New Blog
I'm not in Southeast Asia anymore, so I started a new blog.
http://jobsandelephants.blogspot.com.
Enjoy.
http://jobsandelephants.blogspot.com.
Enjoy.
posted by beth at 5:49 PM
1 comments
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Glap Bahn
GGGGGRRRRRRRRR
I just wrote up this whole thing and then deleted it somehow. And this time the whole page is in English so I don't even have an excuse.
Well, I'm back home (glap bahn) and I decided I feel like I've been in a coma for the past three months. I remember/recognize most things but there are subtle differences people need to clue me in about. For example - Angelina Jolie is pregnant with Brad Pitt's baby, Rory is back at Yale, both Erica and Alex's rooms are now offices for my mom and dad, and there's a motion sensored, singing and dancing, five foot Santa Claus in the living room. The last one I kind of figured out by myself.
So far since I've been home I've...
1) slept a lot
2) put on all the accessories I've accumulated in Thailand (2 bracelets I bought from Hill Tribe women, an elephant bracelet from the park, the necklace from the boy in the Karen village, the elephant bell necklace from Kopi, my two hat purchases from the Sunday Market, simultaneously, and a scarf or two) and walked around the house pointing to things and saying them in Thai
3) reazlied what it's like to Mom, in that I was cold, like uncomfortably cold when no one else was
4) possibly gotten sick (I think my stomach is jet-lagged and upset)
5) spent a lot of time on the internet.
Most of the time on the internet has been on Asian elephant conservation websites. Mostly because I just miss them a lot and can't stop thinking about them (the ones at the park, but the species as a whole too), but I also have this idea that I can figure out how to make a real job out my obsession with them and I feel like sitting on the internet for hours may help spark my genius solution.
www.elephantnaturepark.org(the park!! It's an old, ugly ugly site, with a lot of dead links and some weird English, but a lot of information on the elephants, and Lek)
www.helpthaielephants.com(the site with the stolen footage from Lek that caused the elephant camps to get together to put a contract out for her head! Ahh! She had to hide in Burma. But it gives a simple explanation of "phaajahn" process.)
www.digital-rampage.com/serengeti (the Park's USA non-profit, outdated, and mostly the same info as ENP, but a nicer website and you can donate online to Elephant Nature Park. And don't worry, the Park gets 100%.)
www.serengetiusa.com (same group, similar website, better website name)
www.allforelephants.org (another non-profit in California for the Park, also outdated, but there's sound and a cool intro.)
www.elephant.org.th (an ex-friend of Lek's who joined in to accuse Lek of staging the footage. She's generally not good. Ask me for more details if you're interested.)
www.elephants.com (an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee.)
And then I've had some suggestions for the zoo option. But it seems like elephants aren't really made for zoos.
There's currently a huge debate about 8 Thai elephants being sold to 2 Australian zoos for their "conservation programs" and Lek, along with a bunch of other animal rights groups are trying to stop the trade. A lot of zoos say they have elephants in "conservation programs" but the fact seems to be elephants aren't into breeding at zoos. I read somewhere that since January 2000, US zoos, with more than 120 female elephants, have produced just eight babies, and only three survived. Still births and infanticide are much more common in zoos. Uh oh.
Here's an article from the International Fund for Animal Welfare about why elephants shouldn't be in zoos. There are a bunch more articles available through the link below if you're interested.
Elephants are Born to be Wild
Australian zoos are planning to import eight Asian elephants from Thailand to start a zoo captive breeding program.
We are fighting this import because elephants suffer in zoos and this program will do nothing to save the endangered species.
Will captive breeding save the Asian elephant?
No. The zoos plan to captive breed Asian elephants is only to create a "self-sustaining" Australasian zoo population. The zoos themselves have stated there are no plans to return calves to the wild.
Research indicates that zoo captive breeding programs for elephants are not viable.
Birth rates for Asian elephants in zoos are ten times slower than those occurring in the wild. Wild Asian elephants give birth to an average of six calves during their lifetime. This is usually reduced to only a single calf for zoo elephants.
An elephant has never been born in an Australasian zoo.
Is it really about conservation?
The facts speak for themselves.
Elephants feature prominently in marketing campaigns and are seen as a drawcard for zoos.
Taronga Zoo's long-term resident elephants Ã? Ã?He-ManÃ? and Ã?BurmaÃ? Ã? were recently sent to Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo while finishing touches were put on the new $40 million Asian Elephant Precinct (complete with 600 seat restaurant overlooking the elephant enclosure). The new elephant exhibit has been built for the four juvenile elephants the zoo wants to import from Thailand.
There can be little doubt that the primary motivation behind the elephant import is increased visitation to the zoo resulting in increased revenue.
Asian elephants cannot be imported for exhibition or for primarily commercial reasons. This is why the zoos are arguing that it is for conservation reasons.
There is no guarantee that thecaptivecaptve breeding program will be successful and none of the calves bred will ever be returned to the wild.
How do you save the Asian elephant?
Efforts to save the Asian elephant can and must be focused in their home range states.
IFAW works throughout Africa and Asia to protect elephant habitats and works with local communities to find lasting solutions to human-elephant conflict, funds anti-poaching measures and works globally to end the trade in elephants and ivory.
Captive breeding in Australasian zoos will do nothing to save the species.
Aren't elephants better off in a zoo than a Thai camp?
The ideal situation for elephants in camps is to be rehabilitated in a Thai sanctuary rather than transported thousands of kilometres for a life in a zoo.
Evidence indicates that elephants suffer severe anxiety when transported. In February this year, two of eight Asian elephants sent from Thailand to China died just weeks after arrival.
Transportation is only one problem. No matter how good the new facilities are at Australian zoos are they can never replicate an elephant's home and family.
IFAW has revealed that one of the nine elephants destined for an Australasian zoo was returned to the elephant camp it came from. It was rejected for displaying aggressive behaviour, developed since it had been in quarantine.
This is the second of the nine elephants, which have been in quarantine in Thailand since October 2004, to develop aggressive tendencies. As a result of this latest incident Auckland Zoo has temporarily dropped out of the import proposal.
Approximately one in 600 elephant handlers in the United States is killed each year and elephants kill more zoo personnel than all other species of animal kept in zoos and circuses combined. In Thailand it is estimated that about 200 mahouts (elephant trainers) are killed each year.
Is IFAW Opposed to Zoos?
No. We recognise that zoos around the world do some good conservation and education work, and IFAW works closely with many zoo experts on wildlife rescue, rehabilitation and sanctuary projects.
However, there are animals, such as elephants, that science and expert opinion have found to suffer tremendously in zoos. This is because, despite their best efforts, zoos cannot meet the physical, behavioural, psychological and social needs of elephants.
Interesting, huh? The zoos don't seem to have too much of a response either. They say stuff like, "we're doing exactly what's required by law," which doesn't really make you feel warm and fuzzy inside.
Oooh, there's a position open at IFAW in Sydney for an Executive Assistant. Could I do that??
Right. This whole getting a job thing. Stressful! Not because I don't have enough options, but because I feel like I have too many and I can think of like a billion ways that I would probably be happy. Last night, after looking at elephant places, I started looking at TOEFL certification programs so I could go teach English in Thailand. Before this crazy Asia idea the plan was to live abroad in New Zealand for a year and if I stayed here, working at a school and getting certified, then I could go back to Thailand where I could live abroad for a year (one of my goals from Walkabout), teach kids in an unconventional setting (another goal from Walkabout), and be closer to the park and get back to learning Thai (more recent goals). Then tonight Laura said there might be an opening in the children's department at Simon and Schuster and I thought that sounded cool too. And then there's Jordan who has been trying to get me to work at The Agency Group since I went to college.
I realize this is actually an awesome position to be in, but it's still kind of stressful. Oh the burden of being a 22 year old college graduate in the suburbs of New York City, returning from a 3 month vacation in Asia.
I have to shut up.
Tomorrow I'm going to clean my room.
I just wrote up this whole thing and then deleted it somehow. And this time the whole page is in English so I don't even have an excuse.
Well, I'm back home (glap bahn) and I decided I feel like I've been in a coma for the past three months. I remember/recognize most things but there are subtle differences people need to clue me in about. For example - Angelina Jolie is pregnant with Brad Pitt's baby, Rory is back at Yale, both Erica and Alex's rooms are now offices for my mom and dad, and there's a motion sensored, singing and dancing, five foot Santa Claus in the living room. The last one I kind of figured out by myself.
So far since I've been home I've...
1) slept a lot
2) put on all the accessories I've accumulated in Thailand (2 bracelets I bought from Hill Tribe women, an elephant bracelet from the park, the necklace from the boy in the Karen village, the elephant bell necklace from Kopi, my two hat purchases from the Sunday Market, simultaneously, and a scarf or two) and walked around the house pointing to things and saying them in Thai
3) reazlied what it's like to Mom, in that I was cold, like uncomfortably cold when no one else was
4) possibly gotten sick (I think my stomach is jet-lagged and upset)
5) spent a lot of time on the internet.
Most of the time on the internet has been on Asian elephant conservation websites. Mostly because I just miss them a lot and can't stop thinking about them (the ones at the park, but the species as a whole too), but I also have this idea that I can figure out how to make a real job out my obsession with them and I feel like sitting on the internet for hours may help spark my genius solution.
www.elephantnaturepark.org(the park!! It's an old, ugly ugly site, with a lot of dead links and some weird English, but a lot of information on the elephants, and Lek)
www.helpthaielephants.com(the site with the stolen footage from Lek that caused the elephant camps to get together to put a contract out for her head! Ahh! She had to hide in Burma. But it gives a simple explanation of "phaajahn" process.)
www.digital-rampage.com/serengeti (the Park's USA non-profit, outdated, and mostly the same info as ENP, but a nicer website and you can donate online to Elephant Nature Park. And don't worry, the Park gets 100%.)
www.serengetiusa.com (same group, similar website, better website name)
www.allforelephants.org (another non-profit in California for the Park, also outdated, but there's sound and a cool intro.)
www.elephant.org.th (an ex-friend of Lek's who joined in to accuse Lek of staging the footage. She's generally not good. Ask me for more details if you're interested.)
www.elephants.com (an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee.)
And then I've had some suggestions for the zoo option. But it seems like elephants aren't really made for zoos.
There's currently a huge debate about 8 Thai elephants being sold to 2 Australian zoos for their "conservation programs" and Lek, along with a bunch of other animal rights groups are trying to stop the trade. A lot of zoos say they have elephants in "conservation programs" but the fact seems to be elephants aren't into breeding at zoos. I read somewhere that since January 2000, US zoos, with more than 120 female elephants, have produced just eight babies, and only three survived. Still births and infanticide are much more common in zoos. Uh oh.
Here's an article from the International Fund for Animal Welfare about why elephants shouldn't be in zoos. There are a bunch more articles available through the link below if you're interested.
Australian zoos are planning to import eight Asian elephants from Thailand to start a zoo captive breeding program.
We are fighting this import because elephants suffer in zoos and this program will do nothing to save the endangered species.
Will captive breeding save the Asian elephant?
No. The zoos plan to captive breed Asian elephants is only to create a "self-sustaining" Australasian zoo population. The zoos themselves have stated there are no plans to return calves to the wild.
Research indicates that zoo captive breeding programs for elephants are not viable.
Birth rates for Asian elephants in zoos are ten times slower than those occurring in the wild. Wild Asian elephants give birth to an average of six calves during their lifetime. This is usually reduced to only a single calf for zoo elephants.
An elephant has never been born in an Australasian zoo.
