15 July to 14 August: More Chiang Mai

15 July to 14 August: Notes from Chiang Mai (Subtitled: If you don’t like the way I drive, stay off the sidewalk)

After saying goodbye to the Massengills, it was time to find some semi-permanent lodging (Yes, after not staying in any one property for more than two weeks straight, six weeks becomes semi-permanent…). Six more weeks in Chiang Mai is the plan. Elephant volunteering, Tai Chi certification and dental work top the list of things to do. Full apartments need six-month commitments. We settle on a hugely spacious room-by-month with a California king, A/C, cable, daily servicing, and some dodgy wireless. It was US$15 a day… Hey, we are worth it!

Six weeks to observe northern Thailand: In the US we tell Southern/Redneck jokes. Thailand pretty much tells Northern Thai jokes (“If you see a rooster on the side of the road and think “I’d get 5 to 1 against Pokpoon’s weaker birds with that cock” you might be from Northern Thailand”…) I discovered that while it impresses the local population when a farang tries to use local dialect, they do not like it when central an southern Thais do. They have a sensitive spot about the razzing they take for being more laid back and feel that the rest of the country is being patronizing and superior when speaking “local”. Try speaking Good Ol’ Boy in Alabama with a New York accent and you can see what I mean.

Have we mentioned the Thai relationships to their dogs? Little dogs are huge here. The kind you can wear as slippers. Pet pampering is just now coming in vogue, not quite up to doggie spa and counseling services, but they do get collars, t-shirts and pet specific food. Strays are an issue. When someone is tired of his or her pet, they just drop it off at a nearby wat and hope the monks will take care of it. Needless to say this is not an effective approach. You almost never have to worry about aggressive strays however, as all dogs know from puppyhood they are the bottom of the chain. Interestingly enough, they also have no discipline or training whatsoever.

Thais rarely display anger in a physical fashion. If you are pissed off during an interaction, it is great shame to demonstrate any type of temper towards another person. However, it is perfectly acceptable to kick any and all passing canines. This serves three purposes: The angry person gets to vent, the source of the anger gets to see just how angry the other is, and dogs learn they have no recourse whatsoever. A dog that “talks back” will have a high probability of becoming lunch somewhere…

Adventures in transport:

The red trucks are handy, but if you want to go more than a few places in a day, renting a scooter is the most cost-effective way of getting around. 125 Baht (US$4) a day is the going rate for rentals. Our lodging also rents the little two-wheeled monsters. JD is comfortable with the local traffic patterns, and feels confident in his ability to get around the meandering alleyways and side streets that form the bulk of Chiang Mai roadways. Just like on Samui, it is a matter of having a flexible dynamic approach to things like lanes, direction of travel, stoplights and pedestrian (non) rights of way.

There is a very very important aspect of driving in Thailand every farang must keep in mind: If anything goes wrong; your fault, my fault, nobody’s fault; the farang is responsible. If you find yourself as a hood ornament on a van that shot out of a blind alley without looking, and you are not Thai, you are at fault. If you stopped at a light and two vehicles completely unrelated to you have a collision, and you are a farang, you will be, in some way, at fault.

Yes… We had an incident, and by being farang, were at fault… While making a right turn into a driveway on a one-way street, a Thai grandmother tried a hole shot on our right side. Here I was, thinking I was as close to the curb as I could get, signal on, slowing down. At the apex of the turn (apex not meaning a lot on a 125cc scooter…) both KK and I heard this keening wail (“Eeeeeeeeeeee!) in the micro seconds before impact. Between us we had significantly more mass than anything else on two wheels. As with all collisions, size wins. The poor grandma was thrown from her scooter, possibly broke a wrist, abraded both legs and her arm, and had some damage to her scooter. We had nothing. No scratch, ding, bend or otherwise. She, and the nearby onlookers had no English. We did not have enough Thai to communicate effectively. Luckily a passing French ex-pat was able to interpret for both of us. After a few minutes a local cop stopped to help. He also had no English. He was also not a traffic cop, he was a crime cop, so this was not his area. However he was happy to stick around and help. JD put him on the phone with the owner of our place, who was then able to tell us what was going on. The Frenchman gave some very sage advice: NO matter what the scenario, we are the rich foreigners and therefore we are responsible. He also mentioned to never give our passports to any official who was not in a customs and immigration booth.

Grandmother’s daughter and granddaughter showed up, as well as a few family friends. After an aid car wrapped her wrist we all journeyed off to the police station. One of our prime directives during this trip was to NOT SEE the inside of any foreign police stations. Blew that one… The owners of our hotel, a Thai woman (Oriphim) and her Aussie hubby (Lauren) met us there to assist with language issues. Even though our scooter turn signal was on, even when we got back on the bike to head to the station, the officer was the witness that we turned without it. (He had magic vision, seeing this from five-minutes away…) Lauren reiterated what the Frenchman had said: We are the rich farangs. We are at fault. Period.

Everyone was confused as to why we kept mentioning insurance… Until Lauren was able to explain that in America, we would exchange insurance info and let them take care of everything. Everyone had a good chuckle at that. It does not work that way here… In Thailand, the injured party comes up with a number. The at-fault pays them cash on the spot if it is a reasonable amount. The police write up a nice form saying it is all done and good, everyone signs, and the event never happened. Then we understood.

Grandmother felt that 4,000 Baht would cover all of her needs. Both Oriphim and Lauren thought it seemed reasonable amount. US$110, plus a US$11 (400Baht) traffic ticket and problem solved. After the money exchanged hands we were all best friends: Smiles, Wais, Apologies, More Wais (remember the wai is the palms together in front of the face with a small bow, a sign of respect as well as a status indicator) and off we went. We had to give Oriphim and Lauren the “Thanks Mom-Thanks Dad” as we left the station for mediating our little adventure (they are our age). It so felt like our parents had been there to bail us out.

What kept the encounter mellow, we are sure, was the fact we have gone feral enough to understand this: Never get wound up. Never ever raise your voice. Remain calm, all is well. The toughest part was not immediately rendering aid to Grandmother. In her world two giant barbarian farangs had just crashed her to the Earth. Touching anything that hurt would not have been well received, no matter what our intentions.

Mother and Grandmother are terms of absolute respect in all Asian cultures. Grandmother, in our little moped snafu, couldn’t have been much past her late fifties. Everyone who had English referred to her as “Old Lady”. KK pointed out that in the states even calling an octogenarian “old lady” could get you sued for defamation. Here again, it is a position you have to earn, therefore a good thing.

