by Missie Hills | Mar 21, 2015 | Asia, International Adventures
“IT’S ELEPHANT DAY!!” That’s how I woke up early that morning in my Chiang Mai hotel bed while the sun was just beginning to make its appearance. Within hours, I was going to come face to face with my favorite animal with no bars or fences to distance us. My adrenalin was running high, causing me to act way outside my character. I had become a morning person, something that happens only on very special occasions. Jason (who is always a morning person) and I met the others in the kitchen where we patiently ate our breakfast while we waited for our tour guide to arrive.
We weren’t really sure what to expect from the tour we booked. I did a little research and chose Dante’s Elephant Park, because the reviews sounded as if the elephants at the park were treated well. I was very apprehensive about the whole thing. I don’t support circuses that abuse elephants. So, I didn’t want to support any other tourism activity that would be comparable to the same thing. But the only way to know for sure was to visit the park and see for my own eyes. And I will say my curiosity tends to get the best of me in these situations.
When the tour guide arrived, there were four other guests already in the van. We introduced ourselves to Alex, Caroline, and Amanda all from the States. We had a pretty good representation of the USA in that van. Houston, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, and Philadelphia.
Before we made it to the camp, our tour guide, Mr. Big (who oddly was nothing like the Mr. Big from “Sex and the City”), stopped at a local market to pick up a few items for our lunch. This gave us a good opportunity to get some snacks for ourselves as well. I bought a hat for $3 and some other food items that I didn’t know. And we piled back into the van and made our way into the hills.
When we arrived at the camp, we immediately saw the elephants off in the distance. My first instinct was to run out to greet them, but I knew better. I needed to be patient and follow Mr. Big’s instructions. So, we settled up money and were given our outfits for the day. We all looked pretty sweet in our matching mahout outfits. And they even found one big enough to fit Jason.
While we were getting dressed, we were surprisingly greeted by a curious baby elephant who decided to wonder inside the hut to see what was going on. She sneaked up behind me and startled me with her little (but still quite large) trunk. And that was my first formal acquaintance with an elephant. I was in love. Once she realized we didn’t have any treats though, she wondered on to nosey around somewhere else.
After our not so formal training with Mr. Big where he unsuccessfully attempted to teach us a bunch of elephant commands in Thai, the boys cut up some sugar cane, showing off their muscles. And we all made our way out to meet the elephant family.
As the elephants saw us coming, they started getting extra excited. I’d like to say they were excited to see us, but truth is they knew we had sugar cane. And they wanted it bad. The boys were carrying the sugar cane, which made them nice targets for trampling elephants with bad sweet-tooths. And the girls got quite the laugh as the boys starting running in every which direction trying to keep the elephants from taking them each down and stealing all the sugar cane. Soon, we all realized the best thing to do was to just feed them.
We spent a lot of time feeding the elephants in order to get use to being so close to the massive animals. We learned quickly that we needed to watch our feet especially around the two babies. Jason suffered from a baby elephant stomp which probably felt similar to having a 4-wheeler role over your feet. Ok, maybe a lawn mower, but still, owwww! If truth be told, being around these big guys seemed way more dangerous than being around the tigers we experienced the day before. But the longer we hanged out, the more comfortable we became. Well, until Mr. Big summoned the first guest to climb up top one of them. This was a whole different game!
There were a couple different ways to get on top of the elephant. The best way though was to let the elephant lift you up with her trunk. Once up there, you had to shimmy yourself around to position yourself right behind the elephant’s ears. The skin behind the elephant’s ears is sensitive enough to feel the commands you give it. And then we walked, well sort of. Maybe I should have listened a little more closely when Mr. Big was teaching us the Thai commands. The elephant seemed rather un-phased that I was on her back, and she really didn’t care to listen to my commands. She pretty much just walked where-ever she wanted. Which for the most part meant she was in search of more sugar cane. And sitting on the elephant looked simple enough from the ground, but after getting up there, I have to say, it was quite terrifying. Being behind the ears meant I was looking straight down at the ground. I realized I could easily fall off and get stomped on by a massive elephant foot quite easily. But despite the small fear, I was on cloud nine. I was riding an elephant after all!