Is it really about conservation?
The facts speak for themselves.
Elephants feature prominently in marketing campaigns and are seen as a drawcard for zoos.
Taronga Zoo's long-term resident elephants Ã? Ã?He-ManÃ? and Ã?BurmaÃ? Ã? were recently sent to Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo while finishing touches were put on the new $40 million Asian Elephant Precinct (complete with 600 seat restaurant overlooking the elephant enclosure). The new elephant exhibit has been built for the four juvenile elephants the zoo wants to import from Thailand.
There can be little doubt that the primary motivation behind the elephant import is increased visitation to the zoo resulting in increased revenue.
Asian elephants cannot be imported for exhibition or for primarily commercial reasons. This is why the zoos are arguing that it is for conservation reasons.
There is no guarantee that thecaptivecaptve breeding program will be successful and none of the calves bred will ever be returned to the wild.
How do you save the Asian elephant?
Efforts to save the Asian elephant can and must be focused in their home range states.
IFAW works throughout Africa and Asia to protect elephant habitats and works with local communities to find lasting solutions to human-elephant conflict, funds anti-poaching measures and works globally to end the trade in elephants and ivory.
Captive breeding in Australasian zoos will do nothing to save the species.
Aren't elephants better off in a zoo than a Thai camp?
The ideal situation for elephants in camps is to be rehabilitated in a Thai sanctuary rather than transported thousands of kilometres for a life in a zoo.
Evidence indicates that elephants suffer severe anxiety when transported. In February this year, two of eight Asian elephants sent from Thailand to China died just weeks after arrival.
Transportation is only one problem. No matter how good the new facilities are at Australian zoos are they can never replicate an elephant's home and family.
IFAW has revealed that one of the nine elephants destined for an Australasian zoo was returned to the elephant camp it came from. It was rejected for displaying aggressive behaviour, developed since it had been in quarantine.
This is the second of the nine elephants, which have been in quarantine in Thailand since October 2004, to develop aggressive tendencies. As a result of this latest incident Auckland Zoo has temporarily dropped out of the import proposal.
Approximately one in 600 elephant handlers in the United States is killed each year and elephants kill more zoo personnel than all other species of animal kept in zoos and circuses combined. In Thailand it is estimated that about 200 mahouts (elephant trainers) are killed each year.
Is IFAW Opposed to Zoos?
No. We recognise that zoos around the world do some good conservation and education work, and IFAW works closely with many zoo experts on wildlife rescue, rehabilitation and sanctuary projects.
However, there are animals, such as elephants, that science and expert opinion have found to suffer tremendously in zoos. This is because, despite their best efforts, zoos cannot meet the physical, behavioural, psychological and social needs of elephants.
Interesting, huh? The zoos don't seem to have too much of a response either. They say stuff like, "we're doing exactly what's required by law," which doesn't really make you feel warm and fuzzy inside.
Oooh, there's a position open at IFAW in Sydney for an Executive Assistant. Could I do that??
Right. This whole getting a job thing. Stressful! Not because I don't have enough options, but because I feel like I have too many and I can think of like a billion ways that I would probably be happy. Last night, after looking at elephant places, I started looking at TOEFL certification programs so I could go teach English in Thailand. Before this crazy Asia idea the plan was to live abroad in New Zealand for a year and if I stayed here, working at a school and getting certified, then I could go back to Thailand where I could live abroad for a year (one of my goals from Walkabout), teach kids in an unconventional setting (another goal from Walkabout), and be closer to the park and get back to learning Thai (more recent goals). Then tonight Laura said there might be an opening in the children's department at Simon and Schuster and I thought that sounded cool too. And then there's Jordan who has been trying to get me to work at The Agency Group since I went to college.
I realize this is actually an awesome position to be in, but it's still kind of stressful. Oh the burden of being a 22 year old college graduate in the suburbs of New York City, returning from a 3 month vacation in Asia.
I have to shut up.
Tomorrow I'm going to clean my room.
posted by beth at 11:14 AM
4 comments
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Kung Hey Fat Choi!
Happy Chinese New Year from Hong Kong!
Wow, people are excited. It's the Year of the Dog so there are pictures of happy puppies ALL over the place.
And kids all get new clothes and the little ones all get red or gold outfits. Pretty cute!
Koh Pha Ngan was nice. I talked with Mote about working/living in a place so saturated with foreigners. He said he liked it usually because he likes practicing his English but not the Israelis cause they get into fights and are really loud. Woo hoo! Worse than Americans! I tried to talk about Buddhism with him but he said it was hard to talk about in English. I did find out he was a monk at a temple for 9 months and took it really really seriously. I also found out that the Thai army makes 20 year old guys pick a peice of paper out of a box and if it's red they don't go into the army and if it's black they do. He got a black one and carried a gun but never used it.
Then I left and went to Mae Haad! Laura (from Elephant Nature Park) showed up and came with me to Mae Haad with her friend Dave. Woo hoo! I saw Ot's rooster that he fights in Thong Sala and makes money off of (that was weird), "worked" at the bar, learned more Thai, made friends with a 6 year old Austrlian girl named Jade who also really likes elephants, went to a Chinese Temple and learned how to pray to Buddha, went back to Koh Ma (the tide wasn't nearly as annoying, there's a new guy running it and he found the shorts Danny left there and was wearing them!), met Chau's 3 month old baby, met my first always-angry Thai person (Chau's wife), and pretty much chilled out, sometimes discussing the difference between 40 year olds in Mae Haad (very tan, lots of tattoos, not that much clothing) and 40 year olds in the States (morgages, jobs, less tattoos, more clothing) with Laura.
Since then, I've been slowly getting back into Western society. The beach I stayed at in Koh Samui had a McDonalds, a Burger King, 2 Pizza Huts, 2 Haagen Daz stores, and several Nike, Adidas, Reebok and Converse stores each. There were a ton of fancy restuarants with Italian or French chefs and menus that all had correct English. Weird, weird, weird! I got a salad for the first time in a very long time.
And now Hong Kong. Woah. I'm wearing my jacket after 10am and put on my shoes for the first time since in over a month. I used a jetway (is that what it's called?) for the first time in two months, the hotel I'm staying at has a bathtub with a fixed shower ("shower"in Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand usually meant a shower head hanging from the wall in the area where the toilet and sink were. It was hand held and you just kind of tried your hardest to make sure it didn't spray the toilet paper roll) and it's more than $10 a night. Like a lot more.
So tonight is a big parade for the New Year. That'll be fun. It makes up for missing the Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. It'll be cold, but I mean cold like "Oh no, I guess I'll have to wear my sneakers, my track jacket and my cute new hat!" not like actually cold cold. And then tomorrow...
I'm going home! I'm not that excited about being here and all the hotel rooms under $300 are booked up so it's a lot cheaper to change my flight than to stay in Hong Kong two more nights.
So this is it. My last night in Asia. I feel all sorts of weird. Leaving Thailand this morning I was actually really sad but I'm hoping that leaving Hong Kong will just feel like a relief.
Jan. 30th - 10:15am (Hong Kong time) Leave Hong Kong
Jan. 30th - 12:50pm (New York time) Arrive New York
Wow, people are excited. It's the Year of the Dog so there are pictures of happy puppies ALL over the place.
And kids all get new clothes and the little ones all get red or gold outfits. Pretty cute!
Koh Pha Ngan was nice. I talked with Mote about working/living in a place so saturated with foreigners. He said he liked it usually because he likes practicing his English but not the Israelis cause they get into fights and are really loud. Woo hoo! Worse than Americans! I tried to talk about Buddhism with him but he said it was hard to talk about in English. I did find out he was a monk at a temple for 9 months and took it really really seriously. I also found out that the Thai army makes 20 year old guys pick a peice of paper out of a box and if it's red they don't go into the army and if it's black they do. He got a black one and carried a gun but never used it.
Then I left and went to Mae Haad! Laura (from Elephant Nature Park) showed up and came with me to Mae Haad with her friend Dave. Woo hoo! I saw Ot's rooster that he fights in Thong Sala and makes money off of (that was weird), "worked" at the bar, learned more Thai, made friends with a 6 year old Austrlian girl named Jade who also really likes elephants, went to a Chinese Temple and learned how to pray to Buddha, went back to Koh Ma (the tide wasn't nearly as annoying, there's a new guy running it and he found the shorts Danny left there and was wearing them!), met Chau's 3 month old baby, met my first always-angry Thai person (Chau's wife), and pretty much chilled out, sometimes discussing the difference between 40 year olds in Mae Haad (very tan, lots of tattoos, not that much clothing) and 40 year olds in the States (morgages, jobs, less tattoos, more clothing) with Laura.
Since then, I've been slowly getting back into Western society. The beach I stayed at in Koh Samui had a McDonalds, a Burger King, 2 Pizza Huts, 2 Haagen Daz stores, and several Nike, Adidas, Reebok and Converse stores each. There were a ton of fancy restuarants with Italian or French chefs and menus that all had correct English. Weird, weird, weird! I got a salad for the first time in a very long time.
And now Hong Kong. Woah. I'm wearing my jacket after 10am and put on my shoes for the first time since in over a month. I used a jetway (is that what it's called?) for the first time in two months, the hotel I'm staying at has a bathtub with a fixed shower ("shower"in Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand usually meant a shower head hanging from the wall in the area where the toilet and sink were. It was hand held and you just kind of tried your hardest to make sure it didn't spray the toilet paper roll) and it's more than $10 a night. Like a lot more.
So tonight is a big parade for the New Year. That'll be fun. It makes up for missing the Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. It'll be cold, but I mean cold like "Oh no, I guess I'll have to wear my sneakers, my track jacket and my cute new hat!" not like actually cold cold. And then tomorrow...
I'm going home! I'm not that excited about being here and all the hotel rooms under $300 are booked up so it's a lot cheaper to change my flight than to stay in Hong Kong two more nights.
So this is it. My last night in Asia. I feel all sorts of weird. Leaving Thailand this morning I was actually really sad but I'm hoping that leaving Hong Kong will just feel like a relief.
Jan. 30th - 10:15am (Hong Kong time) Leave Hong Kong
Jan. 30th - 12:50pm (New York time) Arrive New York
posted by beth at 7:13 PM
3 comments
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Back to spending too much time at internet cafes!!
I never made it back to an internet cafe. Monday I finally made it to the Hill Tribe Museum. I didn't plan very well so I left without eating lunch and got there an hour before it closed and could only think about food the whole time.
The main question I wanted to know was how Karens decided that pink was going to be their color of choice and where they get (or used to get, cause now I hear they buy it from cities) the dye from. The museum didn't answer that and I felt like I was in too grumpy of a mood to talk to anyone. Usually the tuk tuk drivers are really talkative and I try to practice speaking Thai with them but that day I was cranky and I was just giving one syllable English answers. I was thinking about saying, "Sorry, I'm very hungry right now and I have low blood sugar. I'm normally a much more pleasant person" but I didn't know how to say the second part in Thai.
So Tuesday morning I flew to Bangkok (again, didn't leave the airport), then to Samui. I got to Bangkok pretty early (I went to Chiang Mai Airport early because, again, I didn't buy the ticket beforehand) and was able to get on a flight leaving about 20 minutes after I arrived at the airport. Stand by is awesome! So I got to Samui, went to Koh Pha Ngan on the the cheap, wood boat, starting getting hit on by Israelis not even 10 minutes after the boat took off. He said, "are you Israeli?" and I said no and he said, "Because you are beautiful, like Israeli women." I said thanks. Mote met me when I got off the boat. He had arranged for a room for me (cheaper than the place he works at) which was really good cause for some reason a lot of the places are full here. Still! I don't understand. Full Moon Party is a couple weeks away. Someone said because of Chinese New Year, but I still only see Israelis here and I doubt they're here to celebrate Chinese New Year.