Tidbits:

While food surfing the Wararot market (the one with the bugs) JD picked up some breaded shrimps on a stick (JD LOVES food on a stick…) Presumption and assumption are the food-stall surfer’s worst enemies. After biting into the first one, he knew something wasn’t right. It was too fishy and too dark. Peeling the crust off the second exposed a fried fish head… These were breaded smelt, probably from the highly scary and suspect river Ping. Oops. He immediately sought something familiar- pork sausage on a stick looked good. It was really lard in a casing with a few pork bits. Not the texture and flavor extravaganza he was hoping for. Feeling a bit apprehensive he picked up some pork gyoza (steamed dumplings). These were amazing! And could be picked up with a stick to be eaten. And they came in both pork (“moo”) and shrimp (“gueng”). These became a safe foodstall staple, and could be found throughout the north. 60 cents for five.

The Chiang Mai Saloon is a western (US) themed pub and restaurant. Free pool, fooseball, internet, and decent happy hour prices, combined with a very western menu (Chili fries, big burgers, tex-mex options, etc) are the draws. JD had wandered in on his birthday. The owner, as you might expect, is a large Texas ex-pat. He was chatting about two miniature Dobermans he had owned. They had the skills to regularly get out of his yard. The Dobies had a bad habit of hunting the local poultry. Every day the ex-pat would have a perturbed villager or two show up with the remnants of the family chicken(s). He was spending a couple hundred Baht a day on chicken he couldn’t eat. While this was bad enough, the dogs then started going after the fighting cocks. These are not only pricier; they are not that easy to replace with a same-same bird. In horse terms: If you own Secretariat, are racing Secretariat, more importantly- Breeding Secretariat, you cannot just replace him with a nag named Fleabite (who spends most of a race looking at the other horses butts). That’s when the Texan realized he needed to replace the wayward pooches. Fighting cocks are in the thousands of Baht price range. Just because Thais don’t get publicly angry doesn’t mean they won’t burn your house down for killing their source of real income…

KK’s Tai Chi Time (written by KK herself!):

Initially JD and I thought it would be good to get some time apart after so many months, hours, minutes and at times glacially elongated seconds together so, while he was at elephant camp I was to be in Tai Chi classes. It didn’t end up that way, but perhaps for the better as it gave us a bit more time apart. I started class a few days after he returned from his volunteer duties. 8 days of Tai chi starting at 7:30 in the morning and ending at 6:30 at night. 48 hours of Tai Chi in 8 days. The goal of our instructor is for his students to leave class able to dance on their own.

My class had 4 students including myself. The youngest, Sophie, is a young college professor from Holland. Next is Jo, a seriously strong rock climbing chick from Ireland who curtailed her excess energy during the week by “jumping around like a bunch of Kansas City faggots” (a Blazing Saddles reference for those not in the know) between sessions. And lastly, if we take myself out of the group equation, the token male, Andrew. A British Canadian who had at least partial ownership of homes in London, Vancouver and Spain. He sports some fabulous tribal tattoos that push me a bit closer to getting another tat of my own. Philosophically/politically he and I came from different places yet there was no question regarding his fiercely good taste.

Our coach is Keith and his right hand in class for critique and motherly calm is Tim (“Teem”), a beautiful Thai woman. They have been business partners for 10 years and clearly know well the subject they teach. www.taichithailand.com Not only did we learn Tai Chi Chuan, the essential thirteen postures, but we also meditated sometimes 3 times a day and learned some Chi gong. We reviewed passages from the I Ching , discussing philosophies of Taoism and Buddhism with a bit of comparative religions thrown in. East verses West. Long discussions on the Yin Yang model, the baqua and its significance.

Fortunately my understanding of the bodies mechanics and my yoga background helped my learning curve a great deal. I found the postures of Tai Chi relatively easy to learn. The eventual goal of Tai Chi is that of moving meditation. While I have been practicing it almost daily since class ended I am nowhere near the point of being able to use Tai Chi for meditation. I still must think about the moves. How to continuously improve on each one and how to SLOW down. Some people take Keith’s class 3 and 4 times. Initially, I was surprised by this, as class is so intense and complete. I know now after a month plus of doing Tai Chi on my own why they return. The more fluid I get the more questions that seem to arise about the postures. About how the postures transcend the dance and are reflected in every day situations. It is a bit like skiing; constant evaluation and improvement of technique just add philosophy and some personal insight.

Through the class we also had the opportunity to meet some truly gifted local healers. I saw a Chinese medical doctor who concocted the most putrid bunch of herbs I have ever had the displeasure of choking down. Odd, since they were so potpourri pretty until they were cooked; then they tasted and looked like chewed tobacco spit which has been basting itself in a warm beer bottle for days after cooking. Or what I would imagine that tasting and looking like as I am without any real self experience with chewing tobacco beer swill.

We also saw a Shaolin Tendon Massage master. Hands down the most physically painful body work either JD or I have ever had received. And possibly some of the most amazing. We were told that seeing the sultan of pain would add 5 years to our lives. We both saw him twice. He spoke almost no English, was highly intuitive and had beautiful skin. I watched him work on JD and I know now, for a fact, that JD can levitate. While I knew my husband had many talents his new ability to hover in air while panting in exorcist type pain remains clearly etched in my minds eye. Post demon removal JD can now also touch his toes without bending his legs, rotate his left arm outward completely (he hasn’t been able to do that since he broke his arm when he was 12) and clasp his hands behind his back (one hand behind his head, the other coming up past his kidney). Virtual flexibility.

And last, after finishing Tai Chi and my extensive dental work, I saw a Craniosacral specialist and energy healer named Rosemary. I hope to learn from her in the future as I think she is one of the most truly gifted and mentally healthy empaths I have ever had the pleasure to meet. I only wish I had had more time to see her than my one visit. Fortunately she is in the states several months out of every year.

Between the Tai Chi and these gifted healers I had a few profound insights. To the point that I am ready to once again go back into practice. This is a huge statement, for those who do not know, as I really thought at the onset of this trip that I was done doctoring. I know that the parameters of my future practice will be vastly different than my previous one, but I am ready to create again. This feels exceptionally good. So perhaps I am getting a bit of meditation from my Tai Chi already, even with my still limited skill level. Tai Chi is definitely a dance that feels very very good to me.

