19 Months Pregnant

Day Five: 2/16 – Chiang Mai
Title: 19 months pregnant


Today was an AWESOME day. As you know by my blog yesterday, today was elephant camp day. WOW. Yet again it will be a struggle for me to convey the splendor of our day. Per the usual I’ll take you through it chronologically.

We got up around 7, ate breakfast, and met our tour guide “Owr” (pronounced or). Dad was under the impression that today was going to be spent touring with a group. I was not looking forward to this because “group” is usually synonymous with slow moving old people. Fortunately, Owr was there for just us! Owr is a super nice guy. His English isn’t as good as Roslin’s but it is still plenty adequate. He seems to really know his business (he was born and raised in Chiang Mai); therefore he knows the answers to most of our questions… and you can only imagine how many questions dad and I could ask over the course of two days in a place we have never been ;~>

Our first stop today was an orchid garden. As most of you know the women in my family (mom, grandma, aunts, etc…) tend to greatly enjoy gardening and flowers. I, on the other hand, am not too into it. I suppose the ability to plant something, care for it, and watch it grow is pretty cool… but generally I would just rather have friends. Well, I’d ditch all of you friends if we lived in Thailand. The flowers they can grow here are AMAZING! Orchids have long been my favorite flowers and I saw many new varieties today. This is surprising because I thought I had seen almost all of the Orchids in the world in a Singapore garden with dad a few years ago. We are both in agreement that this is the neatest botanical display we have ever seen. We wandered around so long that Owr had to come and find us so that we wouldn’t miss our next “appointment”.

The afore mentioned “appointment” was the show at the Measa Elephant Camp. I wouldn’t go so far as to describe this place as life changing, but it is clearly one of the top twenty greatest places I have ever been. People always say elephants are smart… but I don’t think you can have any appreciation for how truly smart they are without visiting an elephant camp. The elephants could do everything short of speaking English! They literally waved, hugged, played dead, dressed their trainers, played soccer, did “work” (they are loggers… more on that later), threw darts and painted. You can’t believe how talented these elephants are as artists. I honestly believe that I could practice painting for a month and not paint anything that is better than these elephants made in 10 minutes during today’s show.

Did you guys know that elephants can paint? I had no idea! I am still in awe. During the show the trainers let the elephants paint whatever they want. We witnessed elephants paint self-portraits, trees, flowers and abstract art. We have some cool photos of this and even a short little mpeg4 movie clip (that basically means a crappy quality but still viewable “movie” shot on my “still” camera.) Evidently the elephants pick the color paint they want by pointing with their trunk. The trainer then gives it to the elephant and it paints on its canvas. If the elephant wants a new color, it points with its trunk again. The trainer lets the elephant know that it changed the color paint by scratching behind its ears. I can’t wait to show you guys these photographs. They are truly unbelievable.

Most of the elephants in the camp are former logging elephants. Historically these elephants were used to move logs after humans cut them down. It is amazing how well the elephants work together. Male Thai elephants (as opposed to African elephants) have tusks, while the females do not. During the show the trainers displayed for us how the elephants work together to stack logs. Two males used their tusks to lift the ends off of the ground. Once it was elevated the female joined in with her trunk and pushed it to the desired destination.

Humans could learn a few things from elephants. They love to work because they feel better when they do. They only sleep three hours a day because that is all they need. They are 100% monogamous. They have a mate and keep them for life. They typically live into their 80’s. Another fun elephant fact is that they have a 20 month gestation. Dnelly and Beck… don’t you guys wish you could be pregnant for 20 months?!? We saw an elephant in the nursery that is 19 months prego. You should have seen the hips on that thing! Her boobs weren’t looking too perky either. You two have a lot of fun things to look forward too ;~>

The last hour of our time at the elephant camp was spent on an elephant trek. Dad and I rode an elephant over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s… oh wait… well no, we really did ride it through the forest, up hills, down hills and into a river. While we were on the elephant I told dad that if we died today, I would die very happy. Will all of you please remind me of that once the riverboat starts in Cambodia?

After the elephants we went to the Queen’s Botanical Gardens. The property is very expansive. Part of it is large and open (park like) and the rest is a bunch of green houses. Surprisingly I didn’t think that flowers were as nice as the little orchid place we toured in the morning. I think the queen needs to inquire about getting new gardeners.

Next we visited a “temple on the mount”. This temple is on one of the higher peaks in Chiang Mai. It offered a beautiful view of the downtown. The day was not super clear but you could still see far enough to pick out things like our hotel. Evidently on a clear day you see up to 60 km (it’s funny how Owr thinks I know what that means ;~) The neatest part of this temple is its dome. It is seriously bright gold. Evidently Buddha’s actual ashes are located inside the dome, making it one of the most sacred places in all of the Buddhist religion.

Tonight for dinner we went to a traditional Thai restaurant. We sat on the floor but since the place is really a tourist trap for Westerners there were cut out places to put our feet below the table. It was kind of fun eating dinner that low to the ground. The food was a preset menu and I didn’t care that much for it. The best part was the Thai sticky rice. It tasted like desert, so it is not surprising that I liked it. The dinner also featured some traditional Thai dancing. This was okay once but it is certainly not something I need to see often.
Dad decided today that he wants to spend tomorrow night in Chiang Rai instead of Chiang Mai. Because of this we had to hit the night market tonight. We made a few purchases but nothing major. (You can breathe a sigh of relief mom ;~) I am getting pretty tired and we have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow. I’m sure I’ll be delightful after four hours sleep ;~) Let me leave with the Doctor P fun fact of the day.

When dad was in junior high school he took ballroom dancing classes. Evidently most of the kids did this. It was an after school activity like basketball or baseball is now. The name of the place where he took the lessons was Mrs. Austin’s Dance something or other. At his school they had dances where the kids would waltz. Boy have things changes since 1912 ;~>

I’m off to bed. I’ll write again tomorrow if we have an Internet connection in Chiang Rai. Nighty, night…

Katy