It was raining when I got to Samui, raining when I got to Koh Pha Ngan, then it stopped for a little bit, but then I went for dinner it started raining again. Then the electricity went out for about an hour, on the whole island. When I was here last time it happened too but it was either during the day when it didn't matter that much or only for 20 seconds if it was at night.
You're not left with a lot of options when the electricity goes out at 8pm on a beach island when it's raining. I just sat at the restaurant listening to other people's conversations. Lots of girls saying, "When's it going to come back on???" Over and over. Like anyone around them had any idea. One time I asked Pom (in Thai!) , "When are we going to leave?" and her answer was, "When we leave!" I feel like Dad would have a very interesting time in Thailand.
Ooops. Mote just stopped by and told me check out time was 10am for the bungalow I'm staying at. It's 11:19 so I guess I'll stay here another day. That's ok. I bought two books yesterday and reading in Haad Rin is pretty similar to reading in Mae Haad so it's not that bad.
Oh! Yesterday I started learning the Thai alphabet. Tough stuff! They have 44 consonants, 11 vowels (each with a long and a short version), 5 tones, and then a couple more other little punctuation marks for some letters (and no song!). I know about 9 letters so far. It's fun to write the letters because they're all really squiggly with lots of circles.
The computer I'm on isn't allowing me to upload pictures but I'll try to give you a quick run down of my favorites of the cast of characters from the elephant park last week.
Will (aka Will the Thrill/Patrick Swayze) - 38, Louisiana. Half the time he was (understandably) freaking out about coming back from Iraq. He just quit his Haliburton job there of 6 months. He was on a ton of drugs and extremely emotional. He would often get into really deep (one way) conversations about it with a lot of, "you haven't seen what I've seen," "you've didn't have to carry your friend's dead bodies from the battlefield" and stuff like that. Pretty fucking (excuse my language) intense. After about a half hour of depressing stories he would go into how much he hated George Bush now, how we're all fucked, there's no solution, we shouldn't have gone in the first place but now that we're there we can't leave, and neither the Republicans or Democrats are going to get us out of this mess, only the Independents, and therefore, yes, we're fucked. The other half the time he was being, um, a Southern Gentleman, but not really. He really liked being macho, but he also really liked complaining. Example: Sitting in the back of the pick-up truck is pretty cold when you're going fast. Therefore we had blankets on us. I was sitting on the right side, Isabelle was on the left side and Will was in the middle. He was constantly trying to make sure the two of us had enough blankets (after we said we really didn't care) but then would start yelling, "I'm so fucking cold!"
Isabelle, a fairly quiet girl most of the time, eventually lost it, sat up and screamed, "Take the fucking duna!" (duna = Australian for comforter) I put earplugs in my ears, pulled my beanie over my head and tried to not hear him as much as possible. Another time Rachel said, "I'm going to go to sleep, but if you want to put your legs out wake me up, and I'll move. It's not a problem. Ok?" When she woke up he said something like, "It's about time you woke up, I was so cramped, all I wanted to do was put my legs out...." Rachel said, "I said wake me up!" His response, "A Southern gentleman can not wake a beautiful lady up when she's sleeping!" But endlessly complaining is totally fine.
Will is why people think Americans are loud, obnoxious and rude. He had what Laura called his "center of attention jumpsuit." If at any time not enough people were paying attention to him he would put it on and do something with fire or a big knife.
I realized he wasn't going to help my "not all Americans suck" cause on the first night. Some football game was on and he went on this rant about how "A man knows he's found a good lady if she can sit back and enjoy a football game with him," or something like that. He went on for about 20 minutes on this. I told him that, although I'm not even a fan of football, I've been to more football games than my boyfriend. He didn't have a response to this. Will was really into making sweeping generalizations about America and Americans and especially American men. This killed me! I felt like I had to walk around following him saying, "Guys, please don't believe him. He's just weird, and he just got back from Iraq, and he's from Lousiana. Most people in America don't fit this descriptions I'm pretty sure." But then again George Bush is president so what do I know about the average American? I have no idea. I've been asked on more than one occasion, "Hey Beth, you're American, why did George Bush get elected again?" I usually say, "I don't know. Half the country, myself included, was just as surprised and disappointed as you and, what seems like, the rest of the world." I wonder what they thought I was going to say. Nex time I'll add "There are a lot of people in America and I don't know most of them. Sorry I can't help you out more."
After being quiet for a day (very un-Will like) he ended up freaking out and taking off in the middle of the night. Like 2 in the morning he just left, started walking down the street. It was at least a hour walk to anywhere that may have been open, but it was so late, I can't imagine there was anything open for at least 3 or 4 hours. Apparently earlier in the day he had asked someone if putting your thumb out works for hitchhiking in Thailand too. We felt weird but what can you do? Chase him down and beg him to come back? He's 38, not 6, right? Weird weird weird. I just hope he got wherever he wanted to go alright.
Awkward moment Monday morning in the office in Chiang Mai when an English girl he had told about the park showed up:
Her: "Hey, so you were at the park last week! You met Will! I'm friends with him! Did he tell you I was coming up this week? When did he leave yesterday? He was supposed to meet up with me last night." (Rachel and I looked at each other and stayed silent. Jeff stepped in.)
Jeff: "Um, well, there were a couple of different vans that left at different times yesterday."
Her: "Oh he probably forgot where we were going to meet up. What a great guy, huh?"
Jeff: "He's a character all right."
There are a bunch of people who stayed up there for the second week. I wonder if anyone will tell her what happened.
Moose and Adam- England. A vegan English couple from Hastings (South coast). They were extremely funny. Adam, a very expressive, fast talker, stood in front of a village of Karen people (99% of whom don't understand English) and said, "Hello everyone, my name's Adam. I'm from England, the south coast. I'm feeling a bit under the weather today, but I'm sure I'll be feeling better soon, and I'm very happy to be here." And maybe a couple more sentences. His girlfriend Moose is the quieter, slower speaking one of the pair then introduced herself, "My name's Moose. I'm from England." My first conversation with them kind of scared me. They were talking about laundry and I said, "Oh I have some extra detergent if you need it." Adam's response, "Is it eco?" My answer, "Eh, no. It was the cheapest stuff that 7-11 had at 7:30 this morning." They sometimes made me feel like a bad person who hated animals and the environment but mostly made me laugh so it's ok.
Isabelle - 19, Australia. Will said he had this fiance he was in love with (but hasn't met in person yet, only email and phone calls) and knew that Isabelle has a boyfriend of three years, but neither of these facts stopped him from being obsessed with Isabelle. Honestly, obsessed. She handled it pretty well most of the time. Making a lot of, "oh my god, what is wrong with this guy" faces to Rachel and me. I'll admit, the first day I saw her I was thinking, "Uh oh, her clothing's really nice and she's wearing make up. I wonder if she's going to hate this place." But she loved it. I love when I make assumptions and then end up completely wrong.
Laura - 31, New Hampshire. Laura is currently teaching English and Journalism at a university in Shanghai. She has a ton of really funny stories. I think I wrote before about the English names for the kids in Danny's dorm. Laura's student have even better ones. "Lots of Kinkys, Sprite, Pepsi, Pear, Orange..." and a ton more I can't remember. She said she tries to tell them, "It's fine for now, but when you put out your CV you may want to think about changing your name." Before her Chinese professor job she worked for NPR in New Hampshire. She knew Interlocken (oops, Windsor Mountain) because she had done a story on the whole controversy and told me a story about a Michigan Interlochen lawyer calling up and being real sketchy with her. Booooo Michigan Interlochen. She also told me when she had her first radio flashback dream about NPR in a really long time. She said she was in an editing room and Ira Glass walked in and she said to him, "You're really becoming a parody of yourself these days, don't you think?" I thought that was really funny. She's never met him and said if she didn't she can't imagine herself saying something that mean to him so it was a very bizarre dream. I had been carrying around the copy of The Onion Beau had sent me for Christmas so I passed it on to her. I was waiting to meet someone who I knew would fully appreciate it. Laura, like the Onion, is really good at saying really funny things with complete seriousness. In the Karen village the first night it was decided that we (the villagers and us) would stand around a huge fire and exchange singing songs. Laura's vote was for Twinkle, Twinkle. "Seriously, we should do 'Twinkle, Twinkle.' I think it would be a good song for the kids. 'Twinkle, Twinkle' everyone? Yeah?" I guess it doesn't sound that funny now but I couldn't stop laughing. Twinkle, Twinkle unfortunately didn't happen but the biggest Chicken Dance that village has ever seen (and probably will ever see) did. All the village kids were into it. Only the first hand clapping, wing flapping, butt shaking part. For the spinning around with a partner part the kids all ran away. But then came back for the next verse of hand clapping, wing flapping and butt shaking. We also did the hokey pokey.
Laura's currently in Bangkok, possibly coming down to the islands so I might be able to see her again.
Paul - 30, Australia. Paul was Will's roommate. He also talked a lot but about really interesting stuff that people wanted to hear about. He went to a boarding school for 6 years so he had an awesome repetoire of pranks and jokes and stuff. He led the "Johnnie, Johnnie, Johnnie, Johnnie, whoops! Johnnie, whoops! Johnnie, Johnnie, Johnnie, Johnnie," game. I knew this from when I was 10, so I was in the clear of looking like an idiot. But besides me there was only one other person who knew it. Leaving about 10 people completely clueless and trying for hours to figure out what the secret was. It was great. Paul was cool because he was also trying to learn Thai and I got to try to help. My most important teaching was the difference between "kah" and "kap." Females (and ladyboys) end sentences, questions, etc with "kah." Males end with "kap." He had thought it was based on who you were speaking to. So for the whole time he had been in Thailand he had been saying, "kah" to any women he was talking to and therefore declaring himself a ladyboy. He had no idea. Oopsies!
During the Jumbo Express he was desperately trying to find some big green bamboo to make a didgeridoo out of. I tried to put the words "green," "big," "bamboo" and "where" together but with no sucess. Eventually when we back at the park he found some and made a didg. Very cool.
Michael - 18, England, wait no, Canada. Nice kid but young and I feel like he was faking an English accent the whole time. He talked about the 2 and half months he spent building houses in Costa Rica and how it was with all British kids and that's how he developed the accent, but I'm pretty sure his accent became increasingly British over the week he was at the park. At one point Rachel was talking about one of the dinner dishes and she said "baaa-zil" and I said, "Uh, Rachel, it's called 'bay-zul.'" Rachel's has this ridiculous mix of American/British/Australian accents from growing up at an International School in Singapore. My comment was obviously a joke. Rachel knew this. Michael didn't. "Actually, Beth, either pronouciation is correct. In England they call it 'baaa-zil.'" I then said something like, "Michael. I realize this. I understand how accents work." That was probably the most stern I was at my time at the park. I had wanted to add, "people in my own town, sometimes even in my own family say some words with accents. Why would I expect someone from Singapore to say anything the same way as me? Don't worry, I don't" but I didn't. He also kept on saying, "I really should learn Thai, I'm going to be here for 3 months, but for one month I can't talk because I'll be a novice monk at a monastery and I'll only be allowed to talk once a day," about 20 times. He wasn't mean or a bad person in any way, we talked about music for a while one day (he plays bassoon), he was just a bit "wordy" sometimes as Laura put it.
