South East Asia Experience

Selling beer on overnight buses is not a smart move. Nevertheless, it was done on my eight-hour overnight bus ride from Ayutthaya to Chiang Mai. The obnoxious New Zealander in front of me was so drunk that the driver had contacted the police. It was literally a nightmare.

Fortunately, Chiang Mai has its own charm in certain areas. Like many Thai city, some streets with the old city are flooded with 'farang'(westerners) and young girls trying to make a living. The scene of oversized white male and petite thai girl is all too common.

I stayed with a tall Swedish woman, another victim of the torturing bus ride. I was surprised at the kind of attention we would get. Normally, by myself, I would just be mistaken as Thai, or Japanese. It doesn't take long for us to encounter our first gem scam. A local man inside a wat, claimed to have a Australian wife (with picture proof) and children, vacationing in Chiang Mai and wanted to drive us to the gem market to see monks work on handicraft without charge. The friendliness was a little too good to be true. We refused repeatedly and walked on.

We visited the Elephant Nature Park the next day, the largest rescue centre and santuary in northern Thailand, for domesticated and over-worked and abused elephants. Lek, a local Thai woman who started this project over 10 years ago, speak great English, has a passion for elephants. The sauntuary located in a valley supported about 30 elephants, including a few babies, who love bathing in the river. She also operates a jumbo express on a river boat to bring medical supplies to elephants in the surrounding villages in northern Thailand.

Our guide explained that Thai labor law treat elephants, an animal as intelligent as human, as domestic animals such as cows and pigs with virtually no holidays or maternity leave. On top of the torturing weeks of training when they are only 4 or 5 years old, a mother elephant could be forced to work for illegal logging or tourism until the day her baby is borned. There are cases where female elephants were forced to keep dragging woods after her baby was still born on the floor in the jungle. Then months old babies, who can barely walk, were forced to follow their mothers to work everyday until blazing sun. Some abusive mahouts would starve male elephants in order to prevent them to go into musk and therefore more obedient. Putting heavy chairs on an elephant back for a long period of time would actually cause deformation. Sometime I wonder if buddism is genuine in this country who claim elephants as their sacred animal?

That night, we found a little heaven ourselves, in an antique shop and guesthouse on the east of the river called Regina. My first glass of red wine.

A 3-hr local bus ride later, we arrived in a small town west of Chiang Mai called Pai. This town is known for its bohemian feel, popular for both farang and local youths, because of the abundance of hippyish bars, restaurants and gallery and proximity to surrounding mountains. I signed up with a 2-night, 3-day trekking with a local company. We were wrapped up in layers of fleece early morning before we start and quickly strip when the weather rises.

Our porters led us thru the mountains even without any visible path or tracks. We overnight in a guesthouse in a Lahu village surrounded by livestock. After a 'romantic' candlelight dinner including the slightly sweet and chewy Lahu rice and several great dishes, the Lahu children entertain us with children songs. In return, we sang a few western toons and danced like idiots.

Most of my fellow trekkers left me and another porter on the next day. We headed on a longer route to a Karen village. My porter made chopsticks from bamboo and bowls from banana leaves for lunch utensils.
Then come nap time. No point to rush under the hot sun...

A few river crossing and herds of cows grazing later, we arrived at the Karen village. My host family was very friendly. However, because of language barrier, I was only able to communicate with the owner who was quite occupied with my whisky-loving porter. We shared dinner, talked and laughed until the cats were curling up sleeping on my legs.

I arrived at Tham Lod (Lod Cave)after 2.5 hr trekking up and down river bank next morning. Tourists came in minibuses and 4x4 in groups. I followed a local woman with an oil lamp into the caves to see nature's work.

Back to Bangkok for another sniff of the polluted air, my supposedly highly-rated hostel turned out to be less than satisfactory. I hopped onto the train and headed to the old capital city of Thailand - Ayutthaya.

This UNESCO Historic Heritage town has more than 40 magnificent wats. Some are Lao-styled, some burmnese, chinese and even Khmer-styled. Most look great from a distance away, however, need some major restoration.

My friendly tuk-tuk driver took me to a local restaurant for lunch and all the impressive wats around town. Over sunset at the elephant kraal, we watched teen elephants bathe themselves in the river after a day of carrying tourists on their back under the hot sun (a practice that can lead to deformation.)

