It's a creekmore world http://creekmoreworld.com A family travel adventure blog. Now featuring CANCERPALOOZA! Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:31:50 +0000 hourly 1 China, Thailand, Cambodia: The Asia 2011 Family adventure itinerary http://creekmoreworld.com/2012/01/china-thailand-cambodia-the-asia-2011-family-adventure-itinerary/ http://creekmoreworld.com/2012/01/china-thailand-cambodia-the-asia-2011-family-adventure-itinerary/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:00:52 +0000 David http://creekmoreworld.com/?p=7412 Continue reading » Related posts:
  1. Asia Itinerary 2011 – China, Thailand, Cambodia (and Pakistan!)
  2. Planning the Family Travel Adventure to Asia
  3. Arriving in the future: Asia -China – Day 1-3
]]> Asia 2011 was our longest, hardest and most rewarding adventure.  The pain and pleasure of being a family of four cramped together in small cars, Asian hotel rooms and jammed public transportation was only exceeded by the challenges and rewards of experiencing some of the planets oldest and most developed civilizations in remote places and intense steamy heat.

Again, we were blessed with good traveling luck.  Our misfortunes were limited to minor sickness, lost luggage and the occasional rip-off.  Asia was generally inexpensive – though it helped to shop for deals.

China is a ‘trophy’ destination for global tourists. But despite being the 3rd  most popular destination (after USA and France) it’s not an easy place to get around for the independent traveling family.  It’s worth the challenge though, particularly the more remote regions.  We loved the Yangshuo and Dunhuang areas especially.  And the Great Wall is probably our favorite walk.

Cambodia is a gem of a country to visit.  It’s got rich history; some very sad, some magnificent.  And there is a burgeoning mid-market for hotels and restaurants that make for a very comfortable but inexpensive tour.

Thailand was the original exotic destination in South East Asia, and it’s showing it’s wear as a travel destination.  But it’s also reinventing itself as a real sustainable nature destination, and we had one of the greatest experiences with mother nature in our lives at the Patera Elephant farm.

Get your family to Asia!  Our kids are still talking about it.

 

 

 

 

 

Related posts:

  1. Asia Itinerary 2011 – China, Thailand, Cambodia (and Pakistan!)
  2. Planning the Family Travel Adventure to Asia
  3. Arriving in the future: Asia -China – Day 1-3

]]> http://creekmoreworld.com/2012/01/china-thailand-cambodia-the-asia-2011-family-adventure-itinerary/feed/ 0 2010 Cancerpalooza Extravaganza http://creekmoreworld.com/2011/10/2010-cancerpalooza-extravaganza/ http://creekmoreworld.com/2011/10/2010-cancerpalooza-extravaganza/#comments Thu, 27 Oct 2011 04:07:50 +0000 David http://creekmoreworld.com/?p=7508 Continue reading » Related posts:
  1. Week #16 : Blood, Buttercream, and Boobies: Ingredients of a Cancer-Killing Extravaganza
  2. Cancerpalooza Epilogue
  3. Cancer Week #21: The End of Cancerpalooza: Slash, death and diamonds.
]]> So much fun, you’ll want cancer too.

 

Cancer sucks.  Cancer the second time sucks a lot worse.  What’s a girl to do?

She throws parties, glams like a movie star, treats the kids to endless fun, and suffers through the horror with life-affirming verve and snarky indignance at the nasty disease.

She makes it – cancerpalooza.  ‘What’s Cancerpalooza?’ you ask?   Read it here…

(If you only read two posts, read the beginning and the end to get a sense of the heartbreak and fear, and love.)

The Detection:

 

 The Chemotherapy:

 

 

The Surgery

 

 

The Reconstruction:

 


Related posts:

  1. Week #16 : Blood, Buttercream, and Boobies: Ingredients of a Cancer-Killing Extravaganza
  2. Cancerpalooza Epilogue
  3. Cancer Week #21: The End of Cancerpalooza: Slash, death and diamonds.

]]> http://creekmoreworld.com/2011/10/2010-cancerpalooza-extravaganza/feed/ 3 Condoms and Creepy Zoos in Bangkok: Days 32-35: Asia, Thailand, Bangkok http://creekmoreworld.com/2011/08/the-final-days-32-35-a-cheesy-tour-of-bangkok-family-adventure-travel-thailand/ http://creekmoreworld.com/2011/08/the-final-days-32-35-a-cheesy-tour-of-bangkok-family-adventure-travel-thailand/#comments Sun, 21 Aug 2011 16:29:45 +0000 David http://creekmoreworld.com/?p=7285 Continue reading » Related posts:
  1. Asia Itinerary 2011 – China, Thailand, Cambodia (and Pakistan!)
  2. China, Thailand, Cambodia: The Asia 2011 Family adventure itinerary
  3. Snuff films in Chiang Mai? How to pick a husband? Inside this issue! – Thailand – Asia Day 31-32
]]> The greatest thing about traveling for a month or more, is that you really miss home.  It feels like vacation when you get there.  On the Bangkok Skytrain, Lily laughs and talks about how excited we are to see our dog, Monty, again soon.  This is our last day before we head home and we are catching a few of Bangkok’s sights.