Dentistry in Thailand:

Thailand is a destination country for “Medical Tourism”. Yes, it is a real term. Bangkok is home to the pre-eminent gender modification surgeons of the world. Boobs, Lips, Thighs, Vagina’s, etc. You can get it done here, by Doctors trained in the States, for less than a quarter of the cost at home. The Thais also take their teeth very seriously. Anyone of any affluence has perfect white choppers. Chiang Mai has Asia’s premiere dental college. After a bit of research we found Grace Dental Clinic. Grace specializes in farangs. The docs have all been trained in the States and Europe, most are professors at the dental college, and they all have spectacular English, as well as their own spectacular teeth. The clinic is clean, sterile and state of the art. Staff is competent, friendly and well organized. It was a good choice.

JD was the easy one… brief exam, his once-every-five-year cleaning, and a filling replacement. (He had a filling fall out in Oz. It was originally done in the 80’s. The doc then had told him it would only last 7 years or so due to its placement. It made it twenty. He’s not complaining…). For giggles he also had the laser whitening. Grand total for ALL procedures: US$340.

KK was a bit more complicated. Her history includes one incompetent orthodontist, one who had only the earlier damage to work with, and physiological considerations that led to a certain brittleness and mottling of her dentition. As well as a past history of some serious teeth grinding resulting in 12 cracked molars. The most recent quote in the states for the work she would need to rebuild her teeth and bite was around $25,000-30,000. Following the initial exam and panoramic x-ray, the first doc pretty much said: “This is above my pay grade. I need to go upstairs and get the boss”. The boss was a Boston U grad who was one of the professors at the dental college. She and KK had a detailed chat about desires, probabilities and timelines. Yes, the work could be completed before our visa’s ran out (August 28). Yes, she would personally be handling the work.

The number of molars that needed full crowns (all of them- 14 in total), plus 2 partial crowns (or on/in lays) dictated a full engineering study of KK’s bite mechanics. KK’s insistence that she would not entertain under any circumstance the possibility of braces yet again was also noted emphatically to each of the dentists she saw. So, models were built, teeth were designed, more models built, materials were discussed, gold verses aluminum verses all porcelain, etc., and models made yet again. In addition to the crowns, one veneer and a few filling replacements were also needed and addressed, and a cleaning and whitening was added for good measure. Finishing up with a custom made night guard ( which required making yet another model) to prevent doing the same injury to the newly designed beauties that are her new teeth. When the dust settled a schedule was in place, and a worst-case-scenario of finances was written up.

It was at this point KK was feeling a bit overwhelmed… She just had to stop by a nearby jeweler and have something pretty made up. A few something pretties actually. Nine pretty new nose rings to be exact. The gems were just so pretty, how was she to choose just one? Retail therapy at its best.

What was the dental damage you ask? How awful will this be? US$6,000 tops, inclusive of everything… When it was all said and done, 14 appointments and 5 weeks from the beginning, it ended up being about $5,500. The savings on work that needed to be done anyway, sooner rather than later, covered more than half of our total trip expenses. KK now has Magic Teeth. Beautiful, wonderful, sparkly Magic Teeth. (Just after her last clinic day she was walking along when a truck stopped and waved her over. The driver, A Thai man, reached for KK’s hand and brought it to his lips. He then drove off. She knows he was so bedazzled by her new smile he just couldn’t help himself!)

JD spent a lot of time just puttering around on the scooter, increasing his Thai vocabulary (it's up to fifty or so words now, not counting numbers), and supporting a local coffee shop that serves hill tribe grown organic coffee.

We decided it would be a good idea to get a fresh visa stamp. The dental work was scheduled to be completed on the 26th, our visa was up on the 28th. This timing did not give any real safety margin of time. It is easy to hop a border and get a freshy. KK had a ten-day window between her temporary crowns and the installation of the permanent teeth. We thought a quick trip north would be in order. Mae Sai is the northernmost point in Thailand, and home to a walking bridge to Burma.

JD volunteers at Elephant Nature Park

23-30 July JD at Elephant Nature Park

Elephant Background Info:

Asian elephants are easy to count, both in the wild and in captivity. They are an endangered species in all senses of the term. The total numbers are a classic downhill ski-slope graph. In Thailand it is estimated that there are fewer than 2,000 “domestic” and less than 500 “wild” elephants around today. This is down from a total of 5,000 not more than 5 years ago. The domestic numbers are the ones diminishing even more rapidly than their wild cousins.

The wild ones actually spend time wandering between Burma, Laos and Thailand and are rarely seen by everyday people. Poachers and farmers get to see more than most. Farmers would rather never see any (elephants eat up to 500 pounds of food per day, all of it plant based) and poachers try not to be seen. Wild elephants are protected by a myriad of laws in Thailand and Laos. Domestic elephants have absolutely no legal protection… They are considered property, not unlike scooters, cars, chickens and cows. Herein lies the problem… Many owners/mahouts look upon their animals as machines instead of living creatures, and treat them as such. Lets sanitize the thought process:

First let us detach ourselves from the sentient being part of the equation. Imagine your giant pachyderm is a small business, lets say a Money Factory. Raw material goes in one door, processed material leaves through another. This is a negative-income generating factor as it costs money to handle both; a lot of money. However the factory cannot produce any income without this process in place. There are but a few ways your factory can actually make money. There is direct/indirect physical labor, and there is celebrity. Direct options include being a piece of heavy equipment: Bulldozer/freight hauler/etc. Indirect is more “light duty”, carrying small loads short distances. Celebrity is mostly for new factories. “Cute” is all it takes for money to be literally thrown at the building. No real “work”, just relying on good looks. Some factory production can involve a combination of any or all of the money-making methods.

Optimum factory conditions require up to twenty hours a day for raw material processing. Each factory requires hundreds of pounds of material and liquid to remain operational. A well-run factory devotes a lot of time to this processing activity, at the exclusion of all others.

Factory owners and managers want the greatest return possible on their investments. Knowledgeable directors try to find a balance between the internal needs of a factory and the needs of the business as a whole: Rest days, lots of raw material, maternity leave-which can be months, and mental stimulation. They realize a well-maintained factory can produce for decades, and even create additional factories all on its own (OK, with a little help from another factory…). Ignorant, or sometimes just plain greedy, directors do not have or choose not to use foresight. They instead look for maximum return with little or no consideration for the conditions in the factory. Some will have the factory working 24-hour shifts, with minimal raw materials and no employee health plans at all. If the factory collapses, they just buy another cheap one and continue on.

What these less aware owners do not take into account is the ONLY source for new factories are the current factories. Unless a factory is well maintained, it will not produce a functioning new factory. Period. Unfortunately there is a shortage of knowledgeable directors… This is what leads to a steady decline in factory conditions, as well as a decline in the number of factories themselves.