Em - 26, Australia. Em was awesome! First off she had a conversation with Michael about the whole "one month at a monastery thing." She asked him why he was doing it, if it was purely for the novelty of the experience or if he really had something deeper interest in, and how he planned to use the experience in a meaningful way when he went back home. Em's questions were a lot better than Michael's answers. She didn't come on the Jumbo Express trip and from the first day he arrived stayed as far away as possible from Will. She was very much apart from any of the drama. She was usually stationed over by the 3 new elephants. They were really nice to spend time with. The foot messed up by the landmind just swung back and forth and was really uncomfortable to look at. Elephants are HUGE, so to imagine not being able to use one of the four points of stability seems horrible. To balance that depressing story, I got to watch the baby elephant grow from 2 weeks old to 3 weeks. The relationship between the baby and the mother was very sweet. At the beginning the mother wasn't making any milk, a product of the terrible condition she had just come from. The baby had to be given milk from a bottle. But by the time I left the mother was producing her own milk and the baby went from 3 bottles a day to only 1 bottle and mostly mom's milk. Very very very cool. Unfortunately one of the baby's legs is messed up (I heard that she gave birth on a mountain side and he fell down the mountain right at birth) which may mean that the owner won't want him back (they're both on lease right now) because he won't be able to work. Kind of a mixed blessing.
The mahout for the new mom and baby was an 18 year old Burmese kid named Jokuku. Em hung out with him and the other Burmese mahouts a lot and I joined them occasionally. Kopi (my, now 18 year old, Burmese mahout buddy) now had friends! Jokuku was one of a couple new Burmese teenage boys that came since I had left. When I was there last time Kopi was the only young Burmese mahout. He was so much happier this time. In May he's actually going to be going back to the Burmese Refugee Camp he came from. He said his mom wants him to go to school.
The first time I was I thought, "wow, living at Elephant Nature Park versus Westchester County - what a completely different world." And now, "Burmese Refugee Camp versus Westchester Country - oh god." I'm trying to figure out how to even think about that. Em and I gave Kopi our addresses and email addresses. We tried to ask, "Can you send mail? Maybe one day do you think you may have email?" but his answer to both was, "I don't know."
On the last night a bunch of people played cards, got drunk and started singing very loudly at the main hut. Em had volunteered to babysit with Raki (The 14 month old! Now walking!) while his mom, Jodi, went to a wedding (she wore sparkly fake Birkenstocks and flowy black pants and shirt) so I hung out with her instead. Raki was unfortunately already asleep by the time I got there. We watched Discovery Channel DVDs on Pygmy Mammoths and Elephants (both in Thai). She was supposed to leave Wednesday but then decided to stay one more day, then two, then another week. I'm completely jealous. She came into Chiang Mai on Sunday evening but went back to the park on Sunday night with the Korean Film Crew who had come into Chiang Mai to some editing.
Korean Film Crew - Three guys from KBS (Korea's PBS/BBC) were there for the week. Very strange. I sat in the car with them for a while to relieve Jeff on the way up to the Karen village. He said they were boring and quiet so I said I would switch with him so I could sleep and not be cramped in the back of the cab of the pick up. But then when I got into the car they got really excited that I was from New York. Our conversation went like this... New York --> Sex in the City --> Sarah Jessica Parker --> Jennifer Aniston (one of the guys didn't know the difference I think) --> Brad Pitt --> Angelina Jolie. I didn't get to sleep at all. I learned how to say thank you in Korean. They played a lot of Korean pop in the car which was pretty terrible. They also kept on stopping at nice places to take video and pictures and then would speed on scary, winding mountain roads to make up for lost time. On the plus side, they bought ice cream and peach iced tea for the car. The Korean film crew thought Will looked like Patrick Swayze.
Jeff - 26, Canada. I knew him a bit from last time but got to hang out with him a lot more this time. He pretty much goes wherever Lek goes and she was up at the park a lot this time and did the Jumbo Express trip (which they were going to go on last time but she was sick, so he stayed with her). I found out that he's vegetarian but not because he doesn't want meat in his body, just because he personally doesn't want to create the demand because of the bad conditions for the animals at factory farms. "Let me put it this way - if I order a veggie pizza and they throw bacon on there by accident, I consider it a blessing and enjoy it." I thought that was interesting.
Jeff's now a chicken mom. Lek's brother had found a tiny baby chicken in Chiang Mai sometime around Christmas when it was just a ball of fluff. Jeff adopted it, named it Kulasoo (the Karen words for black foreigner I think?) and is now determined to make it a big tough chicken capable of scaring off the dogs. Right now it fits in his pocket. The Jumbo Express trip was tough for Kulasoo. Some little village kid threw a rock (bigger than the chicken) at it and messed up his foot. And then some insect I found that I thought he may have been interested in eating got some nasty stuff in his eye. He's a trooper though and is recovering well.
Hanging out with Jeff is cool because he knows Thai. Not fluently yet but he's been here for a while and while I know random, useless nouns, he can actually say words with the right pronouciation so that Thais actually understand him. I learned, "kow jai mai?" which means "do you understand?" from him. Very important.
Jeff is Canadian and has flat out said he doesn't like, "the average American." I think this means loud, obnoxious, uninformed, center of attention Americans. He decided that I was from this place called America but it wasn't the same one as that other America. It was a completely different place, just happened to have the same name and make people with a similar accent.
To make judgements about "the average American" seemed kind of harsh, but the more I think about it, I guess he's not completely wrong. I don't think I've personally have never thought about the "the average American" because it seems like too stupid of a concept. But realistically, American probably has more Will type personalities than Beth type personalities. (I forgot to mention before, Will threatened to beat up some Dutch guy on a street in Chiang Mai because he made some comment on a shirt he was wearing. Moose and Adam had to pull him away. Will was proud of himself for letting the guy know he "wasn't going to take that shit.")
Rachel also told me that she thought all Americans are either overweight and eat McDonalds all the time or super skinny and only eat low fat organic stuff and go to the gym 6 hours a day. First I got upset saying, "No! That's only on TV!" But she's not really completely wrong either. I just googled "percentage of overweight Americans" and came up with a 2002 CNN.com article saying a Harris Poll just reported 80% of Americans over age 25 are overweight. Another article said 30% are obese. And if she ever walked into Club Fit she would see the creepy old lady with the spandex leotard and headband who spends all day on the stepper. I guess Singapore doesn't have that woman.
So I guess my mission in the world can't be to represent "the average American," only to act as a reminder that there are Americans who aren't average.
Ugh! Being American is exhausting.
I'll end this with two emails I got from my novice monks friends. The English isn't perfect but a lot better than my Lao, so I don't judge. Also, I like reading how they write because it turns out kind of poetic I think.
From Thong (the good one who may decide to be a monk):
Hi ! Beth .
I am so glad to hear from you today , What are you doing now ? Are you doing good now ? I really hope that you have been doing well as me in Luang pa bang .Was so glad that you happy with Elepants . I hope in southen of Thailand now , How about the weather here ? I hove no much much information from Luang pa bang to let you know , Because of now , I am sick , I just only stay at stay at the temple everyday .
I wish you good luck with your trip , happy , enjoy with your friends all the time .
Please take a good care of yoursself .
Be smile all the time
Talk to you soon
Thong
From Nanh (the bad one who showed up at the bar but then wrote an email saying he was really embarresed and sorry, and felt bad for getting drunk and asked if I would forgive him because he wanted to be friends. I said it was ok, I'm not upset, just a bit suprised and confused.):
Hi Beth
OK,if you dont upset i wouldon't be worry,Actually,I dont go to bars alot,and that's my second time with you,and you thought is correctly,in the fact,monks and novices can't do like that,but how should i do,everyone in this world never behave well all time,some time a person have to do wrong also,but not mean is wrong forever.
Because,som time if some one is in the wrong because of they want to try or want to know how about it,asfor me,that's my first time that i had went to bar with foreign,and i was very exiting to make fun with you,but i know i'm in the wrong,and i intend i would not do more again,because i have really know that doing like that,that's not help anything is better,it just bring failure of life to myself.anyway,I hope you would not show other people know about what i did.
I'm very happy to hear you dont mind me.
How long you will stay in ChiangMai?
Actually,I dont have anything to do I just keep practises with tourists,and i have just finished exam french in last friday,and i think i did well indeed,I hope i can get number one in my class.
i'm not sure how long i will be at the Wat,because right now i dont have any thing to prepair,so i can't tell you now,but when i going to leave i will tell you ok?and if possible can you show me the pictures?
OK let me end here,I hope to see the pictures and keep in reading your letter soon.
Have a good time.
Take care.
Bye.
nanh.
LEAVING THE INTERNET CAFE NOW! IT'S SUNNY FOR ONCE IN KOH PHA NGAN!
Total time - 3 hours, 46 minutes. This is terrible.
The main question I wanted to know was how Karens decided that pink was going to be their color of choice and where they get (or used to get, cause now I hear they buy it from cities) the dye from. The museum didn't answer that and I felt like I was in too grumpy of a mood to talk to anyone. Usually the tuk tuk drivers are really talkative and I try to practice speaking Thai with them but that day I was cranky and I was just giving one syllable English answers. I was thinking about saying, "Sorry, I'm very hungry right now and I have low blood sugar. I'm normally a much more pleasant person" but I didn't know how to say the second part in Thai.
So Tuesday morning I flew to Bangkok (again, didn't leave the airport), then to Samui. I got to Bangkok pretty early (I went to Chiang Mai Airport early because, again, I didn't buy the ticket beforehand) and was able to get on a flight leaving about 20 minutes after I arrived at the airport. Stand by is awesome! So I got to Samui, went to Koh Pha Ngan on the the cheap, wood boat, starting getting hit on by Israelis not even 10 minutes after the boat took off. He said, "are you Israeli?" and I said no and he said, "Because you are beautiful, like Israeli women." I said thanks. Mote met me when I got off the boat. He had arranged for a room for me (cheaper than the place he works at) which was really good cause for some reason a lot of the places are full here. Still! I don't understand. Full Moon Party is a couple weeks away. Someone said because of Chinese New Year, but I still only see Israelis here and I doubt they're here to celebrate Chinese New Year.
It was raining when I got to Samui, raining when I got to Koh Pha Ngan, then it stopped for a little bit, but then I went for dinner it started raining again. Then the electricity went out for about an hour, on the whole island. When I was here last time it happened too but it was either during the day when it didn't matter that much or only for 20 seconds if it was at night.
You're not left with a lot of options when the electricity goes out at 8pm on a beach island when it's raining. I just sat at the restaurant listening to other people's conversations. Lots of girls saying, "When's it going to come back on???" Over and over. Like anyone around them had any idea. One time I asked Pom (in Thai!) , "When are we going to leave?" and her answer was, "When we leave!" I feel like Dad would have a very interesting time in Thailand.
Ooops. Mote just stopped by and told me check out time was 10am for the bungalow I'm staying at. It's 11:19 so I guess I'll stay here another day. That's ok. I bought two books yesterday and reading in Haad Rin is pretty similar to reading in Mae Haad so it's not that bad.
Oh! Yesterday I started learning the Thai alphabet. Tough stuff! They have 44 consonants, 11 vowels (each with a long and a short version), 5 tones, and then a couple more other little punctuation marks for some letters (and no song!). I know about 9 letters so far. It's fun to write the letters because they're all really squiggly with lots of circles.
The computer I'm on isn't allowing me to upload pictures but I'll try to give you a quick run down of my favorites of the cast of characters from the elephant park last week.