Compared to some of the adventure we’ve had, it’s routine even cheesy stuff.  But it’s good to wind down a little as we prepare to reenter the United States and our ‘normal’ lives.

Bangkok Hotel Aggro

Despite having been to Bangkok many times, I have never done any sightseeing.  It’s always been work, meals and hotel.  Maybe I figured I would save it for when the family was with me.  I had big plans in my head, but we came back from Chiang Mai run down.  Our first day (yesterday) in Bangkok consisted of hanging out in the Amari Watergate Hotel.

The Amari was a very lucky find.  Bangkok hotels were busy this particular weekend, and the 3 or 4 that I wanted could not confirm.  I had left this bit of planning to the last minute.  In Chiang Mai, we each did some searching but found nothing that matched our criteria.  Trish and I argued for a while because she wanted to pay more and stop searching. She was tired after the ziplining.  I was determined to get our price point.

Part of the challenge making hotel reservations is we often can’t tell from the website if they will allow us two kids in the room.  And since we were booking less than 24 hours in advance, there was no time to email the hotel management.

But the Amari, which was listed as number #29 of hotels in Bangkok, clearly stated on their site that kids were welcome and the price was cheap, about $120 a night including breakfast.

And it’s a good place – aging but clean.  Breakfast is cool.  They obviously cater to international families and there is an Indian, Lebanese, Chinese, European and American breakfast buffets all in the same giant hall.  Don’t come here for charm or luxury, but it’s very practical.

Chao Phraya

Today I wen to the office in the day and afterward with the family to do the final sightseeing of the trip.  We almost skip it and just go back to the hotel, but that would be too lame and ending for this journey.

The Thaksin bridge stop on the skytrain has a small group of boats and several sales people at it’s base.  I ask the closest one for a private boat.   “You can’t get that here.  Take my boat upriver and change there for private boat.”  Bah, that sounds like bullshit to me.  I know we can get a boat here.

Ten feet away is a red desk.  ”Private Boat?”  I ask.  He shows me the itinerary:  Giant fish feeding; Snake Farm; Floating Market; Old Canals and Wat Arun.  Even before I can say ‘Sure” a boat is motoring behind him to pick us up.  We get on our cheesy tour.

Do catfish swarm?

Bangkok is normally hot, dense, and pushy. But the river is a great relief.  We see faster boats with giant motors that hydroplane across the water.   Ours crawls along and we like it.

The canals of Bangkok are among its oldest parts.  Through a small industrial area we float toward a bridge far ahead.  There a man with a young boy holds a dozen bags of bread that he lowers into our boat for a few bhat.

The water over the side of the boat churns, almost violently, with the bodies of at least a hundred catfish the size of a mans forearm.  There are so many that they push each other out of the water, like they are air breathing reptiles.

The captain motions us to start feeding them and Trish timidly holds a soft roll over the surface of the murky water.  It’s freaky!  She drops one in and the swarm of slippery grey-brown skin splashes us all as it gobbles up the roll.

Lily doesn’t want a turn, but Emma and I do.  Their mouths open so wide that you can see deep inside their body.  It’s stupid tourist stuff.  It’s kinda fun though.

Attack of the trinket pirate.

When we got the boat, Trish sounded excited to see the floating market which is a famous local farmer and food bazaar conducted entirely on river craft and rowboats in the canals.

As we depart the catfish frenzy (and another boat shows up to buy bread) the capitan points in the distance and says “Real floating market open only on weekend.  Over there is today’s floating market.”  A rowboat laden with tourist souvenirs grapples our craft like the like a trinket-selling pirate.

We’ve been boarded!  But even Lily isn’t very interested in the junk he is selling.  And she’s the kind of kid that wants every item in the gift shop. ( ‘if she could only get this one thing.”)

There is a Dr. Ragab’s in every city.

One of our most memorable experiences in Egypt, only because it was so bad, was Dr. Ragab’s “cultural park”.   It was a ridiculously bad museum with ‘actors’ and ‘rides’.

Trish and I look at each other and laugh as soon as we enter the Thonburi Snake Farm ‘museum.’  The statues of snake handlers look like 3rd grade paper mache and reminds us of Dr. Ragabs’s.

Unfortunately our laughter turns to sadness as we walk through the grim little zoo.  Animals are in tiny old cages like a zoo from the 1970′s.  Birds and rodents might not be so uncomfortable, but the  primates and tigers have to be pretty unhappy.

The snake handling show is a carnival stunt with Thai men handling venomous cobras, pythons and vipers.  They drain a cobra’s fangs into a jar and show it to the crowd.  Horrible.

We leave as soon as we can.  Trish says this is what Thailand was like 20 years ago.  Don’t go here if you can avoid it.

Final Stop: Wat Arun

Our final tourist stop in Thailand, and indeed the entire epic journey through Asia, is Wat Arun, one of Bangkok’s four major temples.  It’s a fitting ending for our journey, because this Thai temple has a central prang in the Cambodian style, and is decorated with tiny pieces of porcelain that came from China as ballast on trade boats. Those are the countries we visited.

Emma runs to the golden buddha, in his Chinese ‘fat-man’ form called Budai, and rubs his belly for good luck before we head up the 90 foot high prang.