Once we all got our chance to try out our elephant riding skills, we took a break and had some lunch. After lunch, we had a couple beers. We were about to go on a long hike on the back of an elephant, we needed to hydrate. Then, we headed out to meet our elephant partners for the hike. Mr. Big had paired each of us up with the elephant he thought met our personalities. Not surprisingly, this meant that Jason got Big Joe, the only male in the family who was nearly twice the size as the females. I got Mee Noi, Big Joe’s pregnant wife. You could see this as a sign, but I chose to ignore it. Later, I made Mr. Big promise me that he would name the baby after me. He said he would name the baby Missie-Jay. I am assuming because she was pregnant, Mee Noi was tied up to Big Joe.
I wanted to take my camera with me, but because my previous training turned out to be a little bit more challenging than I thought, I decided against it, an action I later regretted. However, it was the right decision as for once, I actually got to enjoy the experience without focusing on the getting the perfect shot. I love photography, but sometimes being in the moment is important! This was one of those times. So, I let Mr. Big take photos for us.
We all climbed onto our elephants and started our hike. Derek was on the Baby Mama’s back, and he led the way. But she was a little too concerned with the curious baby and not at all concerned about Derek. She continuously wondered off the path chasing down the little one causing Derek to yell a lot and us to laugh. The other elephants were rather well behaved aside from the occasional butt scratch on a rock. They knew the trail pretty well. So, those commands we practiced were useless. I’m not completely convinced they were real commands. I suspect they might have been some sort of Thai profanity giving all the Thai elephant keepers a good inside giggle as we yelled them out.
The longer we hiked, the more comfortable we became on the elephants’ backs. We stopped for some water along the trail, and the elephant’s sprayed their bodies (and us) down with it. Another one of the elephants kept whispering cooing noises into my elephant’s ear. I wasn’t really sure what that was all about but it fascinated me. Soon, we came up to a small creek and the elephants plunged right in. Mr. Big brought us all beer to drink while we bathed the elephants. Then we played. The babies enjoyed trying to knock everyone over into the water. They were having the time of their lives! Which was kinda scary for those of us that didn’t want to get squished. The adults liked having their skin brushed. They splashed us with water, gave us kisses, and lifted us with their trunks.
Then we climbed back on their backs with beers in our hands and hiked back to the hut. I switched elephants with Jason so I could get my shot at riding Big Joe. He was like the Cadillac of elephants, very comfortable and easy going.
While sitting on top of an elephant with a beer in my hand, I wondered, is this a dream? It seems like the kind of weird dream I would have. Or maybe a commercial for Chang Beer. Either way, it was very real.
Yes, very real. And since that day, I have often experienced the “Elephants on Parade” dream from Dumbo as my mind is continuously wrapped up in elephants these days. I guess it’s time to head to the Houston Zoo to get my fix.
Until next time,
by Missie Hills | Mar 13, 2015 | Asia, International Adventures
Well, I thought this week would be my chance to catch up on my way behind photo editing. It was supposed to be a slow week. But what started out as my normal Monday, ended in an unexpected trip to my cardiologist and an unplanned surgery scheduled for the end of the week. Before anyone worries, everything is fine. My pace-maker/defibrillator’s battery, which was 8 years old, decided it was low and needed to be replaced. So, I went under the knife yesterday for a quick out-patient surgery to have a brand new pace-maker/defibrillator installed. (Installed? Is that the right word? Makes me sound like a cyborg!) Now, I’m at home recovering, a little sore and tired, but healing wonderfully, which has left me a lot of time for day-dreaming about Thailand and it’s fascinating markets.
Chiang Mai is known for it’s wonderful night markets. Every night they have a rather large night market that has become quite famous and, from what I have heard, rather touristy. However, we were lucky enough to be visiting on a Sunday and, therefore, had a wonderful opportunity to experience the Sunday Night Walking Street.
The Sunday Night Walking Street starts at 6:00 PM every Sunday. We had some time to spare after lunch. So, we took the opportunity to explore some of the temples in the area. We saw more Buddhas, lit some candles, said some prayers, and then waited and watched as the street vendors rushed to set up their booths of all kinds of interesting things.