Right when we were leaving, I noticed two baby elephants tumbling around their mothers in an enclosure. I couldn't help but to introduce myself to these two four-month-olds by gently putting my palm forward. In return, they placed their tiny and amazingly soft baby trunk on my hand. We bowed to each other. Then they tumbled back to get more milk from their mothers, seemingly knowing that I'm watching.

The next day, my tuk-tuk driver took me to Lopburi in his motorbike. In old Lopburi, there is a temple and ruins infested with hundreds of macquets, fed daily with fruits and vegetatables, for tourists. First brought into the town by a monk, these macquets quickly reproduced into a small colony. Temple keepers use sticks to scare them away from food on the altar (although there is a successful attempt at the roasted chicken.)

At the ruins opposite the monkey temple, hundred more macquet families and gangs reside. Tourists are actually encourage to go inside the ruin and look at the monkeys thru the bars, as if we are the zoo animal being watched by the residents here.

I ventured outside the safety of the temple ruin and tried to capture these creature under natural light. Just when I was focus at a shot, I heard a noise from my backpack and saw my lucky golden elephant keychain in the hand of a teenaged macquet. Within a millisecond, it was popped into his storage pouch inside his mouth. My attempt to chase after this thief and retrieve my keychain went in vain. Another lesson learned. Were we really evolved from monkeys or was it simply monkeys being monkeys?

Arriving at the new Thailand airport, one doesn't take long to notice the display of the photo and symbol of the king everywhere. Even with the recent military coup and bombings on New Year's Eve, most Thai seemed to lead a normal daily life.

Like other asian cities, night markets are abundant in Bangkok. However, only after a day of sightseeing at the Grand Palace and floating market, I was ready to leave the air pollution behind for the Wildlife Rescue Centre, a real sanctuary for both human and animals, located in the Petchuburi province, about 2.5 hr southwest of Bangkok.

The illegalization of using elephants for logging in 1990s had driven Thailand's once sacred animal, the asian elephants, into money-making tool for some mahouts in many resort areas, together with many gibbons and other wildlife animals which are used for entertainment purposes.

I was introduced to three of the lucky ones, Kwaeta, Nun Foon and Non Bow, all females asian elephants over 30 years old, at 6:30am the following morning. Our three mahouts, Joi, Bum and Ta Ta, unchained them in the nearby forest. We, the volunteers, ride them to the center, fill up three large baskets of pineapple leaves and scatter them on the ground for them to enjoy. In the afternoon, we collect the leftover leaves, clean their 'poops' and take them to the river for a nice scrub and bath.

A strange kind of trust slowly emerged after only a few days of intimate experience of taking care of such a magical creature. It doesn't take me long to fall in love with these giant beauties with the charisma and intelligence that they process. There are the occasional show of affection between Kwaeta and Non Bow, with their trunks curling up in each other mouth.

I can spend hours observing their behaviour.

Working with elephants are also physically demanding, as we have to collect pineapple leaves every week in the plantations under a blasting sun for hours. But sitting on top of six feet of pineapple leaves after an hour of loading in the back of an open truck with a crazy mahout driver on bumpy roads is definitely a highlight.

Besides elephants, there are also over 10 bears at the centre. Most days after the elephant feeding, I would help the other volunteers to scatter and hide fresh fruits in branches inside the enclosure. One particular baby bear who was separated from his mother at an very early age, would make a calling sound with his paw over his mouth everytime I stand in front of him, as if he is asking me to nurse him.

Another treasure at the centre was a bengal tiger which was rescued from a small cage at a gas station which use him to make money. Because of the prolong entrapment from birth, his leg muscle was never developed fully. To balance himself when walking, this beautiful animal would swing from side to side. Watching this would simply break anyone's heart.

Gibbons, macquet and lacquer are also abundance. Some are blind, some missing limbs and some who had a hard time to socialize because they were kept as pets. Food, water and special diet are administered to them carefully everyday. A few aggressive ones would try to show their disdain to different type of people. Some hate asians, some hates caucasians, some hate women and some hates men. Who said animals are not racist like the fellow human being? But then who can blame them given their individual sad story in their past?

A week had flew by too quick. Saying goodbye to all my new friends at the centre, especially the animals, was very hard. Despite of my sadness, I will have to move on with my trip, only hoping to return and lend my help at the centre in the future.