It’s steep. There are two flights of stairs each separated by a landing.  The colors don’t pop in the haze as much as they would in direct sunlight, but it’s still remarkable.

At the top there are great views of the old city on the other side of the river.  The tops of the Imperial Palace gleam golden in the setting sun.  On the West side, Bangkok’s canals extend for a few miles but the city sprawls much farther than that.

It’s a nice ending to our journey and we enjoy the hike up and down the really steep stairs of the prang.  At the top I’m reminded of how nice the temperature really is – only 90 degrees.  It’s 105 back home in Washington D.C.

The intricate designs on the prang are truly amazing up close.  On our way out, we ask the security guard to take our final family photo of Asia 2011.  Good luck for getting home safely!

Cabbages and Condoms

I call a friend to get directions to Cabbages and Condoms, a restaurant in central Bangkok that is known for unusual decor and good intentions.  The restaurant is part of a non-profit that supports AIDS-awareness and food development for Thailand.

I’ve been here before, it’s always busy and the food is good (but slightly inauthentic because they tone down the spice for foreigners.)

The garden restaurant is beautiful enough in itself, but they have kitchsy, fascinating condom-decorated, life-size statues including Santa Claus, super-heros and brides.  The girls think it’s hilarious.  And it is.

Over sugary ‘virgin’ drinks, we have a long discussion about the use of condoms.  Emma says she learned all about this in the 4th grade sex-education unit and is uneager to have to think about it again.  She shudders.

Lily, more naively, is unclear why anyone would not want to have a baby.  And she is completely confused that they would still want to have sex.

Her confusion is amplified because she doesn’t yet understand the mechanics of sex, detail that we carefully avoid.  So it takes us a while to realize she doesn’t realize that you use condoms each time.  She thought you only needed it once and was permanent.

Over on the wall is a spinning wheel game you can play.  It has outcomes like ‘-20 No Condom, HIV infection’ and ‘-10 Scabies, No Condom’  The girls ask to play with my camera and go shoot photos.  They zoomed in on ‘+20 No Sex Please’ and took a photo to emphasize the only appropriate choice from an 8 and 11 year old point of view. (See it in the collage)

I’ve saved up a little gift for my beautiful wife.  It’s a thai silver necklace that shows off her beautiful neck and face. She’s the queen and needs to be treated royally. I’m so happy and proud of her for doing this trip after all she’s been through.

We head home and finish packing.

The longest day

3:30am the alarm goes off.  Lily was already dreaming of home and wakes up disoriented.  It’s time to say goodbye to Asia and get back to the USA where we will see our dog!  Emma wants to see her beanbag chair and TV.  I want a decent cup of American coffee and Trish can’t wait to see ‘So you think you can dance’.   The small comforts of home, that we take for granted, are so much more fun after a big trip.

The flights are uneventful:  Bangkok to Tokyo, Tokyo to Chicago and Chicago to Washington, all on United.  The Tokyo-Chicago flight has the seat-back television that entertains the girls the entire way.  We arrive in O’Hare earlier than we left Tokyo, which is always cool.

Home again, but not for long

And 30 hours after we left the Amari hotel in Bangkok, we are at our doorstep.  It’s hotter in DC than it was in Southeast Asia, and our air conditioning is broken, so our first night home is a hot sweaty one.  You’d think that would be fine after the crazy trip we just took, but it makes us all grumpy to be indoors in the DC heat.

The bags, covered with stamps from the 19 flights we took, stand in the foyer. They are filled with souvenir loot, dirty clothes and electronic detritus.  They’ll stay that way for a while.  It’ll be a few days before we can stomach opening them.

And that’s it, another family adventure is done.  In the house each of us spreads out from each other, taking our customary places.  We are no longer cramped together in the back of a van, a tiny room with bamboo walls or a narrow cave.

Trish finds her gaming friends online, Lily calls everyone she knows for a play-date and Emma sinks deep into her beanbag chair and watches some TV.

Me?  I’m planning the next trip of course.   MWA-HA HA HA HA HA HA HAHAHAHA

 

 

Related posts:

  1. Asia Itinerary 2011 – China, Thailand, Cambodia (and Pakistan!)
  2. China, Thailand, Cambodia: The Asia 2011 Family adventure itinerary
  3. Snuff films in Chiang Mai? How to pick a husband? Inside this issue! – Thailand – Asia Day 31-32

]]> http://creekmoreworld.com/2011/08/the-final-days-32-35-a-cheesy-tour-of-bangkok-family-adventure-travel-thailand/feed/ 1 I Kissed Mother Nature and She is Hairy: Day 33 Asia – Chiang Mai, Thailand http://creekmoreworld.com/2011/08/i-kissed-mother-nature-and-she-is-hairy-day-33-asia-chiang-mai-thailand/ http://creekmoreworld.com/2011/08/i-kissed-mother-nature-and-she-is-hairy-day-33-asia-chiang-mai-thailand/#comments Fri, 05 Aug 2011 12:30:37 +0000 David http://creekmoreworld.com/?p=7197 Continue reading » Related posts:
  1. Snuff films in Chiang Mai? How to pick a husband? Inside this issue! – Thailand – Asia Day 31-32
  2. China, Thailand, Cambodia: The Asia 2011 Family adventure itinerary
  3. Asia Itinerary 2011 – China, Thailand, Cambodia (and Pakistan!)
]]> Joy is all around us and in our hearts.   The four of us just spent 30 minutes in the Chiang Mai airport bathrooms changing from damp bathing suits into clothes suitable for airplane travel.  Tonight we are going back to Bangkok, the final stop on our awesome journey.