Will (aka Will the Thrill/Patrick Swayze) - 38, Louisiana. Half the time he was (understandably) freaking out about coming back from Iraq. He just quit his Haliburton job there of 6 months. He was on a ton of drugs and extremely emotional. He would often get into really deep (one way) conversations about it with a lot of, "you haven't seen what I've seen," "you've didn't have to carry your friend's dead bodies from the battlefield" and stuff like that. Pretty fucking (excuse my language) intense. After about a half hour of depressing stories he would go into how much he hated George Bush now, how we're all fucked, there's no solution, we shouldn't have gone in the first place but now that we're there we can't leave, and neither the Republicans or Democrats are going to get us out of this mess, only the Independents, and therefore, yes, we're fucked. The other half the time he was being, um, a Southern Gentleman, but not really. He really liked being macho, but he also really liked complaining. Example: Sitting in the back of the pick-up truck is pretty cold when you're going fast. Therefore we had blankets on us. I was sitting on the right side, Isabelle was on the left side and Will was in the middle. He was constantly trying to make sure the two of us had enough blankets (after we said we really didn't care) but then would start yelling, "I'm so fucking cold!"
Isabelle, a fairly quiet girl most of the time, eventually lost it, sat up and screamed, "Take the fucking duna!" (duna = Australian for comforter) I put earplugs in my ears, pulled my beanie over my head and tried to not hear him as much as possible. Another time Rachel said, "I'm going to go to sleep, but if you want to put your legs out wake me up, and I'll move. It's not a problem. Ok?" When she woke up he said something like, "It's about time you woke up, I was so cramped, all I wanted to do was put my legs out...." Rachel said, "I said wake me up!" His response, "A Southern gentleman can not wake a beautiful lady up when she's sleeping!" But endlessly complaining is totally fine.
Will is why people think Americans are loud, obnoxious and rude. He had what Laura called his "center of attention jumpsuit." If at any time not enough people were paying attention to him he would put it on and do something with fire or a big knife.
I realized he wasn't going to help my "not all Americans suck" cause on the first night. Some football game was on and he went on this rant about how "A man knows he's found a good lady if she can sit back and enjoy a football game with him," or something like that. He went on for about 20 minutes on this. I told him that, although I'm not even a fan of football, I've been to more football games than my boyfriend. He didn't have a response to this. Will was really into making sweeping generalizations about America and Americans and especially American men. This killed me! I felt like I had to walk around following him saying, "Guys, please don't believe him. He's just weird, and he just got back from Iraq, and he's from Lousiana. Most people in America don't fit this descriptions I'm pretty sure." But then again George Bush is president so what do I know about the average American? I have no idea. I've been asked on more than one occasion, "Hey Beth, you're American, why did George Bush get elected again?" I usually say, "I don't know. Half the country, myself included, was just as surprised and disappointed as you and, what seems like, the rest of the world." I wonder what they thought I was going to say. Nex time I'll add "There are a lot of people in America and I don't know most of them. Sorry I can't help you out more."
After being quiet for a day (very un-Will like) he ended up freaking out and taking off in the middle of the night. Like 2 in the morning he just left, started walking down the street. It was at least a hour walk to anywhere that may have been open, but it was so late, I can't imagine there was anything open for at least 3 or 4 hours. Apparently earlier in the day he had asked someone if putting your thumb out works for hitchhiking in Thailand too. We felt weird but what can you do? Chase him down and beg him to come back? He's 38, not 6, right? Weird weird weird. I just hope he got wherever he wanted to go alright.
Awkward moment Monday morning in the office in Chiang Mai when an English girl he had told about the park showed up:
Her: "Hey, so you were at the park last week! You met Will! I'm friends with him! Did he tell you I was coming up this week? When did he leave yesterday? He was supposed to meet up with me last night." (Rachel and I looked at each other and stayed silent. Jeff stepped in.)
Jeff: "Um, well, there were a couple of different vans that left at different times yesterday."
Her: "Oh he probably forgot where we were going to meet up. What a great guy, huh?"
Jeff: "He's a character all right."
There are a bunch of people who stayed up there for the second week. I wonder if anyone will tell her what happened.
Moose and Adam- England. A vegan English couple from Hastings (South coast). They were extremely funny. Adam, a very expressive, fast talker, stood in front of a village of Karen people (99% of whom don't understand English) and said, "Hello everyone, my name's Adam. I'm from England, the south coast. I'm feeling a bit under the weather today, but I'm sure I'll be feeling better soon, and I'm very happy to be here." And maybe a couple more sentences. His girlfriend Moose is the quieter, slower speaking one of the pair then introduced herself, "My name's Moose. I'm from England." My first conversation with them kind of scared me. They were talking about laundry and I said, "Oh I have some extra detergent if you need it." Adam's response, "Is it eco?" My answer, "Eh, no. It was the cheapest stuff that 7-11 had at 7:30 this morning." They sometimes made me feel like a bad person who hated animals and the environment but mostly made me laugh so it's ok.
Isabelle - 19, Australia. Will said he had this fiance he was in love with (but hasn't met in person yet, only email and phone calls) and knew that Isabelle has a boyfriend of three years, but neither of these facts stopped him from being obsessed with Isabelle. Honestly, obsessed. She handled it pretty well most of the time. Making a lot of, "oh my god, what is wrong with this guy" faces to Rachel and me. I'll admit, the first day I saw her I was thinking, "Uh oh, her clothing's really nice and she's wearing make up. I wonder if she's going to hate this place." But she loved it. I love when I make assumptions and then end up completely wrong.
Laura - 31, New Hampshire. Laura is currently teaching English and Journalism at a university in Shanghai. She has a ton of really funny stories. I think I wrote before about the English names for the kids in Danny's dorm. Laura's student have even better ones. "Lots of Kinkys, Sprite, Pepsi, Pear, Orange..." and a ton more I can't remember. She said she tries to tell them, "It's fine for now, but when you put out your CV you may want to think about changing your name." Before her Chinese professor job she worked for NPR in New Hampshire. She knew Interlocken (oops, Windsor Mountain) because she had done a story on the whole controversy and told me a story about a Michigan Interlochen lawyer calling up and being real sketchy with her. Booooo Michigan Interlochen. She also told me when she had her first radio flashback dream about NPR in a really long time. She said she was in an editing room and Ira Glass walked in and she said to him, "You're really becoming a parody of yourself these days, don't you think?" I thought that was really funny. She's never met him and said if she didn't she can't imagine herself saying something that mean to him so it was a very bizarre dream. I had been carrying around the copy of The Onion Beau had sent me for Christmas so I passed it on to her. I was waiting to meet someone who I knew would fully appreciate it. Laura, like the Onion, is really good at saying really funny things with complete seriousness. In the Karen village the first night it was decided that we (the villagers and us) would stand around a huge fire and exchange singing songs. Laura's vote was for Twinkle, Twinkle. "Seriously, we should do 'Twinkle, Twinkle.' I think it would be a good song for the kids. 'Twinkle, Twinkle' everyone? Yeah?" I guess it doesn't sound that funny now but I couldn't stop laughing. Twinkle, Twinkle unfortunately didn't happen but the biggest Chicken Dance that village has ever seen (and probably will ever see) did. All the village kids were into it. Only the first hand clapping, wing flapping, butt shaking part. For the spinning around with a partner part the kids all ran away. But then came back for the next verse of hand clapping, wing flapping and butt shaking. We also did the hokey pokey.
Laura's currently in Bangkok, possibly coming down to the islands so I might be able to see her again.
Paul - 30, Australia. Paul was Will's roommate. He also talked a lot but about really interesting stuff that people wanted to hear about. He went to a boarding school for 6 years so he had an awesome repetoire of pranks and jokes and stuff. He led the "Johnnie, Johnnie, Johnnie, Johnnie, whoops! Johnnie, whoops! Johnnie, Johnnie, Johnnie, Johnnie," game. I knew this from when I was 10, so I was in the clear of looking like an idiot. But besides me there was only one other person who knew it. Leaving about 10 people completely clueless and trying for hours to figure out what the secret was. It was great. Paul was cool because he was also trying to learn Thai and I got to try to help. My most important teaching was the difference between "kah" and "kap." Females (and ladyboys) end sentences, questions, etc with "kah." Males end with "kap." He had thought it was based on who you were speaking to. So for the whole time he had been in Thailand he had been saying, "kah" to any women he was talking to and therefore declaring himself a ladyboy. He had no idea. Oopsies!
During the Jumbo Express he was desperately trying to find some big green bamboo to make a didgeridoo out of. I tried to put the words "green," "big," "bamboo" and "where" together but with no sucess. Eventually when we back at the park he found some and made a didg. Very cool.
Michael - 18, England, wait no, Canada. Nice kid but young and I feel like he was faking an English accent the whole time. He talked about the 2 and half months he spent building houses in Costa Rica and how it was with all British kids and that's how he developed the accent, but I'm pretty sure his accent became increasingly British over the week he was at the park. At one point Rachel was talking about one of the dinner dishes and she said "baaa-zil" and I said, "Uh, Rachel, it's called 'bay-zul.'" Rachel's has this ridiculous mix of American/British/Australian accents from growing up at an International School in Singapore. My comment was obviously a joke. Rachel knew this. Michael didn't. "Actually, Beth, either pronouciation is correct. In England they call it 'baaa-zil.'" I then said something like, "Michael. I realize this. I understand how accents work." That was probably the most stern I was at my time at the park. I had wanted to add, "people in my own town, sometimes even in my own family say some words with accents. Why would I expect someone from Singapore to say anything the same way as me? Don't worry, I don't" but I didn't. He also kept on saying, "I really should learn Thai, I'm going to be here for 3 months, but for one month I can't talk because I'll be a novice monk at a monastery and I'll only be allowed to talk once a day," about 20 times. He wasn't mean or a bad person in any way, we talked about music for a while one day (he plays bassoon), he was just a bit "wordy" sometimes as Laura put it.
Em - 26, Australia. Em was awesome! First off she had a conversation with Michael about the whole "one month at a monastery thing." She asked him why he was doing it, if it was purely for the novelty of the experience or if he really had something deeper interest in, and how he planned to use the experience in a meaningful way when he went back home. Em's questions were a lot better than Michael's answers. She didn't come on the Jumbo Express trip and from the first day he arrived stayed as far away as possible from Will. She was very much apart from any of the drama. She was usually stationed over by the 3 new elephants. They were really nice to spend time with. The foot messed up by the landmind just swung back and forth and was really uncomfortable to look at. Elephants are HUGE, so to imagine not being able to use one of the four points of stability seems horrible. To balance that depressing story, I got to watch the baby elephant grow from 2 weeks old to 3 weeks. The relationship between the baby and the mother was very sweet. At the beginning the mother wasn't making any milk, a product of the terrible condition she had just come from. The baby had to be given milk from a bottle. But by the time I left the mother was producing her own milk and the baby went from 3 bottles a day to only 1 bottle and mostly mom's milk. Very very very cool. Unfortunately one of the baby's legs is messed up (I heard that she gave birth on a mountain side and he fell down the mountain right at birth) which may mean that the owner won't want him back (they're both on lease right now) because he won't be able to work. Kind of a mixed blessing.
The mahout for the new mom and baby was an 18 year old Burmese kid named Jokuku. Em hung out with him and the other Burmese mahouts a lot and I joined them occasionally. Kopi (my, now 18 year old, Burmese mahout buddy) now had friends! Jokuku was one of a couple new Burmese teenage boys that came since I had left. When I was there last time Kopi was the only young Burmese mahout. He was so much happier this time. In May he's actually going to be going back to the Burmese Refugee Camp he came from. He said his mom wants him to go to school.
