Elephants, monkeys, orchids, and huge bugs, Oh my!

Scooter Tricycle - dead ahead...





Beautiful blue orchids

Nana gets a monkey on her shoulder, and head, and back, and arm ...
















At the Maesa Elephant camp.









Riding the "Beast" - a new type of roller coaster.

















Saturday, October 4th, 4:56 PM
It’s been a full day already. I started my day waking up to Katy’s phone call from Asheville via Skype. I’m not so sure I’m liking having everyone laugh at me waking up... but, it was great seeing Katy and hearing that she’s going to change roommates. Right after her call, Dave called. We had a day planned to go to the elephant camp so … a quick breakfast and we were off to Mae Rim.

Of course the first stop was to get transportation there. That was easily solved by getting a songtow just outside the market next to the apartment. For that, the most dangerous part, generally, is trying to weave our way across the 4 lanes of road with a mixed bag of cars, songtows, motorcycles with sidecar passenger seats, and everywhere motorscooters (not motorcycles) driven by darn near anyone old enough to reach the pedals – and loaded with two, three or four persons and their afternoon baggage. (I’ve not yet seen the cages of chickens teetering precariously on top of it all this trip.) So, while all the vehicles whiz by obeying absolutely no discernable rules of traffic, we take our lives in our hands waiting for the “yellow” bus. This time, however, we were headed north, which meant that the songtow would be on our side of the street.

We pry ourselves into the songtow truck, Mika, me and Rose, and the “babypack” (for Karina to sit in when she wishes) along with the other eight or so passengers crammed in. Karina likes the songtow and the wind blowing in her hair from it. She’s learned from me to put her hand over her mouth and look like she’s gagging from the exhaust fumes so prevalent here.

We proceed for the 12 kilometers to Mai Rim, passing a series of military installations, including the special forces area, a few golf courses, the most well-landscaped of places I’ve seen, roadside stalls consisting of nothing more than a cart, an overhead tarp, a large pot, and, perhaps, a few picnic tables. The landscape is beautiful. Very lush. Flowering locust trees, flowering trees , flowering palms and banana trees – and trees I’ve never seen before. Beneath this roadside canopy a dirt road shoulder serves as a make-do marketplace for any vendor with any wares.
I’m so impressed with the adaptability of the Thai people and their industriousness, their imagination in making a living. If there is a way to start a business, they can do it. And they are so full of love and smiles, stopping and squealing at K Rose, wanting to hold her hand, to share in the joy of a new child.

The songtow stopped at “the stop” in Mai Rim. From there we needed to go further to get to the elephant camp. At the stop there were several other “local” songtows and a tri-motorscooter (scooter with a side car built to seat two on side benches). Well we negotiated a deal with the songtow, but decided not to take it. We walked along the road for a minute or two and were soon approached by one of the drivers we had talked to at the stop. He was willing to take us to a number of stops for 300 baht ($10 or so). We pushed ourselves into the contraption I’ll call the tricycle, and off we went.

I looked to see how may cc the engine had. I couldn’t find any numbers on the base – but I’m guessing it’s not much different than the rest of the scooters here – a maximum of 150 cc. So, figure a 150 cc scooter, a driver, an overweight grandma, a grown woman, a child and a backpack (kiddiepak). The engine on the tricycle was working way harder than it should have been.

We hadn’t gone very far at all until the driver asked that I move to the seat behind him (the motorcycle passenger seat), in order to balance the load – I presume. The elephant camp was about 4 kilometers from where we got on the cycle … most of it uphill. If I thought the engine was working hard before, it was nothing like going uphill in first gear with the motorcycle going slower and slower until it came to a stop, the smell of hot oil permeating the otherwise jungle area.

He told me to get off. Then he went up the hill – without me. So … here I am in the northeastern part of Thailand, knowing no Thai, walking up a mountain (and getting winded) and there’s no one around. My imagination was playing lots of tricks on me … most of them having to do with snakes. Indeed, there was some rustling in the bushes not far from me which, of course, did nothing to help my confidence along this road. It was about 5 minutes later when I spotted the tricycle with the driver coming back my way. It must have been that the hill I was walking up was the steepest. Too much for that poor little engine that wished it could.

Not long after, we made it to the elephant camp, a rather well-maintained tropical area with asphalt or concrete walkways shaded by tropical foliage I’d only seen in potted plants in the US, but towering over us. Orchids were growing, presumably wild, on the stems/trunk of the plants. There were a few vendor stations selling elephant souvenirs, coconut milk, and other refreshments. It reminded me of the tropical section of a zoo in the US.

We were only a few minutes from the show’s start (the tricycle slowed us down a bit with its inching along the road). A herd of about a dozen elephants with their mahoots riding on their necks began to parade around the ring in front of an audience sitting in an amphitheater of wooden benches. There was an audience of no more than 50 or so, and the elephants were walking no more than 10 feet from the audience. The mahoots began their show with the elephants marching two abreast, the lead ones carrying a “welcome” sign. They had many tricks, those elephants. They had one small elephant doing a hulahoop with its trunk, elephants kicking a large soccer ball into a goal, showing how they used the elephants for logging, and finally they had about five of the elephants do paintings. Now, I’ve seen circus elephants that paint – but the quality of these paintings were incredible. They held the brushes in their trunk, very carefully pulling the brush along. The delicacy of the paintings in the trunks of these behemoths was stunning. There was a gallery of their “expensive” paintings, as the sign said.

After the show, the elephants lined up next to the audience, waiting to be fed the sugar cane or banana bundles that were sold to the audience along the trail before the show. After eating the snacks, the mahoots invited the audience forward to have their pictures taken with the beasts. Know that we were on one side of a log fence with timbers no more than 4” thick. On the other side was the elephants.

Karina ‘s eyes were so big as she watched the elephants. When they came close, though, she was not interested in cozying up to them. The elephants reached out their trunks and she was so scared and wanted nothing to do with them any more. Meanwhile I was talked into having the elephant wrap its trunk around my neck – then put a hat on my head – and take it back off. Very delicately.

Mika and I didn’t quite know what to do with Karina given her reaction to the elephants, and the fact that we had a ticket for an elephant ride in our pocket.

… to be continued ….. (6:33 PM)