As we sit at the ‘Ritazza’ coffee joint drinking cappuchinos and smoothies, the conversation is light.  Lily giggles.  Trish is smiling from ear to ear. We are still high, floating on the experience of the day.  Today was not ‘normal’ adventure travel.  Today we met mother nature herself.

[slideshow auto="on" thumbs="on"]

Ma Nature is not beautiful by any human standard.  In fact, she’s leathery and has hairs like a wire-brush and a trunk that has 40,000 muscles.   I’ll start from the beginning…

 

The Elephant farm

The Thai owner of Patera Elephant Farm,  Pat, picks us up in the nicest car we’ve seen in a while, something with leather interiors.  All our luggage goes in the back.  I’ve arranged in advance for them to take us to the airport right after today’s events.  They gladly obliged.  (It’s close timing like that that allows us to see so much in a short time.)

We’re accustomed to drive time being quiet and boring.  Drivers don’t usually speak any English and aren’t part of the activity, but Pat engages us as soon as we buckle in.  ”Did you know we have three baby elephants?” he asks the girls.  ”They are troublemakers!.”  He says.  He is Thai but has good English, spoken with an Australian accent.

Pat talks about his approach to Elephant farming, eco-tourism, and the state of elephants in Thailand.  He points to a picture of the Thai King surveying a map.  ”You’ll see pictures like this all over.  Those represent the King’s commitment to stop the deforestation and destruction of Thailands ecosystems.    With pride, he says that Thai’s really listen to the King even though he has no official power.  ”It really does have an impact that he does this.”

A history of abuse

There are many thousand elephants in the wild in Asia, but they are endangered because the population has declined 50% over the past few generations.  (African Elephants are a different species.)  They have been revered and important for centuries, but like most large mammals, the 20th century was not kind.  Elephants were used in Thailand for logging extensively, and of course hunted.  The population in Thailand plummeted.

The logging ban in 1989 (which is difficult to enforce) saw hundreds of elephants safe from the dangers of logging, but out of work with no one to care for them.  The first generation of eco-tourism was born, with elephant rides, tricks and circus activities becoming popular.  Unfortunately the treatment and care was lacking and the elephants suffered.  The population continued to die.

Patera is what Pat calls a ‘second-generation’   or ‘new-generation’ elephant activity.  They are a farm, dedicated to elephant reproduction and reintroducing elephants to the wild. There are lots of elephant activities labled eco-tourism that involve 30 people splashing one elephant with water and then watching it dangerously walk on two legs.  Elephant knees can’t handle that kind weight.  (‘Chinese tourists” he says, with poorly disguised criticism.)  Patera teaches tourists about elephants and gives each person an elephant to themselves for the whole day.

We drive up a small road and pull the car under the shade of a large tree at a garish Buddhist temple that is playing loud music.  Ahead of us are rice paddies edged by high-canopy, jungle-forest.  It’s bright but not unbearably hot.  We join the other guests and Pat’s introduction continues under a thatched roof as we sign waivers.

He emphasizes, perhaps a little too much, that he isn’t critical of other Elephant activities, but that this is a better way for the elephants.

Elephant trainers in training

Past the rice paddies, across the stream and through the wet, high grasses we walk to the next ‘station;’ another thatched roof.   Our first glimpse of the Elephants is exciting.  They are spread out in the fields before us, a few alongside the stream.   Our group of about 12 gets into soft, cotton, traditional ‘trainer’ clothes, which help the Elephants identify and trust their new ‘owner for a day.’

Our first task is to feed our Elephant.  Pat jokes that ‘all friendships begin with a meal.’  This is especially true in Thailand where food and eating is much more integral to friendship and family than it is in the West.  I’m told that if one person in a group of friends mentions they are hungry, everyone will stop and eat.

We each get a basket of banannas to feed them.  Lily heads to ‘Lucky’ an adolescent with a good temperament.  Emma gets Tah-Tang, who turns out to be slightly stubborn, Trish gets the great Momma of the Elephant pack, Masi-noi.  And I am given to May-noi, who is trailed by her four month old baby elephant.

Alien Encounter

How can I even describe this?  In front of me is a huge beast, with leathery skin and wiry hairs that towers three feet over my head at her shoulders.  She weighs 60 times what I do, and eats my body weight twelve times each day in grasses and vegetables each day.

Up close, she takes up my entire field of vision.  I can’t see over or around her, it’s just a giant head and trunk and shoulders.  As her head rears high and the pink tounge, the size of my calf, pokes out, the sun is blocked.  In her shadow I push the whole bananna deep into a mouth that conceals plates of grinding and mashing white molars.

Maybe this is an alien planet and I am making the first contact with extra-terrestrials.  Is this what it would be like?  Standing in the shade of the largest animal that walks the earth (or second if you count African Elephants first), as it’s gigantic but gentile mouth sucks up and smashes whole banannas,  it’s impossible not to feel other-worldly.