The first time I was I thought, "wow, living at Elephant Nature Park versus Westchester County - what a completely different world." And now, "Burmese Refugee Camp versus Westchester Country - oh god." I'm trying to figure out how to even think about that. Em and I gave Kopi our addresses and email addresses. We tried to ask, "Can you send mail? Maybe one day do you think you may have email?" but his answer to both was, "I don't know."
On the last night a bunch of people played cards, got drunk and started singing very loudly at the main hut. Em had volunteered to babysit with Raki (The 14 month old! Now walking!) while his mom, Jodi, went to a wedding (she wore sparkly fake Birkenstocks and flowy black pants and shirt) so I hung out with her instead. Raki was unfortunately already asleep by the time I got there. We watched Discovery Channel DVDs on Pygmy Mammoths and Elephants (both in Thai). She was supposed to leave Wednesday but then decided to stay one more day, then two, then another week. I'm completely jealous. She came into Chiang Mai on Sunday evening but went back to the park on Sunday night with the Korean Film Crew who had come into Chiang Mai to some editing.
Korean Film Crew - Three guys from KBS (Korea's PBS/BBC) were there for the week. Very strange. I sat in the car with them for a while to relieve Jeff on the way up to the Karen village. He said they were boring and quiet so I said I would switch with him so I could sleep and not be cramped in the back of the cab of the pick up. But then when I got into the car they got really excited that I was from New York. Our conversation went like this... New York --> Sex in the City --> Sarah Jessica Parker --> Jennifer Aniston (one of the guys didn't know the difference I think) --> Brad Pitt --> Angelina Jolie. I didn't get to sleep at all. I learned how to say thank you in Korean. They played a lot of Korean pop in the car which was pretty terrible. They also kept on stopping at nice places to take video and pictures and then would speed on scary, winding mountain roads to make up for lost time. On the plus side, they bought ice cream and peach iced tea for the car. The Korean film crew thought Will looked like Patrick Swayze.
Jeff - 26, Canada. I knew him a bit from last time but got to hang out with him a lot more this time. He pretty much goes wherever Lek goes and she was up at the park a lot this time and did the Jumbo Express trip (which they were going to go on last time but she was sick, so he stayed with her). I found out that he's vegetarian but not because he doesn't want meat in his body, just because he personally doesn't want to create the demand because of the bad conditions for the animals at factory farms. "Let me put it this way - if I order a veggie pizza and they throw bacon on there by accident, I consider it a blessing and enjoy it." I thought that was interesting.
Jeff's now a chicken mom. Lek's brother had found a tiny baby chicken in Chiang Mai sometime around Christmas when it was just a ball of fluff. Jeff adopted it, named it Kulasoo (the Karen words for black foreigner I think?) and is now determined to make it a big tough chicken capable of scaring off the dogs. Right now it fits in his pocket. The Jumbo Express trip was tough for Kulasoo. Some little village kid threw a rock (bigger than the chicken) at it and messed up his foot. And then some insect I found that I thought he may have been interested in eating got some nasty stuff in his eye. He's a trooper though and is recovering well.
Hanging out with Jeff is cool because he knows Thai. Not fluently yet but he's been here for a while and while I know random, useless nouns, he can actually say words with the right pronouciation so that Thais actually understand him. I learned, "kow jai mai?" which means "do you understand?" from him. Very important.
Jeff is Canadian and has flat out said he doesn't like, "the average American." I think this means loud, obnoxious, uninformed, center of attention Americans. He decided that I was from this place called America but it wasn't the same one as that other America. It was a completely different place, just happened to have the same name and make people with a similar accent.
To make judgements about "the average American" seemed kind of harsh, but the more I think about it, I guess he's not completely wrong. I don't think I've personally have never thought about the "the average American" because it seems like too stupid of a concept. But realistically, American probably has more Will type personalities than Beth type personalities. (I forgot to mention before, Will threatened to beat up some Dutch guy on a street in Chiang Mai because he made some comment on a shirt he was wearing. Moose and Adam had to pull him away. Will was proud of himself for letting the guy know he "wasn't going to take that shit.")
Rachel also told me that she thought all Americans are either overweight and eat McDonalds all the time or super skinny and only eat low fat organic stuff and go to the gym 6 hours a day. First I got upset saying, "No! That's only on TV!" But she's not really completely wrong either. I just googled "percentage of overweight Americans" and came up with a 2002 CNN.com article saying a Harris Poll just reported 80% of Americans over age 25 are overweight. Another article said 30% are obese. And if she ever walked into Club Fit she would see the creepy old lady with the spandex leotard and headband who spends all day on the stepper. I guess Singapore doesn't have that woman.
So I guess my mission in the world can't be to represent "the average American," only to act as a reminder that there are Americans who aren't average.
Ugh! Being American is exhausting.
I'll end this with two emails I got from my novice monks friends. The English isn't perfect but a lot better than my Lao, so I don't judge. Also, I like reading how they write because it turns out kind of poetic I think.
From Thong (the good one who may decide to be a monk):
Hi ! Beth .
I am so glad to hear from you today , What are you doing now ? Are you doing good now ? I really hope that you have been doing well as me in Luang pa bang .Was so glad that you happy with Elepants . I hope in southen of Thailand now , How about the weather here ? I hove no much much information from Luang pa bang to let you know , Because of now , I am sick , I just only stay at stay at the temple everyday .
I wish you good luck with your trip , happy , enjoy with your friends all the time .
Please take a good care of yoursself .
Be smile all the time
Talk to you soon
Thong
From Nanh (the bad one who showed up at the bar but then wrote an email saying he was really embarresed and sorry, and felt bad for getting drunk and asked if I would forgive him because he wanted to be friends. I said it was ok, I'm not upset, just a bit suprised and confused.):
Hi Beth
OK,if you dont upset i wouldon't be worry,Actually,I dont go to bars alot,and that's my second time with you,and you thought is correctly,in the fact,monks and novices can't do like that,but how should i do,everyone in this world never behave well all time,some time a person have to do wrong also,but not mean is wrong forever.
Because,som time if some one is in the wrong because of they want to try or want to know how about it,asfor me,that's my first time that i had went to bar with foreign,and i was very exiting to make fun with you,but i know i'm in the wrong,and i intend i would not do more again,because i have really know that doing like that,that's not help anything is better,it just bring failure of life to myself.anyway,I hope you would not show other people know about what i did.
I'm very happy to hear you dont mind me.
How long you will stay in ChiangMai?
Actually,I dont have anything to do I just keep practises with tourists,and i have just finished exam french in last friday,and i think i did well indeed,I hope i can get number one in my class.
i'm not sure how long i will be at the Wat,because right now i dont have any thing to prepair,so i can't tell you now,but when i going to leave i will tell you ok?and if possible can you show me the pictures?
OK let me end here,I hope to see the pictures and keep in reading your letter soon.
Have a good time.
Take care.
Bye.
nanh.
LEAVING THE INTERNET CAFE NOW! IT'S SUNNY FOR ONCE IN KOH PHA NGAN!
Total time - 3 hours, 46 minutes. This is terrible.
posted by beth at 12:43 PM
5 comments
Monday, January 23, 2006
Dee Mahk Mahk!
Things are dee mahk mahk!!!!!
Elephant Nature Park was amazing (of course). There were 3 new elephants that I spent some time with, we did another Jumbo Express trip to a village very close to where I went the first time, I actually did work that helped out the Park this time (picking up elephant poo, washing this shelter that was going to be painted the next day, doing inventory for a medicine cabinet, trying to clean/organize the storage room), met a whole new batch of interesting people, got to catch up with people I knew from last time, ate a ton of really good food, learned more Thai and a little Burmese, and on the last day 2 more elephants came. It was really really nice and the week went by way too fast.
And last night at the Sunday markets I bought two new hats. They're really cool.
Tomorrow I'm going back to Koh Pha Ngan and then on the 29th I fly to Hong Kong to get my plane back to New York on February 1st.
If you're wondering if I'm freaking out about all of "this" ending and going back to "the real world" the answer is yes. Very very much so. I'll write more later but right now I've got to get to that Hill Tribe Museum!
Elephant Nature Park was amazing (of course). There were 3 new elephants that I spent some time with, we did another Jumbo Express trip to a village very close to where I went the first time, I actually did work that helped out the Park this time (picking up elephant poo, washing this shelter that was going to be painted the next day, doing inventory for a medicine cabinet, trying to clean/organize the storage room), met a whole new batch of interesting people, got to catch up with people I knew from last time, ate a ton of really good food, learned more Thai and a little Burmese, and on the last day 2 more elephants came. It was really really nice and the week went by way too fast.
And last night at the Sunday markets I bought two new hats. They're really cool.
Tomorrow I'm going back to Koh Pha Ngan and then on the 29th I fly to Hong Kong to get my plane back to New York on February 1st.
If you're wondering if I'm freaking out about all of "this" ending and going back to "the real world" the answer is yes. Very very much so. I'll write more later but right now I've got to get to that Hill Tribe Museum!
posted by beth at 4:21 PM
3 comments
Monday, January 16, 2006
Monday
I leave for the elephants in an hour!
Luang Prabang Part 2/ Novice Monk Pictures - http://www.flickr.com/photos/wigramroad/sets/72057594048631725/
News from Elephant Nature Park -
Malai, a 25 years old female elephant, was born at Ta-Song-Yang district in a Karen tribal village along the Thailand / Burma border. After going through the training crush she was sent to work at a trekking camp until she was nine years old. Her owner then took her to the work at a logging camp by the border along with another 100 elephants.
In early November 2002, after hard work all day, her mahout released Malai to browse the jungle and feed. Around midnight, the workers at the camp heard a loud explosion followed by screaming from the elephant herd. Elephants ran in panic to the work camp. Confusion
everywhere.
Malai was missing so they searched for her at day break. A trail of blood led them to Malai where she stood under a tree shaking with fear. Her back right feet were badly damaged and tears ran down her cheeks. Her Mahout managed to walk her from the jungle to the road.
This painful journey took 4 days and nights up and down steep jungle hills. She struggled along in excruciating pain, shedding a lot of blood, along the way. They took her to the hospital and she was under a vets care for nearly a year.
The wounds began to heal. Malai lost about 20 inches of her legs and she will never walk properly again. He mentality and body shape became a problem for her logging work and her owners decided to sell her and salvage what they could as she was no longer any use to them.
A month later she was walking the streets begging for the group for a new group that had bought her. They though her handicap would gain more sympathy and money for them. They took Malai to walk the hot streets of Bangkok. Her injuries caused her to use only three legs to support her big body. Malai walked, every day, on the concrete streets until the toe nails of her three good feet started to crack and they then became infected, The wound on the injured feet began to open again . The mahout decided to take her back to the vet and whatever treatment he could find for her.
On November 18, Lek went to the Surin Elephant Round Up Festival. This year she brought her staff to help with research about street elephants and check on how they were looked after. Lek made 300 questionnaires for the mahout at the festival.
There were 276 elephants at the event in Surin province this year and the staff of Elephant Nature Park interviewed their mahouts. Suddenly Lek saw the young elephant chained by both front legs standing in the corner of the stadium field . She walk to ask the mahout and owner to find out about Malai.
The owner told Lek they will took her back to walk to streets as a beggar just before Christmas. Malai’s feet are still badly cracked and we are very worried that she will get sick again. Lek then decided to talk to the owner in an attempt to rescue her.
