More Elephant Excitement
Trip Start
Oct 12, 2005
1
26
48
Trip End
Mar 31, 2006
Lampang and Sukothai,
Thailand
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
We Can't Get Enough of These Elephants!
After our excellent elephant ride in Chiang Dao we were inspired to visit the Thai Elephant Conservation Center four hours to the south. Several bus rides led us from Chiang Dao, through Chiang Mai and down to Lampang (about 18 km south of the conservation center). We spent the night at a guesthouse on the river that was beautifully decorated for about $10 US
01 - Matt Feeding Elephants
. Well, since there really are no deals in this world, we later discovered why it was so cheap. It was just a few doors down from a very, very loud heavy metal outdoor live rock club. Tired after a long day of traveling, we were kept awake until past midnight listening to some poor performance with a driving drum beat and heavy bass. We were a bit bleary the next morning for our trip to the Elephant Conservation Center but that was fine since the sight of elephants usually tends to perk us up.The Conservation Center is run by the Thai government and houses 36 regular elephants (some over 80 years old!) and a few of the King's royal white elephants. Elephants in Thailand have decreased in number since the country outlawed logging and moved into the modern mechanized age and Thailand's elephants and mahouts became unemployed. As a result some were brought to large cities as sidewalk tourist attractions. Others are used for illegal logging. In both cases they are usually mistreated. The Center was founded to provide a refuge for the countries elephants and mahouts. The attractions and shows are meant to inform people about elephants and help sustain the center.
I was concerned that the elephants at the center might seem trapped or sad but it really is an interesting place
02 - Elephant and Mahout
. Everyone seemed to appreciate the chance to learn more about elephants and get up close and personal. Matt and I felt like 8 year olds at the county fair; rushing excitedly from attraction to attraction with huge grins on our faces. It's really too bad they didn't sell cotton candy there. We started off feeding bananas to two mother elephants and their babies. The babies were about a year old and just learning to feed on their own. I was standing watching one pair of elephants when a baby elephant extended its trunk out and dragged it down the length of my arm, creating a slimy trail. After washing my arm off and dumping about a bottle of hand sanitizer on it we went to watch the mahouts wash the elephants in a pond. It was quite a unique site -- all those elephants getting scrubbed and cleaned by their human caretakers.The main attraction of the center was the elephant show which involves elephants walking in a line, kneeling, bowing, laying down and performing general tricks. Then, the elephants showed off their logging techniques -- stacking logs, pulling huge timbers, etc... Since elephants were used by the Thai people for centuries logging in the woods, they're really skilled at it. Then came the ultimate excitement -- two elephants played instruments (xylophone and drums) while two others painted! You may have heard of these painting elephants before as their work has been auctioned in New York to benefit the Conservation Center. When we heard the paintings from the show only cost $12 each we decided to get one. We carefully chose our painting which I would describe as very modern and interpretive and proudly walked out of the Center with our painting safely tucked into an elephant dung paper (don't ask!) shipping tube. We really felt like we got a good deal and kicked ourselves for not buying more when we saw in our guidebook that they sell for $100's on eBay
03 - Bath Time!
! Anyway, in light of our apparent obsession with Thai elephants, I hope you all can still look us in the eye when we return to NYC and proudly hang our masterpiece!We're currently in Sukothai (about four hours South of our beloved elephants). We spent the day touring the ruins contained in the Sukothai National Historic Park by bicycle. Sukothai was once the capital of Thailand. Given that the ruin area is completely flat, we happily biked around for a few hours gazing at the pretty scenery. Tomorrow, we're back to Bangkok again for a few days of heavy-duty touring before we head to the beach.
More News
Thanks to everyone for sending us e-mails! We love getting news from home. Here are few things we been excited about lately:
* We're looking forward to seeing Matt's parents, Lauren and Matt Sklar in India in January. It will be fun to have a few travel companions for a week or so.
* Jill Marden and Chris Casal (who met at our NYC wedding reception in September, 2004) were engaged at Thanksgiving. (Thanks guys for letting me put this in our travelogue!!) We are so thrilled for both of them that we've decided to waive our usual matchmaking fee.
* Kristy's Dad finally broke down and bought her Mom a car that's more comfortable than the old Nissan Sentra, has satellite radio and a powerful engine! (Just kidding Dad -- But seriously, Mom, watch the speeding tix!)
* A little bird told us that the Assurant holiday party is on Friday, the 16th. Wish I could be there but we'll make sure we toast the crew at the appropriate time. (I guess that means a Saturday morning Bloody Mary for us since we're twelve hours ahead.)
