amazing and beautiful to watch the twins fumbling around, getting used to their legs and their trunks and trying to feed. We spent a couple of hours watching them before we had to leave and head back to the park. Along the way I was dropped off in Chiang Mai for my bus back to Bangkok.
My week in Bangkok was largely uneventful, especially in comparison to my time with the elephants. I went to the famous Chatuchak Weekend Market, which was huge. I also went to the four massive shopping complexes in the Siam area, including MBK, and attended a couch surfing meet up. But I think the highlight of my week was being able to get in contact with both Millie and Minna.
Today I head down south to Koh Samui.

---