And right on schedule at 6:00 PM the Thai National Anthem was played (as it is every night), and the city froze in recognition. And when the anthem finished, the market was open for business.
This market was very different from the other two markets we had visited in Bangkok, Khao San Rd and Chatuchak. The first big difference was the absence of alcohol. The second big difference was the presence of local arts and crafts, making the absence of alcohol more understandable as the artists wouldn’t want drunks stumbling over their works of art. And the third big difference was the abundance and variety of street food beyond the same ol’ same ol’ meat on a stick introducing us to new and exotic flavors.
As we walked the market, we were in awe by all the amazing pieces of art. So much so that we each walked away with our very own masterpieces to hang on our walls at home. I found an elephant painting that I fell in love with. I stared at it for some time, and the more I stared, the more I had to have it. So I played it cool while Jason turned on his haggling charm with the seller walking that line between getting a good deal and offending the artist, Sakchai. They settled on a price, and Sakchai posed for this photo for me.
The aroma in the air from all the food vendors was very powerful despite the ever growing crowd. So as we walked and shopped, we stopped occasionally to try different appetizers such as ham wrapped mushrooms, pig intestines, and donuts.
Jason bought these tiny ice-cream cones. We ate them and felt like giants.
However, the giant feeling began to fade away as the crowd continued to grow and wrap around us. Soon, we felt more like cattle being herded in whichever direction the crowd pushed us making shopping or eating difficult. So, we spotted a bar tucked away behind the market and settled in to rest our feet and have a couple drinks.
An hour later we were refreshed enough to take on the crowd once more. And after being herded through more narrow streets, we found what looked like a food-court of sorts where we stuffed ourselves with more street food wonders. Then out of nowhere I heard Gaby scream, “FOUND IT!” I need to explain first: Some people are wine enthusiasts, some people are beer enthusiasts, but Derek and Gaby are the only true ice-cream enthusiasts I know. They know every method of making any kind of frozen sweet treat there is. When they travel, trying the local ice-cream is a must-do. Gaby had been on a search for what is called stir-fried ice-cream since we arrived in Thailand. Stir-fried ice-cream is a method of making ice-cream in which cream is poured on a cold flat plate until frozen and then mixed with popular ice-cream additions like fruit and cookies. It is then scraped off the plate into a crepe like roll and served. And we had just found it. Even though we were all pretty stuffed, we made room for this special treat which was delicious.
And with this additional check off our bucket list, we called it a night. We had a date with some elephants set for the morning that we needed to rest up for…
Until next time,
by Missie Hills | Mar 11, 2015 | Asia, International Adventures
First I want to preface this post by saying this:
When we first looked into seeing the tigers in Thailand, I was unsure. As an animal lover, I don’t want to support any tourist activity in which animals were treated poorly, and I had heard horror stories about some of these tiger “sanctuaries” that could be compared to roadside zoos here in the US. So I did my research before we went, and I felt like Tiger Kingdom was a moral institution. My research indicated that Tiger Kingdom does not drug or de-claw their tigers. I was still a little unsure before we went, but I decided that I should trust my research. Preface over.
When we arrived in Chiang Mai (after a long night riding the rails), we had some time before we could check into our hotel. So, we hired a tuk tuk driver to get us some breakfast and then take us to see some tigers. The tuk tuks in Chiang Mai were nothing more than trucks with the bed enclosed. We piled up into one and headed into the center of town where we found a local food-court like place. We each had an amazing Thai breakfast dish for around $2 a piece. Then nice and full, we piled into the truck again and set out for some sweet tiger action.
Upon arriving at Tiger Kingdom and reviewing the prices, we had to make a decision on what size tigers we wanted to see. There were four categories, tiny, small, medium, and large. Frankie, Kee-Kee, Jason, and I decided to see the tiny, small, and large tigers. Before we could go though, we needed to sign a waiver. The waiver basically said, “If your face gets mauled, we are not held liable.” But you know in better legal terms then that. It went on to say that if an accident was to happen, don’t expect a refund. This was a little concerning. I would hope that if one of the tigers attacked me, I could at least get my 40 bucks back. And it didn’t help matters that we had just read an article about a tourist that had been attacked by one of the tigers at this park recently. The danger was real. And very very exciting.