Elephant Nature Park:

All of this brings us to Elephant Nature Park: Part rescue, part retirement home, part halfway house, and foster home. Lek is a Chiang Mai travel agency owner who has devoted the last 17 years to helping elephants, one beastie at a time. She has spent considerable sums of her own monies to buy land, lease elephants, and educate elephant owners and mahouts on how to minimize the abuse of their charges. She is working against the solidly entrenched centuries of traditional behavior when it comes to the handling and training of said beasties. Her goal is not to eliminate the use of elephants for work, but rather the shift the paradigm of abusive training, mistreatment and mishandling that pervades the issue.

ENP is about 60 kilometers north of Chiang Mai. In fact, it is just a few k north of Maetaman elephant camp, on the same road and river. Lek and her long time friend Pom have 40+ acres here, plus another few attached to a national forest reserve just downstream. Lek rescues and cares for all types of critters. At this moment in time there are 32 pachyderms, 48+ dogs, an uncountable number of cats, 7 water buffalo, another 8-10 cows, a few hundred geckos, and a few hundred thousand mozzies. For those who want to see what goes on there single and multi-day trips are available. Weekly and multi-week volunteer opportunities also exist for those who want to do more.

JD and KK, having spent the last 8 months together 24/7, felt this would be a great chance to have a little individual experience time. Weekly volunteers leave Chiang Mai on Mondays, and return on the following Sunday. JD was on a van with an organized tour group; 7 women and their guide, Sam. They were going to ENP for the week, followed by 4 days hill trekking, 5 days in Ao Nang, and 3 in Bangkok. The very first stop en route to ENP was still in CM. A couple of tons or so of fruit and vege needed to be loaded into the vans and an empty truck. As it turns out this is the mid-morning snacks for the elephants and is picked up every day. One of the ladies (Katie) is having a birthday this week so a stop for spirits is in order.

The first look at ENP is magnificent. Set in a river valley, ringed by verdant hills and a distant view of misty mountain passes. The valley floor was an expanse of tall grasses and small copses of trees. A few of the elephant family groups can be seen meandering around the property. It is easy to be mentally transported to a place far from the effects of man.

Day one is orientation day; background info on ENP, an introduction to elephant husbandry and treatment in the outside world, instructions on interacting with the resident beasties (No Touch Elephant, No Sleep with Mahouts, Watch for Elephants, If certain elephants are heading in your direction, move quickly away (read: “run your ass off”), etc), and a disturbing video on elephant training practices (Unchanged in the last nine centuries). The pajaan is a breaking process. A 3-4 year old elephant is placed in a tight stockade called a crush. It can’t move in any direction. It is then subjected to sleep depravation, physical torture, starvation, and isolation until it is completely submissive. This can take weeks, and even months. Lek is currently training two babies with positive reinforcement vs. the pajaan. Thailand is a show-me kind of culture. If she can demonstrate the same or better results with a method that does not damage the elephant, village headmen will be more receptive to the change. The downside is the time factor. Positive reinforcement takes lots of time, years even, especially with critters as smart and rambunctious as pachyderms.

In addition to our van load there is also a group of Spirit Singers from San Francisco as well. Spirit Singers are groups of ladies who sing at births, deathbeds, and other emotionally charged events to help ease the transitions of those involved. They are here to sing to the elephants. While the volunteer coordinator knew they would be singing, she hadn’t realized that due to age and physical limitations the ladies would not be able to help with the more physical aspects of the week. Soooo… instead of nineteen bodies to do the weeks projects and chores we had nine (ten for the last couple of days; we lose one, gain two).

Sunday night brings in a group of local musicians playing traditional instruments. A number of teenagers are involved in the proceedings, this being the opportunity for them to practice their skills. The village Shaman (the retired abbot of the local Buddhist temple) comes by and purges the negative of the previous week and welcomes positive for the upcoming week. Anyone who wants can have a spirit string tied around his or her wrist. (Left wrist girls, right wrist boys).

Time to Work:

The daily routine will consist of an early morning breakfast at roughly 7:00-7:30 followed by morning chores (shoveling assorted shits, picking up fallen fruits, picking up trash) then morning project from 8:30-10:15ish, and wrapping up the morning with the unloading of the fruit and vege trucks. If the trucks are not unloaded quickly, the elephants will try to do it themselves. Not a good plan. 11:00 or so is hand feeding the elephants the cleaned and prepared fruits and vege. Then it’s human lunch. After we eat it is time for elephant bath #1, usually around 1:00ish. 2:00-4:30 is afternoon project time, elephant bath #2 at 5:00, dinner 6:30. Yep- a full day indeed. Projects during the week consisted of tree planting, bamboo grass planting, hauling rocks out of the river to repair the road, picking up 3,000+ saplings at the tree nursery, and bench repair.

It wasn’t all slave labor- Thursday morning we visited the school in the nearby village, and Thursday afternoon we trekked to Elephant Haven to overnight with one of the elephant family groups. There was elephant study day, and elephant watch to round out the week as well.

Sam (AU), Katie (BR), Barb (AU), Abbey (BR), Karen (SCT), Janine (BR), Beck (AU), Lisa (US- Jersey) and myself were the initial working crew. Carly (US-Cali) and Jennifer (US-Cali) made it later in the week. Barb, Katie and I shared morning chores. Day one was elephant shit and fruit scraps around the feeding platforms. Mmmmmm Mmmm, nothing like the heady aroma of fresh, still-damp corn cobbed elephant bombs the size of cantaloupes right after brekkie… (This will actually be the chore we prefer… more on that in a moment).

Nothing screams like the suspension of a ½ ton pick-up truck with well over a ton of vege in the back. Two vans and the truck would bring up the days snack provisions from Chiang Mai. The most efficient method to unload is the classic bucket brigade. Bags of cukes, small watermelons, and ears of corn all get moved for processing. Bags break; Fruit flies (groan here…). Elephants, not unlike humans, are highly sensitive to agricultural chemicals. Smaller beasties can rapidly fall sick, and even die, if they have eaten in a chemically enhanced field. Anyway- all fruit and vege get a wash in potassium permanganate solution; A purple colored oxidizing agent that neutralizes all contact chemistry on the plant material. It itself rapidly neutralizes with contact to air. Each critter has his/her own basket. Herd hierarchy mirrors pack hierarchy. Certain ladies always get their baskets first. If they don’t, the poor beastie who brazenly ate before them gets pounded later. Pounded hard. ‘Baby-Finster-Shouldn’t-Touch-The-Dirty Money” pounded.

