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Exploitation or Just a Michigan education?
Entry 9 of 12 | show all | print this entry |
We awoke this morning to a very strange sound. Not chickens, or traffic, or farang yelling.. but a phone! We were both extremely confused, and then realized that our room actually has a phone in it and that our reception lady was calling to wake us up for our day of adventure. We headed down there at 8:30, only to wait and be asked to eat breakfast in the "lobby." (We are using the term lobby loosely here; it is an area with a few tables and a TV and no walls. And seemingly the same people working there 24 hours a day!) Around 9, we loaded onto the minibus with a few other tourists - a German, an Irishman, a Chinaman, and a Malaysian (no joke coming here). The bus was, of course, playing American music from the late 90s. They can't get enough of it here in Thailand! Their year of choice seems to be 1997 - Offspring, Shakira, Ricky Martin, etc - we seriously think they own the "NOW 1997" CD. I mean, really, who doesn't? Susan loves it, but Nick is less than pleased.
After our tour guide read us a litany of activites that we were to partake in over the next 8 hours, we made our first stop at an orchid and butterfly farm. Here, we invented the game of "Let's determine which stops are necessary and which are unnecessary." I think you can decide which category this place with a bigger gift shop than farm fell under. Then we headed to a factory that made paper from elephant dung. Though you may think that this stop may have been unnecessary, this was quite far from the case. It was a good operation that employed farmers and which recycled an otherwise useless product. It was interesting to see how it was made, and the gift shop had some neat stuff. So, don't be mad when we bring home presents made of elephant dung!
Passing through rice fields underwater, we arrived the "village" of the Karen, or Longneck, people. We still can't decide whether this stop was necessary or not. Our books had warned us that these day treks took you to very touristy villages, but we were definitely not prepared for this. The women appeared as though they were on display, just sitting on these little platforms selling various tourist artifacts. Our guide told us that they were not allowed to be Thai citizens (as their tribe was originally from Burma), and therefore couldn't go to school or earn money any other way. Since we are both very uneducated about the issue, we couldn't decide how to feel about it. It really didn't seem like the women were happy, but at least they were making a living, and apparently, living better than in Burma. We weren't sure if it was actually exploitation, or if it was just our University of Michigan educations (read: everything is offensive and exploitative and not PC enough) talking. Nobody else seemed to have a problem with it. It was cool, however, to see the women with all the rings around their necks and at least see their beautfiul, weavings, etc. We're just not sure if we are bad people for going there! Then we were off to question our morals once again, this time at the elephant riding camp. After eating a big buffet lunch (and earning lots of American points for being the only ones to go up twice - it's a buffet, duh!), we were all set for our elephant riding experience. We had tried really hard to find a trek without the elephant riding, as we will be doing so much in a much better place over the next few days, but it was virtually impossible. So we got into our little chair and took off. We felt like the Brits in India, parasols and all, crossing over the river on elephant-back. Luckily, our mahout didn't use his stick too much, and our elephant seemed to be pretty happy. Some of the steeper parts were actually quite scary, since it was muddy. Nick had never ridden on an elephant before, and Susan hadn't in the wild. (She never realized it was weird that elephants came to Hamilton's grocery store parking lot every few years until she came to college. Apparently, nobody else ever rides elephants in their youth!) It was quite an experience. The finale of the elephant camp was the elephant show. Obvi this entailed a variety of mahouts and their respective elephants performing choreagraphed tricks and then bowing (the elephants, not their riders) after each one. Some highlights included an elephant raising the flag with his trunk to begin the show, elephants 'playing' harmoncas while one banged abeat ona drum in some kind of rudimentary band, and of course elephants painting a picture of flowers with a watercolor brush. We deemed this stop necessary for others, but unnecessary for us.
We stopped by another village (tourist trap), home to some Lisu people. Out of all the tourists, our only purchase was a 10 baht bracelet. They didn't like us much. Unnecessary. The hike to the waterfall, as well as the waterfall itself, was, to use a Bryan word, underwhelming. It was a little bit of a disappointment until Nick decided to try and scale the slippery rock walls, fell into the incredibly murky pool and got incredibly soaked. That made it all worth it. As we said, it wasn't your typical "waterfall" - more of a "waterdrip," so there wasn't really any risk involved. Since the 20-minute trek was so slippery and muddy, we are actually pretty glad we didn't do a longer one - it could've been quite miserable. Unnecessary.
Our plans for the evening were made as soon as Superbad came on and Susan announced to Nick that she hadn't seen it. This is likely one of the seven deadly sins of the U of M class of 2008 (up there with not knowing the chorus to 'Living on a Prayer'), and so we were immobilized for a further two hours after the long drive home from the day trek. Dinner was had at a quaint establishment where the waiters were too lazy to serve us, to the point where Susan brought Nick his dessert from the kitchen, and we spent the waning minutes of our evening in the tremendous internet cafe we've grown to love in the shadow of the East Gate.
We are (finally!) headed off to the Thai Elephant Conservation Center tomorrow for the three-day mahout training course. We will learn to ride on the elephant's neck, bathe the elephants, command the elephants, and even play with the babies! Plus, we get a really sweet mahout suit to wear the whole time. It's a really good organization that tries to make life better for the elephants. Check out their website (www.changthai.com) for more information and pictures of the elephants (including a one-year old baby whom we can't wait to meet) and the suits that we will be wearing (you will crack up, guaranteed). They also put up customer pictures on there, so who knows - you might see us. We will be back and try to blog on Monday night, before we make our way to Laos. Thanks and wish us luck! Please send us some nice messages so that Susan remembers she has friends and a family and doesn't end up staying and living with the elephants for the rest of her life, and so that Nick can think about all the people who love him while cleaning up elephant dung. (Pounds and fibrous pounds of it!)
Where I stayed:
Paisarn Guesthouse
Latest Comments (4)
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pic! (reply)
Jul 21, 2008 04:51 EST by clairem10
sue you're on the website already...and the outfit is awes!!
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Riding dirty? (reply)
Jul 19, 2008 12:47 EST by tomandrew
We're continuing to love the blogs (especially the one where Nick's mom and dad were proven right). But when did Nick become such a dessert hound?
Have fun at elephant camp. Let us know if you see Dumbo (or does that qualify as an ugly American comment?).
Are we ever going to see some photos? We're willing to pay big bucks to see Nick 'in uniform' riding an elephant.
T... show all
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Modoc? (reply)
Jul 18, 2008 12:53 EST by ihearthart
Take a memory card worth of pics and videos so I can pretend I'm there!
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