Save the Elephants

Sawadee-krap (hello)!

What's ups guys, I hope everything is going well back in the states. Things are still going well for me over here. I'm currently in Chiang Mai, which is more toned down than Bangkok. I got here yesterday afternoon after a "journey" of a train ride. So lets start off where I left off. I took the train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai (as you already know), which in the past month has had three, yes three, derailings.  Did not want to scare anyone by stating that in my previous post. Ha! But like all would, I was pretty nervous about trip. The train was scheduled to leave at 730pm, but didn't depart until an hour after, which is only the beginning. The train is considered a special express sleeper coach, which was pretty cool cause my seat was an actually bed, with a light, and power outlets. Let's just say the ride however was pretty rough, I could see why the train has derailed lately. There were a couple times that I was woken up by almost being thrown from my bed, or my head slamming into the wall. Luckily, I had some awesome bed neighbors that were from London and Ireland, or else the ride would have been worse. Other than having a rough ride and having to stop at multiple stations throughout the night, the train ride seemed to get worse. So the train was scheduled to arrive at 10am, but after leaving an hour late and having some technical issues on the way, the train finally arrived in Chiang Mai at 2:30pm. But hey it's all about the backpacking experience and not caring what time you get there, but at least getting there. The train ride was not all negatives though, I got to see the miraculous views of Thailand that consisted of water packed rice fields, the mountains of Doi Khun Tan National Park, that were filled with bamboo and palms trees, and also the little third world towns that we passed by. 

So after the train ride, I got settled into my hostel, which is located next to a street market. I decided that after what I had to endure on the train, I needed a Traditional Thai massage. So I found one a couple blocks away. The cost? A mere 200 baht ($6.50) for an hour.  And like I heard, which is true by the way, they really beat the hell out of you. 

The next morning(today) is when the real excitement begins, I had scheduled a day trip to visit The Elephant Nature Park. All I knew was that we were going to feed and bathe the elephants. But I got so much more. The park provided transportation to where the elephants live, about an hour and a half out of Chiang Mai in the jungle. During the ride, they showed what the Elephant Nature Park was about. The park is a sanctuary for Asian Elephants that have been abused due to the increasing demand having these animals captive, for tourism in Thailand. So basically, a conservation for these neglected elephants. our group got the opportunity to take care of these gentle beasts.  When we ("we" being my group of six people) got there, we got to feed the elephants and learn more about each one and how they ended up here.  For instance, one of them was completely blind because its previous owner shot her eyes because she would not comply. These stories were endless for each elephant that we got to take care off. It was a great one-on-one experience with them. We got to pet them, feed them, bathe them and learn the story behind them. 

After a little grub, we went to the river near by and got to "play" with the elephants. Man are they playful! After washing the elephants in the river and them washing us right back, I got the unique experience to actually talk to the founder of Elephant Nature Park, Sanduen "Lek" Chailert. Lek is an award winning conservationist, but when talking to her is was more of a mother to these elephants. While the elephants played in the middle of the river, she was telling me how this group of three elephants never left each others side and no matter what, always stayed together. She also gave me a play by play of what "her children" were doing. As they continued to play, she would say look at that one over there, pointing to the blind elephant, as it walked to the other side of the river, that elephant doesn't like being in the water too long cause she gets scared. Then she continued by saying and watch the other two elephants help walk her back into the water. And a couple minutes later, the other two elephants walked to the other side of the river and then, as a group, they walked back into the water and continued to play. I was amazed by the way she talked about them and how she knew every elephant personally. It was definitely eye opening. I even had the pleasure to take a picture with her! After that playful adventure, our group watched a very explicit film of how these gentle giants are being abused.  Also, how these wild elephants, which are considered sacred in Thailand, are now endangered species. Then came another round of feeding them, imagine how much these guys eat. That concluded our day with these Animals. 

Like I said before, it was a really eye opening experience, and definitely something I would do again. It was amazing to have such a one-on-one experience with them. Also, to know that these elephants will be under the care of Lek especially after witnessing that film. 

That leads us to the present, right now I'm waiting to go to a Muay Thai fight later tonight and then tomorrow I will endure myself in a Thai cooking class! I can't wait! Later tomorrow night I will fly to the island of Phuket and then putting myself through the troubles of going island hopping until Tuesday! Well thanks again for reading. 

Until next time,

Peace!!

Bangkok

Hey guys,

I would like to start off by saying that I am still safe and sound. It is currently 16:00pm (4:00) Thursday afternoon here. I am in Bangkok right now waiting for my train to Chiang Mai. The train doesn't leave until about 730pm. So I thought this would be the best time to post about my adventures in Bangkok. The number of stories that I can tell are endless even for only being here about 2 and half days. So I will only give you guys the short version. Rather than the long detailed version, I don't want to drag this on and bore myself and the people reading this. Lets just start off from the beginning. 