The three morning chore groups become two project groups. Today: Tree Planting and Grass Planting. The two groups will switch places fro the afternoon. Had I mentioned the eternal mist? Rain to anyone not from Seattle or London. Keeps us from overheating while working…

Remember ‘My Cousin Vinny”? (1992-Macchio, Pesci, Tomei- one of the funniest movies of the time) “We’s famous for our mud” was a line used to describe the material that was created after a good rain. The deep south has nothing on the viscous ooze found here in SE Asia- When it is dry, it may as well be concrete. Add a bit of moisture and it becomes bog-monster heaven. Tree planting was straightforward, if not backbreaking. Squat in the mud, dig a small hole, unwrap a seedling root ball, drop it in the hole, back fill, repeat. We managed a hundred or so before it was Fruit Time. Now as long as the dogs don’t dig, or the elephants don’t snack there will be a great arboretum in just a few years. (Things grow really fast here- these seedlings will be 5 meters tall in no time) I had watched local farmers shin deep in the rice paddies during planting and had wondered if they were barefoot or wearing thongs (Flip Flops- didn’t remember the Ozzie language lessons?). The afternoon project let us answer that question individually.

Grass Planting conjured images of walking with big bags of seed and spreading it around… Not quite. This particular grass is a bamboo varietal that the elephants eat by the ton. Literally. The starts are foot-long sections of bias-cut bamboo stem. (Angle cut-sharp pointy ends- think any Vietnam war movie). Even getting to the grass field required maneuvering through a true quagmire. The morning group had recommended we just leave our footwear on the road. Should have listened… Barb had a full thong blow-out- the upper just left the footbed deep in the mud. After that barefoot was the plan. Warm, squishy, ankle-deep mud with the occasional pointy bit. A few rows of string guides are staked out, and you shove two cuttings into the mud at a 45-degree angle. We knocked out an easy acre +. We also all had cuts, bruises and sores. Another glorious day in the corps!

We participate in the evening elephant baths, giving us a chance to wash off as well.

The next day is more of the same, with the project shifting to pulling rocks from the river and carrying them to the access road. The road is mud and ruts. If the fruit trucks get stuck, the elephants will unstick them, and not in a helpful way. They love their fruit and vege.

Katie had a birthday. The 22nd one I believe. In our exhaustion we managed a small gathering and a few drinks. Mornings are already too early in the day for my comfort. The dog packs start daily howling session around 4:30am, and the roosters add their two-cents worth between 5 and 5:30.

Sam, looking for a way to take it easy, dropped the buffalo-shit cart onto his foot. He ended up with nasty gash and a loss of ambulation. He was trucked off to Chiang Mai for X-rays and painkillers. He was out of commission. No fracture, but a real nasty sprain. The tour company had to scramble to send up a fresh guide from Bangkok. We are another body down in the work crew yet manage to finish up the weeks projects.

Oh yeah- the most nasty and vile morning job: shoveling the buffalo and cow enclosure. If the normal runny green foulness isn’t bad enough, one of the buffaloes is ill: More runny, more green, and distinctly more foul. This, inconceivably, is even nastier than the normal maggot-gagging effluent. The overall trick is to shovel the drippy left over long grass and leaves into the cart first, so the more liquid of the buffalo shit doesn’t just drain through the bed of the cart before you can push it to the shit-pit. Not a good job to do barefoot. I made plastic baggie slippers. They lasted long enough to finish the job. Hallelujah. Additionally there was collecting the red-ant ridden figs, a special treat for the fastest elephants. A few would track you down while you still had the basket. This being Thailand, normal road rules apply. If the bigger creature wants your basket, it is theirs.

OK, enough about the slavery. The real fun began on Thursday. ENP has arranged a regular Thursday volunteer trip to the nearby village school. This gives the kids and volunteers a chance to interact and practice language skills. The school is technically on holiday this week, so the headmaster told the children they didn’t need to show up if they didn’t want to. Needless to say, every child was there, in uniform. We had four or five teachers in our group. (Jen had just finished a teaching stint in Kenya last week), so we were good shooting from the hip. The kids separated into three groups: Activity, Art and Language. Barb, Jen and I took language with the younger kids. A few word games, some vocabulary, and then a bit of chaos. Young kids are the same the world over. I had the foresight to grab some snacks on the way over. The local version of Fisho’s is Bento’s. Dried fish snacks. Being me, I grabbed some really spicy, and some not so spicy. At an early lull in communication I plopped down on the floor and had interactive show and tell. There was a range of reaction to the spicy snacks… All of it entertaining to the masses. We added “spicy, chili, fish snack, not spicy, and water” to there English word collection.

A brief visit to the local temple, and then we were off to Elephant Haven. Lek has built an overnight structure up in the 20,000 acre national preserve. Each week a family group gets to trek the 6k into the wilderness and spend the night as “free” elephants. In the morning you track them down and walk them home. The trip takes you right through the Maetaman camp. It is a steep and slow climb to the Haven. Elephants are slow and methodical climbers. We are quite the sight, a few dozen people slowly walking behind the four elephants setting the pace: Stopping to nibble, admire the view, smell the flowers, etc. It is all about the elephants.

At Haven the mahouts get to play a bit themselves. A couple of traditional instruments and it is sing-song time. Christmas carols are the main mix. Missionaries at the turn of the last century brought music with them. The tribes all enjoyed the music, then ate the missionaries. Dinner and a show… Most of our mahouts are Burmese Karin. There are just a few Thai Karin. This leads to a regular friendly rivalry between the two groups. Pom tells a few stories, including the legend of were elephant’s come from. Brief synopsis: Greedy belligerent wife is punished for offending the spirits and becomes elephant. Her tongue has been reversed so she can’t speak.

Sleeping is outdoors on the bamboo platform, under a mozzie net. Just a tad achy in the morning, but who can tell on top of the other aches anyway…

To minimize illegal logging Lek had a brilliant idea: Have a local abbot bless some old monk robes and turn them into sashes to wrap trees. Even illegal loggers aren’t going to tempt the fates by cutting down a “blessed” tree. Ignoring the law is one thing, ignoring your next lifetimes is something else completely. The abbot was so intrigued with the idea he and a number of the monks came out with her to wrap the trees. We all get a sash to mark a fresh tree on our walk out.

Saturday is low-key. Chores as always, but the project is elephant study. There are a few elephants that have not joined any of the family groups so we are to follow them around and take notes on their behavior. I spend the afternoon hanging with Mae Gaow, she has a large “R” branded on her butt. She is mellow, and her mahout is pretty low key as well. We hang in the mahout village most of the afternoon, keeping her out of the little garden.