I am overwhelmed by a sense of meaning and contentment, like I belong to something bigger – nature or the universe.

Baby!

Wrapped up in my own experience with Mai-noi, I just barely see the trainer move quicly out of the corner of my eye, and then my basket of banannas is wrenched out of my hands, spilling them to the ground.    I’m almost pushed over by a three foot baby elephant that just nabbed my stash of banannas with it’s little trunk!  The trainer and I grab the banannas and he discourages the baby from eating the food that’s for the mom.  It’s amazing how strong the trunk of a 3 month old baby was.

The baby comes back for another shot at the basket, but it’s not that hard to keep it out of his trunks grasp as long as I know he’s coming!  The trainer tells me to keep feeding Masi-noi, we are still bonding and the baby, who is unnamed, will overfeed if we give him banannas now.  Baby walks under Mai-noi and sucks on her breast.  Aww, my elephant is breast feeding her child!  How amazing is this?

Poop smells good?

Lily has been talking for days about elephant poop.  I don’t know if I told her that we would be looking at elephant loads as part of the program, or if she just assumed we would, but multiple times she has said “I ain’t touching no elephant poop!”

Ben, the lead trainer, tells us that they are going to use the youngest guest (Lily) to learn how to check if our elephant is healthy.  I’m a little nervous that Lily will play shy or worse have a panic attack in front of everyone.

Ben’s English is a little hard to understand. But Lily is a good sport and follows all the directions, even when they make us all squeeze the grassy elephant poop to see if there is enough water (indicating adequate hydration).  We smell it.  It’s amazingly clean and grassy smelling.  Herbivore shit is much nicer than ours.

Elephants sweat in one place only – between the toes!  We are told to check for dampness along the nails.  The bottoms of their feet are wrinkled and leathery, but have the strength of steel.

We brush our elephants off with a bunch of leaves.  They are incredibly difficult to clean because the wiry hairs cling to dirt and other crap.  As soon as mine is cleaned, she covers herself again with twigs and grass and earth.

Bathing an elephant

Mai-noi walks toward the stream with me holding her ear for guidance, although it’s tough to say who it guiding whom here.  The baby follows along.  I brush her top to bottom with a wire brush using a reed basket to rinse her off.  My trainer tells me to rub harder!  I am being oddly gentle with a three ton elephant, as if I could hurt her somehow.

AAAAGH, I fall back in the water, which is fortunately shallow because I’m holding our camera.  Baby, lying on his side in the stream, had grabbed my ankle with his trunk and tripped me!  Lol, Baby – that’s a good one.  I wonder if he does that to all the guests?  The trainer takes my camera and gives me a look like I’m kinda dumb.  (Quiet, Carol and Angela.)

Baby makes this activity tough, but hilarious.  He pushes me backward into the high banks of the stream, splashes me and tries the ankle grab a few more times.  Mai-noi just stands and enjoys the scrubbing.  She doesn’t seem anxious at all by humans touching her baby.

Soaked, I grab my camera from dry land and head over to Trisha and the girls, who are close together upstream.  We pose for a family photo and are susprised to have the elephants splash us from behind.

The forest trek

There are a few ways to get up on an elephant depending on your size and strength.  Lily is simply picked up on the trunk, which is adorable.  Trish and I do the more conventional way, in which the elephant lifts one knee to use as a step and we vault over the back.

They teach us bareback riding, which is really bareneck riding.  I sit with my knees high on Mai-noi’s head and use my knees and feet to guide her.  It’s not very comfortable if you are trying to guide the elephant, but if you allow your legs to relax it’s okay.  Fortunately, the trainer is along side guiding.

More accurately, he is guiding Baby.  The elephant pack will protect baby and won’t go forward unless they can see him.  So it’s critical to get Baby moving first.  the slower Baby forward.  I’m in the lead with masi-noi, the mom and Baby.

We walk upstream and through rice paddies.  Farmers are tilling and building the locks and dams that move the river water through the fields.  Baby goes after the tender rice plants and is shooed away.

Ben tells us that once in a while, one of their elephants escapes and eats the crops and gardens of local farmers, for which they have to pay dmages to keep the community peace.  Wild Elephants are sometimes shot by locals because they ravage local gardens and farms.

Lily is having a blast, giggling far behind me.   It’s fun being so high up, but it’s a little scary too.  Emma is quieter.  She has a little trouble trusting her elephant, but her trainer is right there moving things along.

Dunked in the river

The caravan of elephants heads downhill after a climb up the mountain road.  We hear rushing water ahead.  The jungle seems to part for us, revealing a half-mile of terraced waterfall with pools on different levels and mossy rocks.  Georgous.  There are a few open-walled huts where we will probably eat lunch.

The elephants let me off first onto a large rock so I don’t have to get down.  I position myself for photos of the girls as the ride in.  Elephants are difficult to photograph.  I want to get up close, but they are so huge that you have to step back.

And back I step, to get a better shot of Trish’s incoming elephant.  SPLASH! My legs strike for the bottom of the river and my arm shoots high clutching the camera but it’s deeper than I expected and I fall.  The camera spends a few seconds under water until I regain my balance.