Nevertheless, Jason, Kee-Kee, and I signed our lives away. Frankie starred at the paper for some time, and then finally nervously signed as well, all while trying to play it cool.
Truth is, we were all a little nervous, or maybe excited… I’m not sure, but I definitely was feeling those butterflies.
My originally thought when choosing the tiger sizes was that we would start tiny and work up to large. However, the staff pointed us in the direction of the small first. So, we started there.
Before we could enter, we had to read the rather large list of rules which all sounded like common sense to me. “Don’t touch the tigers’ teeth or claws.” Um, Duh. This sign was a little concerning though.
Sure, don’t put your fingers or hands in the cage. But your whole body, that’s no problem.
Therefore, we walked into the tiger cage a little overcautious at first not really knowing what to expect. Our hearts were beating fast, and adrenaline was flowing through our veins. Our guide walked us over to a couple small tiger cubs laying out in the sun. He explained to us that the tigers like the attention from people, because they were all born at the park. There was nothing to worry about. But still we needed to be extra careful how we approached them. So, we laid down behind them and rubbed their bellies. They purred and rolled over for us, obviously liking the attention.
We became calmer and soon felt like we were playing with large house cats. A couple of the tigers were playing in the corner, jumping and fighting with each other. They would run around the space not really caring about the humans watching them and occasionally would brush up against my legs during their game of chase. You could see that the tigers had gone through a lot of training as they would lie down when instructed and let more visitors pet their bellies. My concerns about drugging completely went away.
I could have watched these tigers all day, but eventually our guide dragged us out so we could move on to the big beasts. Going into the big tiger cage, we felt much more confident. We were pros now after all. But then we saw one of the big tigers and all that adrenaline came rushing back. These tigers were much much larger than the tigers we had just played with. And this first one, named Nancy, was growling, jumping, and running around as it played with its trainer.
The guide took us to a platform where three very large tigers were sunbathing. The first tiger we met was named Frankie which gave us a little giggle as Frankie met his tiger counterpart. We gradually cozyed up to Frankie (the tiger not the Chicagoan) and before long found ourselves spooning him as he purred for affection.
Frankie approached Tiger Frankie extremely cautiously at first keeping a good arms length distance. After a little peer pressure though, he got a bit closer, and they became friends for life. Ok, maybe not friends, but they tolerated each other just fine.
The biggest tiger of the three was named Mike. He weighed close to 500 lbs! Our guide fed Mike some chicken, and my photographer brain took over as I tried to get the perfect closeup of his face completely forgetting that I was within feet of the tiger’s massive jaws.
Last up were the tiny cubs. They were in a small nursery full of toys. Their training was much less perfected, and they ran around playing with each other like kittens do. But they would lay down for belly pets after the trainer would command them a few times. And then they would purr, oh they would purr. With the babies, we were able to see their retractable claws up close which still looked like they could do quite a bit of damage. Frankie was much more comfortable with the cubs. Well really, we all were.
Then our time was up, and we headed out of the park still high on adrenaline while internally checking “playing with tigers” off our bucket lists and humming “Eye of the Tiger” in our heads.
(Note for all of our moms and other worried relatives who think we are becoming adrenaline junkies: Although the danger of this adventure was very real, and I will not discount it, this post was written with extra dramatic flare, well because that is what writers do. In reality, I felt perfectly safe at all times. So please don’t worry, we are still sensible safe adults.)
Until next time,
by Missie Hills | Mar 5, 2015 | Asia, International Adventures
After a full day of shopping the Chatuchak Weekend Market, it was time to head to the Bangkok’s Hua Lamphong Train Station and make our way to our next destination, Chiang Mai. The train was my brilliant idea. Who wouldn’t want to experience the country side while taking an overnight train up through the hill country? The idea sounded exciting and adventurous, and I was all about it. I did my research and read many blogs of backpackers who had taken this train. They all seemed to enjoy it. It took some convincing to my fellow travelers, but in the end we boarded the train with high hopes. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for those hopes to be crushed.