Sunday is a return to Chiang Mai, hot showers, and a comfy mattress and an even more comfortable wife. Ahhh. (Husband points for this statement=zero; KK had to make note of his joy to see her with this last statement herself- sometimes husbands need to have their memories and not just their bits nudged after being married for this long.)

Elephants do have long memories:

A cop teased an elephant in India during a parade. The next year, the same elephant saw the cop in the crowd, grabbed him, held him upside down for a minute staring into his eyes (”I know you, I’ll find you, don’t f**k with me…”) dropped him and continued on.

An angry bull storms through a village to a hut in the middle of town. He flattens the place, crushing the occupant. Turns out 20 years earlier the occupant had shot and wounded the beastie in an attempt to get his tusks.

Another elephant snuck up on a woman carrying a baby. The elephant gently grabbed the infant and tenderly set it on the ground. She then beat and crushed the mother to death. This particular woman had participated in this particular elephants pajaan.

Musth is a type of male elephant “heat”: A testosterone type hormone is produced by the tear ducts. This fluid runs down the face and into the mouth. It turns on the “Insane Mean Bastard” switch in the brain. If the bull can’t hump it, he just wants to kill it. Sometimes even after he has humped it, he tries to kill it. Even mahouts stay away from a bull in musth. Two of the bulls are in musth while we are here, Boon Khum (BK) and Khun Min

More tidbits:

This is Medo. She was chained next to a bull in musth. She made it through three mountings before her legs gave out. Once she was down, the bull tried to kill her. Her pelvis was crushed. She has adapted remarkably well.

Everyone loves baby elephants. That’s why they are used for begging in the major cities (Celebrity). Of course there is not enough food or water. Once they lose the cute factor it is off to logging or trekking. Sometimes both. The babies here are going through positive reinforcement training.

There is a female who was a trekking elephant by day, and illegal logging elephant by night. Every day and every night for twenty years. Her owner and mahout would pump her up on amphetamines to keep her working. She’s been here a little over a year as is moving around a bit better. She moves very slowly and deliberately, and has been known to get testy. Drug withdrawal is hard on both man and beast.

Lek has to actually buy the abused elephants from their owners. If they won’t sell, she will try to lease them. Buying a elephant is the cheap part. US$3,000-5,000 is enough to get most elephants. The downside is the US$5,000-6,000 each it costs per year to care for said beasties.

ENP was not what I had expected. It was however an excellent and eye-opening experience. I had felt a bit guilty about enjoying my earlier trekking experiences, but it was brought to my attention that same experience is what prompted me to do this… Not all trekking companies or owners are intentionally bad. It is now a matter of education, and ENP with the help of all of its volunteers and donors is working on just that.

9-14 July: Thailand 2, Pt II- North

10-14 July: Massengills up north

Chiang Mai is one of KK’s favorite Thai cities. Not as insane as Bangkok, Chiang Mai is still the second largest city in Thailand. 1.5 million people call the region home (vs 16 million in Bangkok). It is over 700 years old. Originally the capital of the Lanna Kingdom, it was ruled by the Burmese for a bit (1500-1650ish) before being re-taken by the Thai. Today the original moat still surrounds the Old City, as well as portions of the original defensive walls. The northern Thai are more laid back than their southern cousins. They speak a bit slower, and the dialect does have a few different words compared to the central (Bangkok) dialect. It is easy to adapt, and the locals are even more excited when you use the “northern” thai words in the right places

The originally planned hotel is full. Who knew? We let the driver recommend a second place. Allegedly remodeled recently… Hopefully they did not pay too much. We suck it up for a night then move on to the Royal Lanna. It is a nicer place with a pool, right next to the main strip of the Night Bazaar. The Night Bazaar area is very tourist oriented. “Hill Tribe” ladies walk about with chirpy wooden frogs and rough silver jewelry, and pseudo-permanent sidewalk booths take up most of the walking space. In the way of Thailand, many booths sell the exact same stuff. This makes bargain hunting practical when you have the patience to wade through the hordes of tourists and hawkers.

Wat Chedi Luang, one of over 1,700 temples in the area, has a 700+-year-old brick pagoda as its centerpiece in the heart of the Old City. It also offers a daily Monk Chat. Monks are available to answer questions about Buddhism, Thailand, and anything else you would like to hear about. It is an excellent opportunity for the monks to practice their foreign language skills and interact with farangs. There are rules, and the most important is DO NOT TOUCH MONK. If a woman touches a monk there is an elaborate and time consuming cleaning ritual he must go through. In Thailand there are no female monks, and a very small contingent of Buddhist nuns.

We had a big group sit down and learned a few tidbits: The color yellow is worn by many many Thais. Yellow is the color of Monday, the day of the week the HRM The King was born. Monks have two robes, so there is one to wear while the other is being cleaned. You must be 18 to become a monk. Younger people can be novices. Virtually all males in the kingdom spend at least a few weeks, usually three months, as a monk. Typically right after high school, and/or college. Men will also take breaks during their lives to spend a few weeks or even months doing it again. This is a form a merit-making, as well as a way to maintain perspective and focus on what is important. Monks do not eat after 12 noon. The food they eat is donated each morning. They are vegetarian. Monks are not allowed to exert themselves: no running, sports or other types of athletic activity. Monks do not consider Buddhism a religion. Buddha was a philosopher. The Lord in Lord Buddha refers to his position, before attaining enlightenment, in the higher caste of Hindu society. He was a prince, and entitled to the title.

The immense brick pagoda (Chedi in Thai, sounds like “JD”…) was damaged in an earthquake a few hundred years ago. It is still standing. It has not been repaired so it can be a demonstrative model of the finite nature of all things, living and not. Nothing can last forever. Death and decay are a part of the natural cycle. Etc.

A few blocks south of Chediluang is the Madrock climbing shop. It will be nice to get a few dry climbs in so we go to check it out. This rock shop knows its clientele. In addition to full-guided climbs, you can just rent the local climbing guidebook for the day and hire a driver. We choose that option. We figured we would hire Mr. Mung, a driver who was working the corner by the Royal Lanna. He seemed like a nice guy, asked a reasonable fee, and had a van.

It was time for happy hour and a dip in the pool- we hop a red truck and head back to the hotel.