Crap.  I’m soaked from head to toe but that doesn’t matter.  My camera is dead.  The camera man comes over and reassures me that the camera will probably survive, and I agree he is right.  But it’s really frustrating to miss out on pictures of the rest of our Elephant day.  And there is still 3 days left on our trip.   Our first camera broke on day four!  Now our second is dead too.  How many cameras do we have to take?

Fortunately Patera take pictures of us (we got almost 1,000 photos on a dvd at the end of the day.)  It takes me a little while to deal with the dissapointment.  But it only lasts for a few minutes because we are about to have the greatest experience of our lives.

Swimming with Elephants

The girls want to slide down a mossy rock into the deeper pool.  One of the trainers yells to wait, and walks over to them with Emmas elephant in tow.  Tah-Tong lies down in the water and holds out her trunk for the girls to slide down.  So cute.

What follows is the most delightful 30 minutes I’ve enjoyed in a long time.  Swimming in this pool with the elephants is satisfying on a primal level.  The girls jump from beast to beast, splashing.  Trish gets lifted in the air like a jungle queen on a trunk and then dunked playfully in the cool stream.  They soak me with the spray from their trunk – almost 10 liters of water.

As one picks me up, and we look eye to eye, I get that feeling like I’m meeting aliens on a distant planet again.   Elephants are aware of themselves and us.  They have enough consciousness to posses a soul and feelings and maybe even aspirations.  Trapped without language, their brains can’t share what they experience, but I’m convinced that if they could talk, they would have a lot to say.

Lunch is good, including classic thai sweet rice desserts wrapped in bananna leafs, fried chicken legs and bright magenta dragon fruit.

Good bye to Mother Nature

When you are on top of an Elephant and it makes sounds, the whole body shakes like a big motorcycle.  It’s amazing!  I give Mai-noi some kisses on the top of her leathery head, and the wire-brush hairs poke my face and nostrils.  I doubt she can tell a puny human like me gave her a kiss.  But I love this animal.

The ride back from the waterfall is fun, especially when we take a muddy path through the mountain that would be completely impassable by humans.  The mud is a foot deep and the ‘path’ is completely destroyed and pot-holed.  But the elephants, carefully navigate their tons of muscle and bone without spilling their rider.

And then it’s over.  We feed our beloved elephants one more time with a basket of banannas.  The baby again reaches for the basket and nearly pulls it out of my hands.  Mai-noi, Lucky, Tah-Tong and Masi-noi ride away with the trainers, giving us a wave and a trumpet-roar.

We pay Pat the $800 or so for the day, and give the trainers a good tip.  Our car to the airport is ready.  Lily cries a little.  She already misses Lucky.

Not words nor pictures

And here we are drinking cappuchinos and smoothies at Ritazza in the Chang Mai airport.  We don’t try to analyze or review the day.  Neither words nor images can describe what we experienced.  Maybe I’m just another tourist reflecting the old myths about Elephants, or an urbanite dazzled by nature that is foreign to me.  But I feel like we were in the presence of Mother Nature herself, and she brought us contentment and joy.

Neither Trish nor I are very religous, but we’ve had a religous experience.  These beasts are epic, timeless, and wise.   I feel blessed to have been so close to them even for just a day.  Trish says it’s one of the greatest things she has ever done.  We’ll never forget our day with them.

Epic day is Epic.

Related posts:

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  2. China, Thailand, Cambodia: The Asia 2011 Family adventure itinerary
  3. Asia Itinerary 2011 – China, Thailand, Cambodia (and Pakistan!)

]]> http://creekmoreworld.com/2011/08/i-kissed-mother-nature-and-she-is-hairy-day-33-asia-chiang-mai-thailand/feed/ 1 Snuff films in Chiang Mai? How to pick a husband? Inside this issue! – Thailand – Asia Day 31-32 http://creekmoreworld.com/2011/07/snuff-films-in-chiang-mai-how-to-pick-a-husband-inside-this-issue-thailand-asia-day-31-32/ http://creekmoreworld.com/2011/07/snuff-films-in-chiang-mai-how-to-pick-a-husband-inside-this-issue-thailand-asia-day-31-32/#comments Sat, 30 Jul 2011 13:34:25 +0000 David http://creekmoreworld.com/?p=6980 Continue reading » Related posts:
  1. I Kissed Mother Nature and She is Hairy: Day 33 Asia – Chiang Mai, Thailand
  2. China, Thailand, Cambodia: The Asia 2011 Family adventure itinerary
  3. Asia Itinerary 2011 – China, Thailand, Cambodia (and Pakistan!)
]]> We arrive around 10am from Bangkok to the Chiang Mai airport.  It’s a relief to have a domestic flight after so many international entries and exits.  Chiang Mai is only a short three day visit, most of which will be work time.  It’s a beautiful spot, and surprisingly cool compared to everything else we’ve done.

The girls jump in the pool at the Rimpling Village hotel, which seems busy but not crowded.  They are one of the top rated trip advisor spots and impress us with their efficiency and attentiveness.  It’s not an amazingly beautiful or charming place, but it seems perfect for families looking for an inexpensive hotel.

Our first day in Chiang Mai is unremarkable.  Trish works while watching the kids at the pool, and I head to the office.

