jan daeng, my new love

yes, there is a woman in my life. she weighs an enormous amount and goes by the name jan daeng.

we just got back from 3 awesome days at the elephant conservation center outside lampang. it was awesome. joe and i ended up being the only ones on the 3-day trek, so we got tons of attention and were able to ask all the questions we wanted. we each had our own elephant that we took care of for the duration of the trek. mine was named jan daeng. she was a spunky 38 year-old female. joe worked with an older woman, tantawan, who was 51. their trainer/caretakers (mahouts) were with us at all times. without tiean, i wouldn't have even been able to get up on jan daeng. joe was helped by pun for the first two days and neak on the last day. we had an awesome time. we just finished burning the pics to a dvd and will hopefully be able to upload them soon. we learned how to get on the elephant 3 ways (front, side and with the elephant on her belly), bathe her, give her directions (forward, turn, back up, stop), as well as their daily routines. the elephants were walked into the jungle at night and chained up to a tree by a very long chain (maybe about 60 feet long). they were then collected in the morning, bathed and then we walked them. we also got to see an elephant show, the elephant hospital, the elephant nursery and the dung paper factory.

we're closing down the internet cafe, so i'll update this post later with more details. joe and i miss our ladies very much! :)

happy thanksgiving, elephants

We missed everyone on Thanksgiving! Hope you all had a good holiday, including some yummy turkey. Turkeys are bad luck in Thailand, and they don't raise/eat them. In fact, I haven't seen a single turkey in SE Asia :( We had curry for tgiving dinner.

We also wanted to give a quick update on our travels. Just spoke with our security service, and they think the aiport will re-open by the time we fly out (12/18), but to check back with them in 3-4 days. We're headed to Lampang tomorrow for a 3-day visit to an elephant conservatory. We get to bathe and feed them, as well as learn about their behavior. Once we're out of the jungle, we'll check on the protests and go from there.