In the Meantime in Between Time….

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Our Thai Experience!

Hello all!

As many of you know we have (not so) recently come home to Siem Reap after a two week holiday to Thailand! We, being the terrible procrastinators we are, have yet to write a blog post in the two week we have been home…

SO, because Thailand was SUPER eventful and we went to all sorts of places and have more pictures of elephants than Kim Kardashian has selfies, we are going to make a separate post for each city we were in, so scroll down all the way and don’t miss one! We will post our FIRST stop FIRST, so it will appear at the way bottom. So if you are interested in reading all about Thailand, scroll down until you see BANGKOK, then work your way up from there!

PAI AND HOME

With our last two nights and three days in Thailand, we enjoyed every minute in a beautiful utopia that is Pai. Only a three hour mini-bus ride away from Chiang Mai, Pai is a little hippie town full of man buns, dreadlocks, nose rings and circular shades. The food: amazing. The people: incredible. The environment: UN-FREAKING-REAL. There are no taxis or tuk tuk’s in Pai, so the only way to get around is to rent a motto. So on our second day, we each got one for only $5 USD (for 24 hours!) and made our way to the Pai Grand Canyon and a nearby waterfall/cave. The sky, I swear, was the bluest I had ever seen it and everything else was bright green.

On our way up to the waterfall we stopped at a small farmstand-- where we were greeted by a man who asked if we wanted juice and food. Of course! We spent the next 3 hours swinging back and forth in a hammock and enjoying his freshly squeezed juice along with the freshest produce I have ever consumed-- passion fruit, bananas, sweet potato, tameron, nuts and more! It was fabulous. At the end we didn’t get a bill, but rather approached a box for “donations,”where we could leave whatever amount we felt comfortable.

We spent the rest of the day mottoing around beautiful Pai-- enjoying the constant view surrounding us.

We had to leave Pai on our last day at 10:30 am (after having a super nutritious breakfast of Pad Thai). We got back to Chaing Mai, tuk-tuked to the airport and two short flights later we were back in Siem Reap being greeted at the Airport by Peap, one of the V&A’s great drivers!

We so loved every minute of our time in Thailand, however, it still felt great to be home. We weren’t really expecting to feel that “aaah, home at last” feeling because, obviously, Siem Reap isn’t really “home,” but we totally did. And we loved it.

THAI HOUSE BOAT

After ENP we ended up spending a night on a houseboat resort with Say, Johnny, and Jane. This place was for locals. No English. Amazing. When our three ENP friends invited us, we were not only ecstatic to spend more time with them, but we were also really grateful to be given this non-tourist experience. 

After taking 20 minute speed boat ride past about a hundred little islands (most of which were deforested all around their perimeter-- UGH), we spent the night eating tons of food and sipping on (or at least trying to sip on) Thai whiskey (even watered down it’s still pretty nasty). At sunset we took some kayaks out and just paddled around absorbing the insane beauty that surrounded us. Without a camera to capture it all, you will just have to trust us when we say it was quite literally the more spectacular view. The sky was fifty shades of gorgeous, birds flew over our heads and their were random little islands popped up all around us. Ugh just thinking about it makes us nostalgic.

After a wonderful sleep in our own fan-cooled room we woke to a sunrise just as beautiful as the sunset. It was a different kind of beautiful-- more mysterious than magical, but beautiful none the less. 

We stayed on the boat until noon, eating more, talking, and enjoying our new Thai family. At noon we boarded a boat back to shore, got dropped off at a bus stop, and waited about two and a half hours for a mini bus to Pai. Don’t worry-- the wait didn’t seem that long with the company of delicious, freshly made Thai Iced Tea:)

ELEPHANT NATURE PARK

Sasha and I rose early the next morning to walk 30 second journey from Bunchun to ENP Office (complete coincidence-- so strange!). There we boarded a white bus that took us to another office where we finished our payment, got a tee-shirt, and gave copies of our passports. Before we knew it we were on the hour and a half long journey to the park!