There are almost no metered taxis in Chiang Mai. No city buses either. If you need a ride there are Red Trucks (sawngthaews) and tuk-tuks. As you may recall sawngthaews are the converted pick-up trucks. Flag one down, tell (or show) the driver your destination. If he feels like going that way he will grunt in the affirmative and you hop in the back. Lonely Planet had directed us always “confirm” the fare before climbing aboard. As it turns out, this is not the best way. Most drivers will automatically double, triple or even quadruple the normal farang rate, correctly assuming you don’t know any better. Of course you negotiate down, but rarely to the base rate. We discovered after a few weeks here the procedure is to just pay the driver a reasonable fee when you jump off. Farangs should be paying about 20 Baht for all but the longest trips. Thais will pay between 5 and 15 Baht. Having the front desk of your lodging write the name and address of your destination in Thai script is quite helpful in making sure you end up in the right place.

There is a Muay Thai boxing match going on just up from the hotel. Like on Samui it is an amateur ring in the center of a girly-bar court. We pack up as a big family unit and head off to the fights. We miss the bantam weights: less than 100 pounds, but catch the middle and heavy weights: 100-140 pounds. It was educational for the girls in many ways. The boxers all are highly respectful of each other and their skills. True sportsmanship, you take a guy out, then help him to his feet and give him a hug. We were also right next to a lady-boy bar. Many lady-boys opt to surgically modify what nature has not… and Thailand has some of the best cosmetic surgeons in the world. Probably the best at trans-gender surgery. Between bouts they had a chorus line and cabaret show in the ring and in the bar itself. As I said- educational.

JD, KK, Jill and Danielle take a day-long cooking class. Yes, you are reading correctly. KK has taken a second cooking class in less than a year. I know… take a moment. Breath. Do not panic. Rest assured that Hell is not starting a hockey league, livestock is not suddenly avian, and I am mostly certain this Pope is not a woman. KK is quite clear that there are no plans to expand her kitchen time. (For any who might not know: JD is the cook. He likes it, he is good at it- some say really good at it, and is highly territorial when it comes to “his” kitchen…) She is, however, interested in how she can be more helpful in the preparation stages without pissing JD off.

JD is an alumni of Baan Thai , class of Tues & Wed 11/23 & 11/24, 2004. He brings the ladies to his alma mater for their training. The menu for this class day is Spring rolls, Som-Tam (papaya salad), Kao Soi (Chiang Mai Noodle), chicken fried rice, fried banana and yellow curry paste. Our classmates included a couple from Calgary and two sisters form Holland. Baan Thai is kind enough to take and post photos of your experience. It was a good day, we ate too much and learned a lot. (OK- the secret to Thai cooking is the main ingredient: The Smile! Cheezy, yes. Also the order you add things is pretty critical as well... And it needs to be as fresh as possible... And the wok has to be the right temp...and.and.and....)

Thursday was climbing day. Mr. Mung picked us up bright and early. He was happy to have the work, however he was bummed about missing the football. Apparently today was the first day of the Asia Cup championships and Thailand was playing Oman. He had purchased a new TV just for this event. None-the-less he takes us to Crazy Horse Buttress which is the climbing area east of the city. The rock was grippy and the weather perfect. We climbed ourselves silly and headed home. The people who first bolted these climbs were not afraid to drill; 20 meter climbs with 12+ bolts. While the rock had sharp bits I wouldn’t want to fall onto, the bolting was a tad excessive. Better too many than too few… The mozzies were out in force by the last climb. We easily sweated off repellent as soon as it was applied. A roadside general store (read: bamboo lean-to with a small fridge, grill and some consumables) supplied us with some icy-cold big Beer Changs. Nothing tastes as good as an icy cold beer after a day of climbing. The downer is the farang definition of icy cold involves both ice and coldness… We didn’t realize until after we were moving again that only two of the beers were cold. Warm Beer Chang is not a tasty beverage. It was drank anyway…

There was time to catch the end of the Wororot Day Market, aka the Chinese day market. An inside/outside mélange of stalls, stores and foodstuffs the fills four labyrinthine blocks just off the Mae Ping (Ping River). It was probably better to get there this late so that Jill and the girls didn’t get to five-sense the butcher section of the market. (Dozens and dozens of tables with a variety of meat and “meat” products. Refrigeration is not a commodity to be wasted on meats. Dairy, frozen foods, water and beer are kept cold.) What they did get to enjoy is the Thai delicacy of BUGS. A few sautéed larvae, roasted crickets and a beetle or two. Mmmmmm mmmmm good. No they do not taste like chicken. Actually they taste like crunchy rice puffs. An excellent source of protein as well. JD feels adding some chili and garlic and most people would think they were eating some kind of risotto or dried nuts… If he won’t tell you what the Chef’s Surprise is, consider yourself forewarned.

Friday was the Massengills last day up north. It was Elephant Trekking day! Mae Ta Man elephant camp is about 60k north of Chiang Mai proper. JD & KK went to this one two years ago. There are a number of trekking camps, many with poor track records concerning the care of the elephants. It is a mixed emotion type of thing. A certain amount of exploitation is occurring. At the same time these camps expose thousands of people to an endangered species, oftentimes prompting further action that actually helps the beasties. (Much more on this next post… JD was off at an elephant rescue for a week as a volunteer.)

Mae tam Mann is one of the better trekking places. Most mahouts seem to genuinely care for their charges, and it does back up to 20,000 acres of national forest that is open to elephant grazing. The program schedule is pretty complete: “Watch baths elephant follow by elephant skils. Raft bamboo down river. Lunch good Thai food. Ride elephant in jungle to ox cart. Ox cart through mountain village back to camp.”

Maetaman (Noticed it hasn’t spelled the same twice yet? It isn’t spelled the same anywhere. The sign, literature, tour guide brochures, hotel tour desks, and souvenirs all spell it differently in English. I have no doubt it always spells the same way in Thai script, I just can’t read it…) is a good sized facility covering quite a few acres. It has expanded since our last visit, yet is managing to hang onto its charm.

Elephants need up to 500 pounds of food a day. That’s a lot of bananas and sugar cane (and elephant grass, bamboo, saplings and anything else green that a pachyderm wants to put in its mouth). This is where many owners and mahouts go wrong. They become so intent on working the beasties to generate income that the elephants just don’t have time to eat what they need to. Here at Maet A Mann the elephants we have been on do seem to be allowed to stop and nibble along the walks, as well as the little snacks of ‘naners and cane.