The original backpacker haunt

But the second day is unexpectedly good.  My meetings at the office are cancelled, which gives us a chance to do some extra adventure stuff in Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai is only the fifth largest city in Thailand, but has a much bigger presence on the tourist trail.  Long a hangout for backpackers and ex-pats, Chiang Mai has a huge assortment of hotels and hostels, especially at the budget end.

There are a lot of museums and temples in Chiang Mai.  The museums seem pretty meh (numismatic, postal and hill-tribe research museums? No thank you.)  The temples are world class Buddhist temples, but we are templed-out.  I think we’ve seen at least 20 so far on this trip, both ancient and modern.   I may regret this later but there will be mutiny on the Creekmore ship today if I drag them to another one.

I try really hard to find a variety of travel activities for the family.  We can’t just hike and see temples all day, nor can we do art museums and shopping all the time.  Chiang Mai offers some great animal and jungle adventure stuff that is very different from the rest of our trip.

If I had more time, I would try a cooking class with my youngest Lily, who, like me, is really interested in cooking.  That will wait till next time. Today’s activities include jungle ziplines and a visit to a Tiger breeding farm where we can pet baby tigers!

Is Trip Advisor useful?

The hotel is really good about scheduling the zipline at the last minute.  According to the research, there are two (major) zipline companies here.  Flight of the Gibbon seems to contribute some of their profits to environmental preservation and you get a chance to see gibbons, but it’s more than twice as expensive as Jungle Flight, which gets similarly good reviews.

I go with Jungle Flight.  It takes about an hour to get to the zipline area, where we begin our 5 hour course.

We’re not the only ones going  to Jungle Flight from Rimpling Village.  I certainly don’t feel ‘exclusive’ about this plan. Trip Advisor is too easy sometimes.  The minivan should be labeled ‘Trip Advisor Shuttle from Hotel #1 to Activity #10′

I love Trip Advisor in general, especially the forums where you can get remarkably specific information that would have been completely unobtainable 10 years ago unless you had a local friend in the tourist industry.  (I just saw a forum dialog about an obscure hotel in Beijing.  ”Will the room safe fit an iPad?”  He asked.  And he got his answer!  How nutty is that?”)

But there is a rush to get a top Trip Advisor billing, because some tourists depend solely on the rankings.  I have found lots of great hotels and activities to do that are ranked past #50.  And sometimes the top ones, espcaially hotels can get crowded and expensive as they ride the trip advisor wave.

I predict there will be a ‘trough of disillusionment’ with Trip Advisor in the next few years as the rankings become saturated with reviews that are really old.  Tourist stuff changes so quickly.  I really want to know what people thought in the past 12 or 18 months, but Trip advisor keeps all rankings. Over time this will give too much credit for old reviews.

Chiang Mai Rainforest

Up above the tree canopy (I love saying that – ‘tree canopy’ – it’s such a fun metaphor) we await our first zip through the trees.  Jungle Flight needs a jumbo jet today, there are a huge number of us trying to traverse the system of 25 lines.  I’m a little fearful that we’ll get bored waiting for the crowds to take turns.

Chiang Mai is the largest city in the north, and was founded around 1300 as the new capital (Chiang Mai means ‘new city’) of the Lanna, or Northern Thai Kingdom.  It was a walled city, often attacked by the Burmese to the West.  Burma continues to be a huge influence on Chiang Mai, as migrant workers and refugees cross the border in search of economic and political alternatives.

The guides move the groups along pretty quickly, and within minutes we are on our third zip line, a long one that requires ‘breaking’ with a bamboo stick.  Pfft.  Creekmores don’t break.

The tour groups are mostly Germans, with a few other Nationalities.  We are the only Americans and are dubbed the ‘Yankee team’ by ‘Boston’ an American-born Thai local that wears a superman cape and has Fu Manchu facial hair.

It’s completely safe, almost tame compared to the epic ziplines we did in Peru.  The forest and birds are wonderful, as are the mountain views we get once in a while.  It’s comfortable high up in the trees and we don’t mind having worn long pants and hiking boots, which were recommended but not really necessary.

They have 3 abseils, which are straight drops, the last one is a steep 100 foot plunge.   Emma (and I) made a short video of her fantastic drop where her rope runs out and she plunges to the ground.  With the battlefield awareness and calm of a war correspondent, she holds the flip video straight through to the epic crash.  (Of course she wasn’t harmed, silly.  She was attached the whole time.  This is Creekmoreworld, not some snuff site you were Googling.)

It’s over fairly quickly, but I still wouldn’t have opted for the longer zipline tour, which requires a long hike in the middle.  We had enough.  Emma and Lily are psyched and tired.  I think all four of us sleep on the hour long trip back to Rimpling Village.

I tawt I taw a putty tat

Far down the list on Trip Advisor is #35, Tiger Kingdom.  Animal farms, zoos, parks and habitats are hit or miss.  They can be really bad.  So I read dozens of reviews about Tiger Kingdom before scheduling a visit.

We all want to experience animals in the wild.  But in a world were they are shot, we poison their environment, and eat their land,  there is a place for keeping animals in captivity or domestication so long as the conditions are good. Sadly, conditions are not always good.

Even with the assurance of the other reviewers, I approach Tiger Kingdom with some trepidation.  The hand painted signs “Special on Baby Tigers $620 Bhat for 10 minutes!” don’t give me much confidence.