The talks were successfull and, with the help and support, of Nancy and Tony Mann from Malaysia, Malai was free at Elephant Nature Park on 22 December 2005
Malai is the elephant number 15 that we rescued to the park with in 2005
On 03 January 06 the park received the request for help from the owner of an elephant mother and baby. The mother elephant is named Thongkam and is age about 35 year old . The owner of the elephant signed a contact with a tourist elephant camp to put her to work carrying tourists on her back. No one knew Thong Kam was pregnant. She worked with no time off and was so skinny.
We provided enough food for the mother, bring them to the shelter of the older elephants. We have not enough shelter but and we had to squeeze them in. The group includes Thong Jan and Mae Buathong.
Luang Prabang Part 2/ Novice Monk Pictures - http://www.flickr.com/photos/wigramroad/sets/72057594048631725/
News from Elephant Nature Park -
The Rescue of Malai. The elephant handicapped by landmine explosion
Malai, a 25 years old female elephant, was born at Ta-Song-Yang district in a Karen tribal village along the Thailand / Burma border. After going through the training crush she was sent to work at a trekking camp until she was nine years old. Her owner then took her to the work at a logging camp by the border along with another 100 elephants.
In early November 2002, after hard work all day, her mahout released Malai to browse the jungle and feed. Around midnight, the workers at the camp heard a loud explosion followed by screaming from the elephant herd. Elephants ran in panic to the work camp. Confusion
everywhere.
Malai was missing so they searched for her at day break. A trail of blood led them to Malai where she stood under a tree shaking with fear. Her back right feet were badly damaged and tears ran down her cheeks. Her Mahout managed to walk her from the jungle to the road.
This painful journey took 4 days and nights up and down steep jungle hills. She struggled along in excruciating pain, shedding a lot of blood, along the way. They took her to the hospital and she was under a vets care for nearly a year.
The wounds began to heal. Malai lost about 20 inches of her legs and she will never walk properly again. He mentality and body shape became a problem for her logging work and her owners decided to sell her and salvage what they could as she was no longer any use to them.
A month later she was walking the streets begging for the group for a new group that had bought her. They though her handicap would gain more sympathy and money for them. They took Malai to walk the hot streets of Bangkok. Her injuries caused her to use only three legs to support her big body. Malai walked, every day, on the concrete streets until the toe nails of her three good feet started to crack and they then became infected, The wound on the injured feet began to open again . The mahout decided to take her back to the vet and whatever treatment he could find for her.
On November 18, Lek went to the Surin Elephant Round Up Festival. This year she brought her staff to help with research about street elephants and check on how they were looked after. Lek made 300 questionnaires for the mahout at the festival.
There were 276 elephants at the event in Surin province this year and the staff of Elephant Nature Park interviewed their mahouts. Suddenly Lek saw the young elephant chained by both front legs standing in the corner of the stadium field . She walk to ask the mahout and owner to find out about Malai.
The owner told Lek they will took her back to walk to streets as a beggar just before Christmas. Malai’s feet are still badly cracked and we are very worried that she will get sick again. Lek then decided to talk to the owner in an attempt to rescue her.
The talks were successfull and, with the help and support, of Nancy and Tony Mann from Malaysia, Malai was free at Elephant Nature Park on 22 December 2005
Malai is the elephant number 15 that we rescued to the park with in 2005
Elephant mother and calf rescued
On 03 January 06 the park received the request for help from the owner of an elephant mother and baby. The mother elephant is named Thongkam and is age about 35 year old . The owner of the elephant signed a contact with a tourist elephant camp to put her to work carrying tourists on her back. No one knew Thong Kam was pregnant. She worked with no time off and was so skinny.
On the 31 December 2005 she gave birth in the bush behind the camp. The mahout saw the baby with the mother in the morning, but baby is under weigh and so tiny. His weight was 50 Kilograms about half weight of the normal new born baby. The baby can not walk. Both back legs are too weak and he can not stand up. The mother was not producing enough milk, because of her bad condition.
The Karen owner came to the Elephant Nature Park to ask for help , but it take many days to rescue because the owner had a contract in place with the elephant camp and they still wanted the mother to work. Finally on the 4 January 06, Elephant Nature Park asked the owner to decide and we provided transport to pick up the baby and the mother to take them to the park .
We provided enough food for the mother, bring them to the shelter of the older elephants. We have not enough shelter but and we had to squeeze them in. The group includes Thong Jan and Mae Buathong.
At the park we have trying to help the baby and lift him up to take a milk from his mother. Today the baby can stand up for a short time and then goes back to sleep. We will do the best to keep both mother and baby and let them heal. Updates and more news soon.
posted by beth at 10:17 AM
2 comments
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Full Moon Party at Sirimounkhounsayaram!!!
I'm so happy I was in Luang Prabang and not Koh Pha Ngan.
Thursday I went back to the temple in the afternoon. They asked me why I came so late. So we made a date for 9am for Friday.
(Before I get there -
4:00am - wake up
Between 4:00 - 6:30 - meditate, pray, do serious Buddhist stuff
6:30am - walk around town, collect alms, eat breakfast
7:30am - go across the street to "the outside" and watch a movie on some family's television. It was King Kong that day)
9:00am - I show up and we sit on the steps of the wat. Some of them have their notebooks and pretend to study. They say hello to almost anyone who walks by. If it's a cute girl or a group with at least one cute girl in it they say, "come here, come here!" Anna, from Australia, like me, says, "Um, sure."
11:30am - Someone brings a bag of rice cakes and some other stuff and I think that was lunch.
12:00pm - Go to school. This was monk's high school. There's a monk primary school and a monk secondary school.
(We didn't go to classes with them. I went back to my guesthouse. On the way back I passed a couple of guys who run an internet cafe and they said something and I said something back in Thai but it turned out it was the same in Lao so they said, "Oh, you're learning Lao, do you want a lesson? We can teach you!" I felt bad saying, "Hey listen, Thai is difficult and useless enough. I don't think I want to confuse myself by adding Lao phrases that may or may not be the same in Thai, because, honestly, I leave here on Sunday, and when else am I going to speak Lao?" so I said ok, and we made plans for 2pm. It worked out well becuase they weren't very good teachers. So one of them gave up and started working on a business card. Tourism is the cool industry here so he was trying to make a business card for himself as an "Historical and Cultural Guide." He printed it out and I immediately noticed he had spelled "Please" "Lpease". I pointed it out to him and he didn't understand what was wrong with it. I asked if I could help. I changed stuff around for about 2 minutes and at the end I almost felt bad for anyone who was potentially going to see the card cause now it looked like he actually knew what he was doing. I'll post the before and after pictures of the business card.
4:00pm - back at the temple for a bell ringing and then a big drum performance. Big as in the drum, not the performance. There was one kid with a playing a pair of cymbals and then a couple of them took turns banging a huge hanging drum. I have a little video.
After that - chill some more, take a shower, talk to people walking through the temple. They can decide how much to talk because while most of them actually know English (and French) really well they can pretend not to understand just as easily. But usually they're really nice and will be the one to start a conversation with someone walking through. This is when Beau called (talked to Nan) and Barabara called (talked to Thong). They all wanted Stephanie to call but no such luck.
5:30pm - chanting. Anna (and her brother, who had come back at 4 with her) had left to go see Phou Si at sunset, but since I pretty much had nothing better to do I was still hanging out with them. They said they were going to pray and I should come into the temple and watch if I wanted. Lay people in Luang Prabang aren't allowed to be inside the temple when they're doing their thing but idiot Westerners who don't know anything are. Funny how that works. At first it was kind of strange because there were only 3 or 4 of them inside. Not even the head monk (the temple is 20 novices and a head monk, he's 24) was there. But they started and were off. It went on for maybe 15/20 minutes and by the end the room was full with maybe 16 of them (apparently it's not mandatory, Nan said he doesn't like going, so he doesn't go). The sound was incredible. My desciption is going to be terrible. It was repetive and hypnotic but in a really good, interesting way with rhythm, dynamics and a melody of some sort. And I think I've heard monks do it before but the novices' voices are totally different (due to the fact that most of them aren't even 18 yet) and more interesting sounding. It was crazy. I sat in awe the entire time. And watched out the window as the sun was setting too. It was just all really beautiful and unreal. I don't think I'll ever be able to listen to novice monks chant in the States again. Ha ha.
6:00pm - free time again. Some of them go off to check their email. The internet cafe closest to the wats gets swamped with novices and people crowd around outside to take pictures.
6:30pm - some kids leave to go to French class. From then until 10 or 11 they study and/or hang out.
I found out the 10 rules. This is how they were told to me...
1. No killing animals (I thought first he was saying, "no killing anymore")
2. No stealing
3. No touching women (unless she's sick)
4. Don't tell a lie
5. Don't drink alcohol
6. No eating dinner
7. No dancing, no boxing, no soccer
8. No perfumes or smelly things
9. No sitting higher than a monk
10. No taking from another person (I found out later that it was in reference to money)
I witnessed 7 of them being broken. Not to any extent that make them terrible people, but I was still surprised. One thing that was really surprising and possibly made them terrible people was Saturday night.
So Friday was cool. I walked with Nan to his French class and then later met up with this little bartender (He was 21 but he was no taller than 5 feet) that said I should go to the disco with him and his friends. I got these two Australian girls to come along too so I felt like it was safe. It was. Safety was not a problem, coolness was. Walking in there I was by far the lamest person I saw. All the cool kids of Luang Prabang were out. There were trucker hats, hoodies, punk rock haircuts, ripped jeans, studded belts, swoopy hair, everything. I couldn't believe it. As soon as we got there I said, "Um, thanks for bringing me, but I think I'm going to leave. This is too weird." All I could see was 4 feet tall super cool Lao teenagers with hair gel, and cell phones with ear peices. He said if I went inside and still didn't like it he would drive me back, so I went inside and it turned out to not be that bad. I actually had fun. There were a bunch of other Westerners inside (dirty, smelly, uncool ones) and everything turned out fine.
Saturday was funny. I said I thought I would take a day to go see the cave and then the waterfall and Nan and Thong said, "Oh, ok, cool, then we'll go!" (That's what the one day tours do so I figured I should go.) I got there at 8:30am. Anna and her brother were supposed to come at 9 but she hadn't showed up by 9:30 so we figured she'd slept in and left without her.
And then we got a boat! Other guy (we'll call him OG, I can't remember his name) used my cell phone, called someone and 10 minutes later a boat driver appeared. Very cool. We got in (Thong, Sin, Nan, OG and I) and were off on a very slow boat to Pak Ou Cave where there are 4,000 (mostly tiny) buddhas. I think it's the old, falling apart ones that were brought here, but maybe they're just falling apart now.
The boat ride was long and slow. Or maybe slow and therefore felt long. I'm very happy I didn't do the 14 hour slow boat ride to Luang Prabang. Or the 6 hour speed boat. One went by and it looked terrifing. People were wearing helmets. No one I talked to said they would do either boat again.
So we finally go there and the caves weren't that spectacular. The novices were much more impressed by the bats and the scorpions than the buddha images. The being in a cave part of it was cool but I wouldn't go back. Walking up the steps we met two older Welsch gentelmen. When I asked where they were from they said England, then I asked where in England and said, well, actually Wales, and I said the Welsh I know (1,2,3). They were amazed and asked how I learned that. I told them I sat next to a Welsch weatherman on a plane once. They asked if I remembered his name and I said no, so we went back and forth describing someone and then as soon as they said, "Derek" Someone and I said, "yeah!" I remembered the guy's name was Alec Hughes. Then they wanted to take a picture with the girl who learned Welsch from sitting next to Derek Someone on a plane who was friends with the novices.