That all being said, it was a “Best Day Ever” kind of day. Everyone had fun interacting with the elephants, we fed them lots and lots of snacks, had photo ops, a very fun ride on the raft (everyone got to have a shot at driving), a great meal, and a wonderful leisurely ride through the jungle. At one point JD’s camera ended up in the hands of a mahout. Everyone who gets a hold of JD’s camera becomes a shooting machine. It is fun to use. JD was only a tad bit nervous with the mahout running about with his camera which is the equivalent of a Thai family year’s total salary. He actually did a good job, and we tipped him when he returned the rig. Simultaneously, JD started breathing again too. The days tour ends with a stop at the orchid and butterfly farm on the outskirts of Mae Rim just north of Chiang Mai. The sky had opened up by then, making it wet, damn wet, to wander through the gardens.

The Massengills took full advantage of the last shopping night to secure gifts and goodies. We had a small sit-down seafood feast in the Kalare Night market. It was all good. In the morning we shipped them off to Bangkok and went on an apartment hunt. We are here for an additional six weeks and would rather not be in a hotel that whole time.

Blog interview with the Massengills:

What was your biggest pre-conceived expectation for Thailand?

Jonna: The biggest pre-conceived expectation of Thailand was the HEAT and humidity--while at a zoo in a rain forest exhibit it was very hot and humid and my dad said that was what it would be like in Thailand. Also thought it would be hard to breathe because of that.
Danielle: not very touristy dirt roads tropical
Scott: Having to keep a close eye on the girls (child trafficking) AND happy people AND that it would be hot.
Jill: To have a fantastic food experience, to see a lot of smiling faces, to do a bunch of rock climbing.

What was your first impression of the country?

Jill: Since we arrived after midnight the first things I noticed were the size of the bill boards and the unique letters, words and names on the street signs and stores.
Scott: The honesty of our taxi driver. He gave him some money for tolls and was given the exact change back. Noticing the right hand drive cars.
Danielle: humid, hot, crazy; the driving especially
Jonna: I thought it was busy and crowded and lots of different kinds of people.

What was the coolest thing south? (Phuket and Ao Nang)

Danielle: the beach
Jill: The Layzee bar....with the Thai classic rock band and the Thai boxer / singer that took his shirt off for us at Scott’s request. Damn he had a nice back.
I also enjoyed chatting with our hotel breakfast server named "Chard", but I liked to call him "The Chad". Happyman and the buckets of booze (Sam Song, lime soda and white shark...yum) and sitting in the spontaneous gutter bar. And of course, the fabulous beaches....especially the cheap and fun group beach massage with hand holding.
Jonna: The beaches and the shopping booths.

Scott: The Thai dude hanging from the guide wires (not tied in) on the parasail. The $5 beach massages with Mrs. Boonchoo, the pack of wild monkeys on the beach and the long boat ride ( Jill: I can't believe he LIKED that part, i only endured it) The wave runner ride with Danielle. Yee haw!

What was the un-coolest thing south?

Jonna: the SMELL and the expense
Danielle: too touristy/smelly
Scott: : The smell, "the whiffs of whatever that was". Kicking that damn fish.[Scott kicked a dead fish on thebeach that still had an active "stinger" and paid the penalty...] The aggressive touting in Phuket, especially the tailors trying to drag you into their shops
Jill: Patong beach was fun and beautiful but too tourist directed. Ao Nang was much more laid back and I liked it better, but I am still glad we went to Phuket/ Patong Beach.

Same two questions for the north (Chiang Mai)

Jill & Scott: The hour long elephant trail ride and the camp in general was the best and most unique part of the whole trip. The stupid walk around a circle at the circus just does not compare.
We both enjoyed "Monk Chat" very much. It was very cool to just sit and converse, ask questions, be curious, laugh and enjoy the wisdom and perspective of such a young monk.

Jill: The coolest part Chiang Mai was the accessibility of neat experiences and things to do/ see.... elephant camp, cooking school, Thai boxing, night market (even if we did spent too much time in it).
Danielle: The elephant and night bazaar
Jonna: The elephant day, the night market and the boxing experience

The uncoolest part of the North?

Scott: The uncoolest thing about Thailand as a whole was the heat and humidity.
Jill: I could ditto that, but the length of the plane ride was the worst part for me.
Scott: Too much time in shopping bazaars.
Jill: The uncoolest part of Chiang mai was that vacationing in a big city was not particularily relaxing. While cool in its own way, it was hectic and busy (like my life).
Danielle: no ocean really hot
Jonna: The ants and bugs

Did your expectation fall below or above the actual experience?

Danielle: Below [expectation] for smell above for how safe & friendly they were.
Jonna: It was above the expectations
Scott: : The stormy weather and large waves in the South limited our access to islands and more climbing.
Jill: (strange question...) It was better than we expected, but we still expected to have a string of the "best days ever" and we did.

Was your impression different after spending time here?

Scott: [He] appreciated how people related to each other and to us. The respect, honesty and kindness was everywhere. He appreciated the beautiful people... pretty women and men, slim figures, nice clothing and appearances.
Jill: Overall, I liked how the Buddhist philosophy (70% of Thai are Buddhist) teaches about Karma, kindness, mindfulness and much more cool stuff and how that transferred to a feeling of peace and safety for me, even in a dark alley in Bangkok. It is refreshing how a nation of people practicing peace really feels....
Jonna: Yes different
Danielle: no

Would you come back and why?

Jonna: Yes--I'd come back because I enjoyed it and it was so different from any other place I've been.
Jill: I would definitely come back, but not right away...i need to forget that long ass plane ride. (like having a baby, after awhile you forget the pain and only remember the good stuff). I am sooo happy for the family experience in Thailand. We all learned and saw so much, but I am most grateful for the powerful lessons my girls got in economics (how to dicker and how much things really cost compared to home) I also enjoyed the exposure to the "lady boy" scene and how the Thai culture accepts it, straight up. There was no weirdness or shame about it like at home.
Danielle: yes, to see more elephants
Scott: [overcome by emotion, Scott needed a moment. topic today: If bugs taste like puffed rice, what does puffed rice taste like? Talk amongst yourselves…]

Are there any specific events, actions or stories you found particularly entertaining while you were here?

Scott: Piling into the moped tuk-tuk with 6 of us and 1 driver. 7 people on 3 wheels, not to mention the backpacks.
Jill: The girly bar scene and the "does your friend have wife?" comment. The nipple tweaking massage for Scott and his comment right after "note to self- trim nipple hair". KK's trip goal is near enough satisfied.

I never realized how precious toilet paper could be and I find myself being more aware of how much I am using since I've been home. Since there are 3 girls in our house, Scott is always commenting about how much toilet paper we use. He is happy that I (maybe the girls too) are making an effort to use less.
Jonna: The beaches, elephant riding and the shopping
Danielle: Monk chat, night bazaar, massages on the beach