It’s cheesy and expensive – $80 for a family of four for 10 minutes of tiger time?  Wow.  Maybe I should just buy the kids a tiger stuffed animal and cut my losses?

The lady taps at her watch with annoyance, something you don’t see a lot as a tourist in ‘The land of smiles‘  (barf).  ”It’s closing time, sir, please make your choice quickly.”

Nah, I go all in.  ”I’ll take 10 minutes with the baby tigers, AND 10 minutes with the young tigers”, forking over a few thousand baht to the cash register lady.   If this is going to be horrible, I want us to go down in flames.

Can we take one home, daddy?

“Take your shoes off.  Approach the Tigers from the back, not the front.  Don’t pick up the Tigers.  Tigers can bite or scratch.”  Those are all the instructions we get from the two handlers that join us in the cage.  The four tigers, each less than 3 mos old, are completely adorable.  It’s feeding time, and they watch out the large cage (20′ x 20′ or so) , for the food delivery.

One of the trainers puts a docile one up on the table for the girls to pet.  Squeals of little girl delight, chuckles of ticklish laughter, and soothing oooohs and aaaaahs come from Emma and Lily.  It sounds like we have a dozen kids in here.   We get on the floor with them, and the tigers play like kittens.

A criticism of Tiger Kingdom on the forums is that they wake up the tigers during the day, when they are normally sleeping, to see tourists.  That does seem kinda shitty.  So we go as late as possible, almost closing time.  Some people say you can see them getting bottle fed in the evening.

We didn’t get to do that, but the tigers were in a very active state in the evening.  And the keepers are incredibly friendly and helpful, offering to take good photographs while we played and letting us stay a few minutes over time. Come late!

The runt of the litter

The tigers play with one another, slapping paws and climbing on each other’s backs.  Lily likes to get in the middle of as many as possible.  Emma prefers to find the docile ones in the corner and pet them gently.  She’s like her mom.

I’m reminded of a story from when Trisha and I were dating in New York City, 15 years ago.  We passed a cat rescue place on the street and impulsively adopted a kitty for our apartment in Manhattan Valley, which was a transition neighborhood at the time.  We named the cat ‘Sidney’ and kept her for about 10 years or so.

How do you think my to-be-wife picked the right cat?  Did she look for the one with the most beautiful coat?  No.  Did she pick the one that seemed friendly and liked to curl in a ball on your lap?  No.  She picked the gaunt, skittish one coiled up in the back of the cage that hissed when picked up.

Sid was never really a great cat.  She remained a headcase until she died (an old age) a few years ago of an embolism.  For many years I would ridicule Trish for her cat-picking (in)ability.

And then it dawned on me one day that that’s the same way she picked her husband.  Ouch.  (I was kind of a mess when she found me.  I turned out pretty good though. )

The planet’s newest Tigers

Tiger Kingdom keeps Indochinese Tigers, a breed that was once common in the hills of Malaysa, China, Thailand and Vietnam.  Today there are less than 1500, and none have been seen in China in two years.

Unfortunately these tigers are worth more dead than alive to the impoverished populations that can sell them at very high prices to Chinese pharmacies. And even if killing can be substituted for some kind of eco-tourism, the habitat of the Indochinese tiger doesn’t support the large prey they need to eat.

The sun is setting on the cages of Tiger Kingdom.  We take off our shoes and enter the cages of the worlds newest Indochinese tigers, a batch of four born just a few weeks ago.  The room is smaller, and has low open windows.

The tigers are so small, they can’t even leap 10 inches out the window to the outside world.  In the back of the room are smaller cages and bottles, from which they will be fed.  The trainer encourages us to sit on the ground and let them crawl around us.

Their fur is still matted, as if they just came out of the womb.  The eyes are bigger than the head can support.  But they are not frail.  A few of them playfully fight and tussle.  They seem most comfortable around Lily, but everyone plays with the little cubs.  In captivity, these guys can live 20 years.  Lily talks about coming back and seeing them as adults.

Tiger Kingdom is a good place.  Even the big animals have (reasonably) large cages, and outside spaces.

I don’t think they are trying to reintroduce these to the wild.  That’s a very complicated process.  But they go to zoos worldwide and, hopefully, give kinds a chance to appreciate how amazing these animals are.

Unfortunately, the prognosis for tigers is not good, and domesticated husbandry may be their only option for survival.

We grab a bite to eat at the restaurant, in view of the big cats who get fed raw chicken for their dinner.  Reviews said the restaurant was good, but we have to disagree.  There is no excuse for mediocre Thai food in Thailand, a culture that prizes cuisine and food as highly as the French.

Our night ride back to the hotel in the songthaew is electric.  The kids and Trish are completely thrilled by the tiger experience.  I get lots of ‘Thank you, Dad!’ for finding and arranging this.

I love leading this clan around the world.

 

 

 

 

 

Related posts:

  1. I Kissed Mother Nature and She is Hairy: Day 33 Asia – Chiang Mai, Thailand
  2. China, Thailand, Cambodia: The Asia 2011 Family adventure itinerary
  3. Asia Itinerary 2011 – China, Thailand, Cambodia (and Pakistan!)

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