After the cave we went across the river and had lunch. I offered to buy. I foun They had told me they weren't supposed to eat after 12:30, but it was 1:30. I didn't say anything. I told them lunch was on me. I was hoping they would get some traditional Lao food so I could try it, but 2 of them got fried rice and fried egg with sticky rice. I tried sticky rice.
We finally got back around 4pm, they did the drum and then I sat for the chanting thing again. Anna and her brother showed up for it this time.
We left but decided to meet up at 8:30pm. Nan wanted Anna and me to go to the disco with him. I thought it would be too weird. I felt out of place and I wasn't wearing an orange robe. So I said I just wanted to go to the bar. Anna and her brother decided to go with me on that. So we said goodbye and were off to the bar.
And then about 20 minutes later who walks in but Novice Nan and Novice Sin dressed up with NORMAL CLOTHES! I freaked out. I didn't like it. They were wearing beanies to cover their shaved heads and jeans and shirts and NOT ORANGE ROBES!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
I felt like a terrible person. Earlier in the day Sin had gotten the waiter to buy him cigarettes and I had felt bad enough about that but this! And then I kept saying, "ok, if they don't drink it's ok." And then Anna's brother got a Beer Lao and poured them a glass and they drank it. Remember the whole "not eating past 12:30pm" thing? They got drunk.
At about 11 Anna and her brother said they were going to leave. Nan was still set on going to the dance club. I said no way. There were two Australian girls who we had introduced them to (while we were at the monk's school waiting for class to begin) and they ended up going with them. Oh my god. I feel like the "no touching girls" rule went out the window too. When I said goodbye they both gave me hugs (against the rules but not making them terrible people).
WEIRD WEIRD WEIRD.
This morning I went to the temple to try to find Thong. He's actually good and not trying to look like a bad ass all the time. I found this very refreshing. He's the only one that thinks he may actually be a monk. I find of hope he does so that I can have an actual monk friend. He was sitting in the front of the temple so it was easy to say goodbye without running into Nan and Sin. I didn't want to see them. I was still too mad.
Ok, I'm in Chiang Mai now. Rachel is here. She's waiting for me to finish so we can eat. Tomorrow - back to Elephant Nature Park!!!
Thursday I went back to the temple in the afternoon. They asked me why I came so late. So we made a date for 9am for Friday.
(Before I get there -
4:00am - wake up
Between 4:00 - 6:30 - meditate, pray, do serious Buddhist stuff
6:30am - walk around town, collect alms, eat breakfast
7:30am - go across the street to "the outside" and watch a movie on some family's television. It was King Kong that day)
9:00am - I show up and we sit on the steps of the wat. Some of them have their notebooks and pretend to study. They say hello to almost anyone who walks by. If it's a cute girl or a group with at least one cute girl in it they say, "come here, come here!" Anna, from Australia, like me, says, "Um, sure."
11:30am - Someone brings a bag of rice cakes and some other stuff and I think that was lunch.
12:00pm - Go to school. This was monk's high school. There's a monk primary school and a monk secondary school.
(We didn't go to classes with them. I went back to my guesthouse. On the way back I passed a couple of guys who run an internet cafe and they said something and I said something back in Thai but it turned out it was the same in Lao so they said, "Oh, you're learning Lao, do you want a lesson? We can teach you!" I felt bad saying, "Hey listen, Thai is difficult and useless enough. I don't think I want to confuse myself by adding Lao phrases that may or may not be the same in Thai, because, honestly, I leave here on Sunday, and when else am I going to speak Lao?" so I said ok, and we made plans for 2pm. It worked out well becuase they weren't very good teachers. So one of them gave up and started working on a business card. Tourism is the cool industry here so he was trying to make a business card for himself as an "Historical and Cultural Guide." He printed it out and I immediately noticed he had spelled "Please" "Lpease". I pointed it out to him and he didn't understand what was wrong with it. I asked if I could help. I changed stuff around for about 2 minutes and at the end I almost felt bad for anyone who was potentially going to see the card cause now it looked like he actually knew what he was doing. I'll post the before and after pictures of the business card.
4:00pm - back at the temple for a bell ringing and then a big drum performance. Big as in the drum, not the performance. There was one kid with a playing a pair of cymbals and then a couple of them took turns banging a huge hanging drum. I have a little video.
After that - chill some more, take a shower, talk to people walking through the temple. They can decide how much to talk because while most of them actually know English (and French) really well they can pretend not to understand just as easily. But usually they're really nice and will be the one to start a conversation with someone walking through. This is when Beau called (talked to Nan) and Barabara called (talked to Thong). They all wanted Stephanie to call but no such luck.
5:30pm - chanting. Anna (and her brother, who had come back at 4 with her) had left to go see Phou Si at sunset, but since I pretty much had nothing better to do I was still hanging out with them. They said they were going to pray and I should come into the temple and watch if I wanted. Lay people in Luang Prabang aren't allowed to be inside the temple when they're doing their thing but idiot Westerners who don't know anything are. Funny how that works. At first it was kind of strange because there were only 3 or 4 of them inside. Not even the head monk (the temple is 20 novices and a head monk, he's 24) was there. But they started and were off. It went on for maybe 15/20 minutes and by the end the room was full with maybe 16 of them (apparently it's not mandatory, Nan said he doesn't like going, so he doesn't go). The sound was incredible. My desciption is going to be terrible. It was repetive and hypnotic but in a really good, interesting way with rhythm, dynamics and a melody of some sort. And I think I've heard monks do it before but the novices' voices are totally different (due to the fact that most of them aren't even 18 yet) and more interesting sounding. It was crazy. I sat in awe the entire time. And watched out the window as the sun was setting too. It was just all really beautiful and unreal. I don't think I'll ever be able to listen to novice monks chant in the States again. Ha ha.
6:00pm - free time again. Some of them go off to check their email. The internet cafe closest to the wats gets swamped with novices and people crowd around outside to take pictures.
6:30pm - some kids leave to go to French class. From then until 10 or 11 they study and/or hang out.
I found out the 10 rules. This is how they were told to me...
1. No killing animals (I thought first he was saying, "no killing anymore")
2. No stealing
3. No touching women (unless she's sick)
4. Don't tell a lie
5. Don't drink alcohol
6. No eating dinner
7. No dancing, no boxing, no soccer
8. No perfumes or smelly things
9. No sitting higher than a monk
10. No taking from another person (I found out later that it was in reference to money)
I witnessed 7 of them being broken. Not to any extent that make them terrible people, but I was still surprised. One thing that was really surprising and possibly made them terrible people was Saturday night.
So Friday was cool. I walked with Nan to his French class and then later met up with this little bartender (He was 21 but he was no taller than 5 feet) that said I should go to the disco with him and his friends. I got these two Australian girls to come along too so I felt like it was safe. It was. Safety was not a problem, coolness was. Walking in there I was by far the lamest person I saw. All the cool kids of Luang Prabang were out. There were trucker hats, hoodies, punk rock haircuts, ripped jeans, studded belts, swoopy hair, everything. I couldn't believe it. As soon as we got there I said, "Um, thanks for bringing me, but I think I'm going to leave. This is too weird." All I could see was 4 feet tall super cool Lao teenagers with hair gel, and cell phones with ear peices. He said if I went inside and still didn't like it he would drive me back, so I went inside and it turned out to not be that bad. I actually had fun. There were a bunch of other Westerners inside (dirty, smelly, uncool ones) and everything turned out fine.
Saturday was funny. I said I thought I would take a day to go see the cave and then the waterfall and Nan and Thong said, "Oh, ok, cool, then we'll go!" (That's what the one day tours do so I figured I should go.) I got there at 8:30am. Anna and her brother were supposed to come at 9 but she hadn't showed up by 9:30 so we figured she'd slept in and left without her.
And then we got a boat! Other guy (we'll call him OG, I can't remember his name) used my cell phone, called someone and 10 minutes later a boat driver appeared. Very cool. We got in (Thong, Sin, Nan, OG and I) and were off on a very slow boat to Pak Ou Cave where there are 4,000 (mostly tiny) buddhas. I think it's the old, falling apart ones that were brought here, but maybe they're just falling apart now.
The boat ride was long and slow. Or maybe slow and therefore felt long. I'm very happy I didn't do the 14 hour slow boat ride to Luang Prabang. Or the 6 hour speed boat. One went by and it looked terrifing. People were wearing helmets. No one I talked to said they would do either boat again.
So we finally go there and the caves weren't that spectacular. The novices were much more impressed by the bats and the scorpions than the buddha images. The being in a cave part of it was cool but I wouldn't go back. Walking up the steps we met two older Welsch gentelmen. When I asked where they were from they said England, then I asked where in England and said, well, actually Wales, and I said the Welsh I know (1,2,3). They were amazed and asked how I learned that. I told them I sat next to a Welsch weatherman on a plane once. They asked if I remembered his name and I said no, so we went back and forth describing someone and then as soon as they said, "Derek" Someone and I said, "yeah!" I remembered the guy's name was Alec Hughes. Then they wanted to take a picture with the girl who learned Welsch from sitting next to Derek Someone on a plane who was friends with the novices.
After the cave we went across the river and had lunch. I offered to buy. I foun They had told me they weren't supposed to eat after 12:30, but it was 1:30. I didn't say anything. I told them lunch was on me. I was hoping they would get some traditional Lao food so I could try it, but 2 of them got fried rice and fried egg with sticky rice. I tried sticky rice.
We finally got back around 4pm, they did the drum and then I sat for the chanting thing again. Anna and her brother showed up for it this time.
We left but decided to meet up at 8:30pm. Nan wanted Anna and me to go to the disco with him. I thought it would be too weird. I felt out of place and I wasn't wearing an orange robe. So I said I just wanted to go to the bar. Anna and her brother decided to go with me on that. So we said goodbye and were off to the bar.
And then about 20 minutes later who walks in but Novice Nan and Novice Sin dressed up with NORMAL CLOTHES! I freaked out. I didn't like it. They were wearing beanies to cover their shaved heads and jeans and shirts and NOT ORANGE ROBES!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
I felt like a terrible person. Earlier in the day Sin had gotten the waiter to buy him cigarettes and I had felt bad enough about that but this! And then I kept saying, "ok, if they don't drink it's ok." And then Anna's brother got a Beer Lao and poured them a glass and they drank it. Remember the whole "not eating past 12:30pm" thing? They got drunk.
At about 11 Anna and her brother said they were going to leave. Nan was still set on going to the dance club. I said no way. There were two Australian girls who we had introduced them to (while we were at the monk's school waiting for class to begin) and they ended up going with them. Oh my god. I feel like the "no touching girls" rule went out the window too. When I said goodbye they both gave me hugs (against the rules but not making them terrible people).
WEIRD WEIRD WEIRD.
This morning I went to the temple to try to find Thong. He's actually good and not trying to look like a bad ass all the time. I found this very refreshing. He's the only one that thinks he may actually be a monk. I find of hope he does so that I can have an actual monk friend. He was sitting in the front of the temple so it was easy to say goodbye without running into Nan and Sin. I didn't want to see them. I was still too mad.
Ok, I'm in Chiang Mai now. Rachel is here. She's waiting for me to finish so we can eat. Tomorrow - back to Elephant Nature Park!!!
posted by beth at 10:09 AM
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