Thaliand Day 4

We woke up and ate quickly ate so we could continue learning about the elephants and spending more time with them. Jodi, an American who has lived there (on and off) for over 8 years, gave us a walking tour. We learned about elephant friendships, rescues, torture and salvation. One example: this elephant was forced to mate with a bull, and he crushed her hips and permanently crippled her, but she is coming along well with love and care - she will never be able to have a baby, however.

We watched an ADORABLE four-month old baby frolic with his mother and "aunt" and the boys even played with "push" with it:

After our walk we had a relaxing time, chatting with other visitors, feeding the elephants again and after our lunch, they got another bath in the river. Then, sadly, 5:30 came too quickly and we had to head back to Chiang Mai. We were truly inspired by what Lek Chailert is doing to give elephants in Thailand a better life; here is a shot of her down by the river conversing with our little friend:

We arrived back in Chiang Mai tired and hungry, but were soon feeling pampered and spoiled: we took a swim in the pool while Nat and crew ordered dinner for us and we ate in their sublime pavilion, poolside. Thai food is just too good, and to dine al fresco, after a lovely dip in the pool...we felt like royalty!

Thailand - Day 3

This morning we were treated to an amazing breakfast, of croissants, fresh coffee and hot chocolate and local tropical fruits. Mmmmm!

We then hopped on a little minibus to travel over an hour to the Elephant Nature Park. This is just the most amazing place you can imagine. "Lek" Chailert is a tiny Thai lady from a northern hill tribe whose mission is to give working elephants a place to come to recover from overwork, abuse and just to have a safe haven in old age. Her philosophy is that Asian elephants should be treated not as livestock (as they are classified in Thailand) but as the magnificent, intelligent and threatened species that they are. She is truly an inspiring presence and the nature preserve she has built is a testament to her determination, and her love of ALL animals, elephants in particular. Taj and Jaya loved that in addition to the pachyderms, there were 43 dogs and 12 cats in residence, not to mention the water buffaloes and cows!

Before our own lunch, we got to feed the big guys:

And after our own delicious lunch, we got to give them a bath in the river:

And while they were drying off, they were kind enough to give us a few smooches:

Later that evening, with dinner, we were serenaded by students from a nearby village and a local shaman came and performed a ceremony blessing and welcoming us to the Elephant reserve. I was one of four people that he blessed with holy water and he tied a ceremonial thread on my left wrist, which I have yet to remove... Then off to our wonderful cabin to sleep in the glorious quiet, knowing that just outside our window, there were great beasts, happily eating, sleeping and keeping each other company in that large gentle way that only elephants have. Here is the view from our bathroom window:

Ready for Day Four!!

Thailand! Day Two.

We arrived in Chiang Mai at 7:15 a.m. after watching the gorgeous mountains of northern Thailand flow past the windows. We escaped the mob of taxi drivers - we took a tuk-tuk to a resort that our friend Susan had recommended. But our driver didn't REALLY know where this hotel was and so we got a grand tour of Chiang Mai before arriving in, basically, paradise.

The owners of Oriental Siam Resort, Nat and Derrick, live in Shekou...they are essentially our neighbors. But Nat is Thai and she and Derrick (British) built this deluxe resort near Nat's family land. We got a great discount and REVELED in the kind hospitality they provided, with the five star facility to boot! I was feeling ill, so I showered and went to bed - what luxury!Meanwhile, Dart and the boys embarked on a great adventure in the VERY COOL Jeep that Derrick and Nat provided - they headed out to distribute gifts to the local Buddhist monks that were having a ceremony that evening. I was SO sad to have missed it...but they had a GRAND time, were blessed by the monks AND got to witness beetle fighting. Much more "humane" than dog fights or cock-fights!

When they got back I was feeling much better, so we piled into a taxi and headed to the food market where we had an amazing dinner of much Thai seafood while it poured in an end-of-monsoon shower. Then we headed to the night market for a fun night of shopping. The prices in Thailand are SO cheap because of the political unrest, the flooding and the favorable exchange rate (comparatively), so we picked up quite a few things for very little money!

Then...back to our lovely abode to catch some shut-eye before heading to the Elephant Nature Park the next morning!

THAILAND! Day One.

So, we are back from our wonderful vacation in Thailand. Since I didn't blog while we were ON the trip, I thought I'd do a post for each day NOW and we can pretend I was doing it DURING, not after. Here goes:

After our (delayed) flight arrived in Bangkok at 2 a.m. we took a taxi to our hotel and crashed! Woke up, had a great breakfast and headed to the pier for a one-hour canal and river tour - it was fantastic. The river was swollen with monsoon rains, so it was quite a ride!

We were dropped off near the Grand Palace and Wat Po, but it was a holiday and the larger temples were closed...so we took a tuk-tuk (motorized rickshaw) around to some of the smaller temples. One was tucked away in a shopping district - it had a great reclining Buddha:

We saw another gorgeous Wat with amazing glass and mirror work around the doors, windows and eaves. The workmanship and the wood here in Thailand is just so stunning.

A few more stops and then back to the boat dock which had a great outdoor "food court" where we ate DELICIOUS lunch for about $6 for the four of us! Then, back to the hotel, a quick swim in the lovely pool and then off to the train station to catch our overnight train to Chiang Mai!!

The train was just great: we had a sleeper car which was really two adjacent rooms with seats that later a lovely fellow came in and VERY efficiently made into 4 beds. The real treat was dinner - the food on the train was mind boggling! We fell asleep to the lullaby of the train's rocking, happy as the Thai countryside passed outside our windows.

Taj update

This is Shannon Haggard, Taj's teacher. He used to teach in Phuket, so he was a great help in planning our trip to Thailand - we are leaving tomorrow night!! Taj is lucky...Mr. Shannon is a great teacher and lots of fun. In fact, Taj's class is going ice skating at a local rink tomorrow, and they had popcorn and movie day today! So life is treating Taj well, as you can see!
I won't be blogging until we get back from our trip, but I hope to have lots of pictures and fun things to post after we have been in Thailand for 8 days! See you later!

Chinese Traditional Medicine

So, as I mentioned in the last post, we toured the Chinese traditional medicine district in Hong Kong Central. There was SO much we didn't recognize, and all of it was very intriguing. Here are some quick shots of a few of the items on sale:
The roadside store shrines were our favorite thing, though. We found the little cubbies filled with incense and calligraphy and offerings very charming and peaceful in the midst of this busy city.

Hong Kong!

Yesterday, we all made the trek in to Hong Kong! We left by ferry, just down the road from us; it takes about 45 minutes. We landed in Central, found our bearings, and then toured the area a bit. Our first locale was ALL shops full of Chinese medecine ingredients...more on that in another post.

After riding the double-decker cable car for a short distance, we found an Indian restaurant (priorities, you know!) where we pigged out!!

Next Mission: the metro across the bay to Kowloon to find the Toys-R-Us! After some sign-language and broken English with a cab driver we found it and the boys were VERY HAPPY...they'd really been wanting some Lego! Shopping in HK is a BIG DEAL - not really our thing, but it was an adventure.

(We found a book store, so that made it worthwhile for me!) Back to our ferry and home by 7:30 p.m. - we were tired but happy.