people, Places and Things - Elephant Camp Part 3

O.K., time to wrap up elephant camp! So good day and a not so good day. You know those idyllic scenes you see on postcards or commercials for Jamaica? Well, they actually exist. We took a break one afternoon, hopped in the back of a pickup truck were driven by a maniacal lunatic off road partway up the mountain to to this spot. And by maniacal I mean he was known to smoke ditchweed and every time we were teetering on the edge of a mountain on what could best be described as a cow path, we could hear him cackling like a crazy old woman from the driver's seat of the truck. Anywho, we made it one piece and spent some time splashing around in the probably the nicest spot I've been to on this trip. Also, shirtless, hard bodied Thai boys. Does it get any better than that?

One of the other days, which was not the best one, was the day we went to volunteer for the morning at the school in the local village. Matt, Stacey, Beck and I volunteered for the English class and everything was fine until it dawned on me, everything that had been taught was geared towards conversing with tourists. Where are you from, how long are you here for, do you need a cab. I realized too what some of the other classes were, handicrafts and Thai massage. This is a grade school were talking about, it was a sobering experience to see how few opportunities there are. Anyways, the point of the week was to learn about life here and part of the deal was that it wasn't going to be all mud fights, good food and elephants.

But speaking of food, I know there are a few people who really get off on food porn, so have a look at the northern Thai meal we had on our last night, drool away, it was the best meal we had all week. That or I was finally sick of what we were being served the other 6 days.

People, Places and Things - Elephant Camp Part 2

Thank God I'm heading out of Chiang Mai soon (5 days and counting)....there is absolutely no stone left unturned in this town. Anywho, back to camp.

Yes that's my rustic bamboo hut your looking at. I forgot to take pictures of the equally rustic shower and toilets but at least they had water and there weren't squat toilets. Who am I kidding, after the ballbusting workdays we had, you could have given me a blanket and a concrete floor and I would have been happy. The ongoing argument at dinner every night was whether the sounds we heard on the roof at night were leaves falling or were rats climbing across the roof. I was voting for leaves as it made it a bit easier to sleep. But look! Mosquito netting, how cool is that?

Showering was quite the challenge, there wasn't always electricity for the water pump and truth be told the shower was not up to snuff. So the alternative? There was always a large rubber garbage can filled with cold rain water and a bucket to use. Try doing that at 6:30am. On more mornings than not I would usually just lather up my dry skin with liquid soap and then douse myself with buckets water to rinse off, all the time trying not to scream like a girl because it was so. damn. cold. Mind you after coming in from a hot day of work I will say said bathing was also incredibly refreshing.

People, Places and Things - Elephant Camp Part 1

Sweet baby Jesus, my back hurts, I can't get my feet clean and I'm afraid to open my backpack because it's contents probably smells like a sewer. Oh, by the way, Best. Week. Ever. I don't even know how to write about a week at elephant camp, I was originally going to do a day by day entry, I even was keeping a journal so I could remember what I did but it just doesn't seem to work.

So the people, what a mix. We had 25 volunteers there for the week and it was the widest assortment of types, ages, shapes and personalities you could imagine. The largest contingent was Australian, a few from the UK, one lonely American, 2 Canucks and a few French gals. Right, and a German. A German doctor. A loud, annoying, opinionated German doctor. Well there has to be one in every group, the guy who gets on your last gay nerve in the shortest time possible. Luckily it was also a bonding experience for the rest of us. We thought he was on staff but shortly found out he was just starting his second week as a volunteer. Why did we think he was staff? You'd think so too with the way he was bossing everyone around and walking around like he owned the place. All it took was catching someone's eye as they gave an eyeroll or you'd hear them mutter under their breathe "O.K. Adolph we heard you the first time" and a laugh would be shared and bonding would happen. Anywho, enough about him, the best part of the whole experience really was working, eating, laughing and having fun with the rest of the crew.

Our day started with breakfast at 7, chores, and by chores I mean cutting down 10 foot highgrass with machetes, unloading pickup trucks filled with fruits and vegetables for the elephants, mucking out the elephant pens (or poo patrol as we called it), elephant feeding, bathing, more eating, more chores, more eating and in bed by 10 at the latest to get up early and start it all over again. Don't worry though we had fun. Cleaning out the elephant mud pit would end in a mud fight, elephant bathing resulted in water fights and playing a card game called shithead means there was much hooting and hollering and laughing and talking.

I'll be writing more over the next few days, probably until you're sick of hearing about elephant camp. Just wanted to say hey, I'm alive and I think I lost my gay card in the elephant mud pit because no sane gay man would ever post a picture like this one.