Taking you through each day at ENP would take up way too much time and overwhelm me with nostalgia, so I will give a brief overview of our favorite aspects/people/activities and how extremely overwhelming and amazing our time at the park was.

First and foremost, the volunteer coordinators. There were four of them: Joe, Johnny, Say and Jane. They were all Thai guys that looked to be about 20 but were really all 27-30. Each day we had a different assignment and was accompanied by either one or two of them. Needless to say after about 2 days we were in love with all of them. Actual love.

Next, group D. There were about 50-something volunteers the week we were there. On the first day we were split into 5 smaller groups-- Sasha and I were in group D (aka best group ever). The first morning our task was park cleanup (scooping up poop and uneaten grass from all over the park). That was the day we bonded with our “parents,” Joyce and Blain. They are both flight attendants for Northwest Airlines and pretty much the coolest people we have ever met. We definitely got the closest with them-- spending most of the week laughing until our stomach hurts from all their ridiculous stories. We have decided that all we want to be when we grow up is them. We also grew very close with a couple from Australia (though the guy is actually Welch). They run a cat daycare and are also in the running for the coolest people we have ever met. There were so many other people we made great friends with including a girl from Middleton, MA, a guy from Vermont and so many others from all over the world!

(Coming home from cutting corn... Riding on top of the corn on he truck)

(Family selfie)

(Family selfie Leah style!!!)

Finally, the ELEPHANTS (DUH). I honestly don’t even know where to start. In just one week at the ENP we learned so much about Asian Elephants. We saw them interact with their friends, “families” and babies. It was out of this world. Less amazing, we also learned about the abuse they face not only in Southeast Asia, but also throughout Asia, America and many other places. Unfortunately their ability to live in the wild has almost disappeared due to deforestation (logging industry) and the few still out there are under a constant threat of being captured. Elephants are horribly abused in so many ways, the most common being the logging industry and the tourist industry (offering elephant rides, shows, begging in the streets, etc). The way in which elephant’s souls are broken in order to gain complete power over them is unbearable-- causing many to cry and even leave the room when Lek (the founder of ENP) gave us a presentation on our last day. If you are interested in learning more about the practices used to “tame”an elephant-- just google it. There are so so so many disturbing articles and videos out there. They aren’t hard to find at all.

We left that lesson with a few things to pass onto others. If you are interested in taking action to help improve the lives of Asian Elephants, here are some things you can do:

1. Always, always, ALWAYS know where the wood from your furniture comes from. If it is sourced from Myanmar, don’t buy it. If it is sourced from Thailand, Laos, or Cambodia-- ask questions and learn more about it. If the store is unable to provide you information, don’t buy it.
2. If you are traveling around Southeast Asia-- never ride, touch, or interact with elephants. If you see one on the street and the owner says they need money to buy their elephant food-- don’t do give them a penny. Any and all elephants that are tame enough to be around/get touched by humans are elephants that have been (and are most likely still facing) terrible abuse.
3. Never attend a circus that uses animals in their acts. This is not only for elephants, but for all animals abused and mistreated in circuses all over the world. Just don’t go. Period.
4. If you love elephants and want to see them close up or want to interact with them in a way that doesn’t hurt them, consider coming to Elephant Nature Park for a week. You don’t get to ride them or interact with them as closely as you may wish, but you get to see and appreciate them in a way that is way more beautiful than a ride. ENP is a sanctuary for elephants that have been lucky enough to escape their past of abuse-- you will see their scars, their broken hips, legs and backs, as well as countless other handicaps such as torn ears and complete blindness. However you will also see them bathe in the river, cake themselves with mud, hold trunks with their best friend, and chase the dogs in good fun. It is truly an experience I wish everyone could have.
   
   
   

   
   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   
   

   
   
   

   Our fav dog ever, Memphis❤️❤️❤️