We all found our berths easy enough in the last car of the train. We each had private rooms with bunk beds. At first glance, the train was old and dirty, but that didn’t bother anyone too much. And while settling in, we found that we had enough space to be comfortable. However, it wasn’t long before we heard a shrill scream coming from Derek and Gaby’s room next door. We ran over there to make sure she was not being murdered by a train hobo, and what we found was quite comical. Gaby was curled up on the bed pointing, “Bug!, Bug!”. Frankie proceeded to stomp around killing small roaches that were skippering across the floor. And the night truly began.
Ok, I am a true country girl from backwoods Arkansas. A few bugs don’t really bother me. Plus, Jason and I survived the Amazon Rainforest during the flood season causing our eco-lodge to be crawling with very large roaches. So, this was nothing. And maybe that attitude caused me to not quite understand the turmoil that my fellow travelers were going through. Regardless, I could see the pain in their eyes when the realized they were going to have to sleep all night on this train crawling with bugs with no escape. Then I felt extremely guilty for pushing the train. However, everyone was ready and eager to try to make the most of the trip.
So, the plan was to head to the restaurant car and have dinner together while laughing at our misfortune. Unfortunately, the boys could not go to the restaurant car, because they would have to pass through the very strict female-only car. Dinner would have to be served in our rooms. I know I said earlier that the rooms were spacey, but not eat-your-dinner kind of spacey. We were forced to balance large trays on our laps whiling eating all while Frankie continued to stomp on bugs as the ran across the floor in front of us. He became our resident bug stomp-er, although we all had to pitch in from time to time.
After dinner, we settled in for a very long night. The rocky train (with the help of a strong Peruvian decongestant) put me right to sleep, and I was out until morning. Jason never seems to have a problem falling to sleep in weird situations. So, he slept like a baby too. However, the others had long restless nights as they cuddled up together in the top bunks of their berths avoiding the creepy crawlies. All which made me feel even more guilty when I woke up refreshed. But that guilt melted away quickly as I peered out of the back of the train and watched the sun rise to a complete new environment deep in the hill country of Northern Thailand. We had made it to Chiang Mai, and a new adventure was about to start.
Until next time,
by Missie Hills | Mar 2, 2015 | Asia, International Adventures
After our night on Khao San Rd, we were in no shape or form to make the original planned trek to Ayutthaya, where we planned to see the ancient city ruins of Thailand’s original capital city. We were sad to have to cut it out, but we just couldn’t hack it. We are getting too old I guess. So after attempting to recover by relaxing in our hotel courtyard and drinking a lot of coffee, we perked up and created our plan B.
Our friendly neighbor on the plane ride to Bangkok told us all about Thailand’s largest market. We were lucky enough to be in Bangkok over the weekend so we could see it, and our change in plans allowed us the time. However, we didn’t expect what we were about to experience at all. When we arrived at the market, our jaws dropped. I thought we were going to take it easy today! What we saw was a maze of tiny shops, half indoors, half outdoors, bustling with locals stocking up on just about anything you could think of.
I put this market on the same scale as Istanbul’s famous Grand Bazaar. However, the environment was completely different. Very much unlike the Grand Bazaar, Chatuchak was not filled with pushy annoying sellers. Instead the sellers pretty much ignored you until you were ready to buy.
The market was a bit overwhelming. So, we settled in at a small street restaurant for a quick Thai breakfast. Some spicy Thai food was just what we needed to cure the hangover in our bellies. We all got rice curry with pork and a few bottles of water, for only $2/person! This may have been one of the best meals we had in Thailand.
And then the shopping began. We all had great intentions of buying all kinds of cool things. But in the end, the market proved to be sensory overload. We walked and walked, while laughing at all the funny random items we discovered. Then we stopped for street food and walked some more.
And when we couldn’t walk anymore, we found a bar and had some refreshing cocktails. At the bar, a chef was cooking paella on the street, and I had to have some. I stood in line for what felt like an hour hypnotized by the aroma just to get some very over-priced paella. But it was still oh so good.
And then refreshed once more, we walked and shopped some more before finding a cab and heading to the train station for our next leg of travel. We had a long and interesting night ahead of us as we made our way to Chiang Mai…
Until next time,
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