So I arrived in Bangkok on Monday night at 11:30pm, and headed straight to my hotel to get some rest. Getting a taxi here is very easy because there are taxis everywhere. It seems as if there are more taxis on the street than regular personal cars.  The next morning, I woke up and headed straight for the streets to look for some food. As I read, it is cheaper to get food from street vendors than to sit at a restaurant or any other western style place, not to mention it is fresher. For breakfast, I got a spicy beef soup, 35 baht ($1) . All the food here has some kind of spice or kick to it. Which if you know me well. The spicier the better. After that it was off to see downtown Bangkok. So I got a shuttle to take me to the city train and took that to downtown. The traffic here is insane. It is nothing that I have seen before. And trust me I have seen tons of traffic due to living in Corona and experiencing the parking lot of the 91 freeway. There are cars and bikes everywhere and the chances of you getting hit by a car are high. The people driving here do not care what it in front of them. They will not stop or slow down. 

Once I got into the city I met with one of my buddy's friend Jing. Who is a manager at a hostel here and where I stayed while I was in Bangkok. I dropped off my backpack and set off for a little shopping adventure. I spent a few hours going to the local malls and little boutiques here. It is crazy to see how cheap everything here. The currency rate is 30 Baht to 1 Dollar.  After shopping, jet lag started to set in so I decided to rest because Jing told me earlier in the day that she will show my the "nightlife" of Bangkok and that we will "party like a rockstar". She took me and our other new friend that we met at the hostel, whose name was Yando (probably misspelt). He was from Spain and like I was backpacking alone. Jing took us to Khao San road. This place was insane! It is basically "PB" of Bangkok and I will leave it at that! It had music blaring with all up to date western hits. 

The next day, after a rough morning, I went to go see the majestic Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha Tempe.  This place is beyond beautiful. I can go on for days about the Asian architecture and the beauty of it but I will let the pictures do the talking. Just note that pictures do not justice. It's something that you have to see in person. After walking the temples and the streets of Bangkok. It was yet again one of Jing's crazy nights. We went with Jing's friends that live and work here, they are from America and Belgium. This time we went to Patong, known for its hookers and "ladyboys". The night included multiple drinks and games of pick out the ladyboy. All I can say about is that it's very hard to tell the difference from a ladyboy and a real lady.  

This brings us to today. Today is more of a resting and try to shake off the hangover day. Ha Bangkok has so much to offer I can't even explain it.  From its people, traffic, food, and night markets. Now it is a 14 hour train to Chiang Mai. Which I have heard is more traditional Thai rather than the craziness of Bangkok.  So as the rain starts to fall, the first time is has rained since I have been here (it's rainy season), I'm going to conclude this long essay of a blog. Until next time, which I hope will be on Sunday right before I leave for the islander Phuket.

Thanks 

PS I will be safe! 

The Flight

Hey guys, first of all I would like to thank everyone for their support the past couple of days and for checking out the blog. For those of you that don't know, this is my first blog so all of this is new to me as is the country I am currently in (Seoul, Korea). I don't even know how to start writing this thing and how I should write it. But hey here it goes! Ha

So like I stated before I'm currently in Korea. I'm in Korea for a quick 35 minute pit stop to drop off some passengers and gas the bird up. By the way its current 730pm monday night here and 330am pacific. I'm must say by looking outside the plane window, Korea looks beautiful, there are islands everywhere, even the Seoul Airport is on a little island about 15 miles from the mainland. But hey let's talk a little about the flight. The first leg of the flight was 12 short hours. I say short due to the amazing flight. I must say Thai airways is seriously the best airlines that I have taken to date. I'm flying economy and I got FREE cocktails, on-demand movies, TV shows, and music. Some of the movies that I got to see were 42, movie about Jackie Robinson (great movie), and Oblivion with Tom Cruise. The food on the plane was great! I actually got two full course meals. 

The first meal started off with a Shrimp with Tomato Bruschetta & pita bread, then came the chicken curry with rice, bomb. The meal came with a roll with butter as well as cheese and crackers. For dessert it was a baked egg coconut cream custard. I know it sounds gross, but it was actually pretty good. And finally to top it all of I was the meal with a nice glass of red wine. To put Thai Airlines service in perspective, they had a guy walking up and down the aisles topping off people's wine, and this is economy! I can't even imagine what the hell first or business class gets. 

 Well it's time to board again for yet another 5 hour journey. I'm wrapping this up quick but I promise it won't be as long next time but who knows. All I know is that after this "I'm in Bangkok's hands now! 

Until next time peace!