Elephant Nature Park

The Elephant Nature Park is a sanctuary for Asian elephants in northern Thailand. Each elephant at the park has a mahout or elephant caretaker that is responsible for the well-being of their elephant. According to their brochure:

They are free to choose their family, form small herds and live amongst the people who love and respect them. They are not expected to work or perform. Instead, they are able to wander the park, feeding at their leisure, bathing in the river and playing together in the mud pit.
About 8 people, including myself, were picked up by a bus at 8 a.m for the 1 1/2 hour ride to the park. Our day consisted of feeding the elephants by hand, bathing them in the river, more feeding and hanging out and watching them.

Feeding the elephants.

Aww. These two are best friends. The elephant on the right has a foot infection and can't lie down, so her best friend sleeps standing up too by leaning on each other.

Bathing the elephants.

Elephant having a blast floating downstream!

Elephant butts!

We were urgded to wear modest swim wear because many of the "mahouts" or elephant caregivers come from small villages in Thailand where if you even touch a woman, that is the woman you must marry.

So gentle! Say "Aaahhh!"

The thunder scared the baby, and when the baby cries all of the elephants come running to protect him.

Volunteers are welcome to come to the nature park and help take care of the elephants for a week or two.

I had a great time at the nature park. Everyone was really nice and we had a great lunch buffet. In the afternoon we watched a short film on how elephants are abused and misused in Thailand largely due to ignorance and cruel traditions. Part of the mission of the nature park is to educate people on what is happening to Thailand's elephants.

Even elephants need a good scratch now and then!

Chiang Mai Oh My!

I wanted to take the sleeper train to Chiang Mai, but due to the monsoons there was a landslide blocking the tracks. The only way to get there would be to fly. At the airport in Bangkok, I withdrew some money from the ATM machine. More on that later.
The morning after I arrived, I went walking. I ended up in Chinatown. There were huge markets with really cheap stuff. I found a dress I liked for about $6.00...so I bought 4 of them in all different colors! Who knew shopping could be so fun!

A female monk (didn't know they existed) shopping at the flower market.

Motorcycles

Inside the market.

Later that night I met up with a colleague who was also in Chiang Mai. He wanted to go see some Muay Thai Boxing and got some VIP tickets. Sounds good to me! I went to an ATM machine to get out more cash and realized I left my ATM card in the machine in Bangkok airport! Yikes! Luckily, I have two more ATM cards from two different banks in the US or else I would have been screwed. Always carry back-up cards! I called my bank in Abu Dhabi and cancelled my card immediately.

Muay Thai is referred to as the "Art of Eight Limbs" because it uses punches, kicks, elbows, and knee strikes, thus using eight points of contact as opposed to two or four points used in other types of boxing and other martial arts sports.

Before each bout the boxers perform the ritual of Wai Khru Ram Muay. Wai is an action of putting their hands in prayer to show respect to others. Khru means teacher. Ram means dance in the old Thai traditional style, and Muay means boxing.

The ritual is a way to show respect to the teachers and trainers, and since muay thai was usually fought in front of the King, it was a way of apologizing for the brutality in fighting.

The fighter circles the ring kneeling and bowing to show respect to God, man and Buddha. He then performs the ram muay to demonstrate his prowess to the audience.

The ritual of Wai Khru Ram Muay

Generally, I don't watch sports. As a matter of fact I hate watching sports, but this was a blast. There were several different matches leading up to the Main Event. The show began with some light-weight boxers and then moved on to women boxers. There was a band playing Thai music and each match started out with Europe's "Final Countdown."

Get 'em!

Get 'em again!

Lady Boxers!

The program showed that there would be a "special event." My colleague, Mark, and I speculated what it could be. Midgets? What? It ended up being a bunch of blindfolded guys boxing each other. Hilarious!

Blind folded boxers!

The Main Event was a guy from Spain versus a local Thai guy. The Thai guy was kind of short and tubby, while the Spanish guy looked like a lean mean fightin' machine.

The coaches of the Thai came around eagerly taking $6.00 bets. We put our money on the Spaniard. For sure. Looked like a shoo-in for our guy. Uh not so much. Somehow the tall, lean Spaniard lost to the short, squat Thai! What?! I'm pretty sure the match was fixed, but it was fun anyway!

After the matches were over, I noticed a guy in the ring wearing a LeBron James Cleveland Cavaliers jersey. Huh? He said he was from Madrid, Spain and loves LeBron. Um ok.

I am the greatest!

What is up with this guy's shirt?

Dude, what are you wearing?

LeBron James?! huh??

Mark showing off his prowess!

The next day I wasn't feeling so great, but I managed to do a walking tour of some of the many wats of Chiang Mai as suggested by Lonely Planet.

Golden Buddha in Wat Phra Singh (Temple of the Tiger)

Thai Boy Scouts

Wat Si Koet

The teak temple Wat Phan Tao (Monastery of 1000 kilns)

Wat Chedi Luang

The Three Kings: King Mengrai, the founder of Chiang Mai; his contemporary and reportedly good friend King Ramkamhaeng of Sukothai; and King Ngam Muang of Payao. Legend says they worked together to lay out the city of Chiang Mai.

Finally, my walking tour ended at the Women's Prison Product Shop. You can buy stuff that the prisoners made or get a massage!

The Grand Palace and Monsoons

The next day I headed over to the same general area to see the Grand Palace Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha). According to Lonely Planet, it is Bangkok's biggest tourist attraction and a pilgrimage destination for devout Buddhists and nationalists.

A ticket to get in cost 350 Baht (about $10.00). It was packed with people from all over. I noticed a group of Aussie guys taking pictures of themselves. They were wearing what looked like clown pants. It is not allowed to wear shorts or tank tops, so if you are you can rent the proper clothes. These guys looked ridiculous, but they had a great sense of humor about it. I went up to them and said, "I just want to congratulate you on your recent graduation from clown school!" They laughed.
A few minutes later it started pouring rain. Everyone took refuge under the awnings of the temple or a small pavilion like I did. After 15 minutes of waiting, the rain showed no sign if letting up. What did I expect? It's monsoon season. So I finally I decided to have a walk around anyway.

I went inside the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The Buddha is only about 26 inches tall and is actually carved from a single jade stone. (Emerald in Thai simply means dark green). No person is allowed to touch the statue, except for The King, when he changes the cloak around the statue three times a year for the summer, winter and rainy seasons. The Emerald Buddha is deeply venerated as the protector of the country.


I walked over to the Grand Palace and saw a huge flash of lightning followed by a loud clap of thunder that scared the crap out of most people because there backs were turned away from the flash. I had a plane to catch that night and didn't want to get struck by lightning, so I ended up cutting my tour short and headed back. I was heading to Chiang Mai that night and didn't want to miss my flight.