Pachyderm Post

Goodness! I have some catching up to do, since there wasn't any way to connect to the internet at the elephant camp. (This is Olivia writing now, since Charlotte's already asleep from a busy day working with the elephants.) Oh, but before I plunge headlong into the descriptions of our elephant camp adventures, I have to describe the Sunday Night Market! We were both so tired when we returned from the market last Sunday night that we didn't have time to do a posting then.
We hopped on motorbikes (thankfully, neither of us were driving, or else I wouldn't be typing this now!), and zipped over to the night market, which is near the Thae Pae Gate. (An interesting side note: Everyone in Thailand zooms around on these motorbikes, including dogs! We even saw this lady driving about with two of her scruffy dogs sitting in the basket at the front of her motorbike, and a third one skillfully balancing on the backseat.) To say that the Sunday Night Market is extensive in its size and selection of goods is a major understatement. You could wander the streets all night long examining the stalls, and still not see everything in the market. There was everything from handmade gyoza and squid omelets to crispy crickets and chocolate waffles (a bit out of place, it seemed, but they smelled tasty!). Although I didn't expect the "crunchy bug cart" to be immensely popular, it had a steady stream of customers lining up for scoopfuls of the little buggers.    

Food aside, there were tons of other items at the market, including super comfy poufy pants, silk elephant-print underwear ("Those are one of my top priorities!" I overhead one shopper say), big bags of fragrant spices (saffron, oh my!), and small soaps carved into flowers. We will certainly have to return so that we can more thoroughly explore all the market has to offer.
As for the elephant camp, we headed out Monday morning and only just returned late this afternoon. I'll try to be as concise as possible in summarizing our past few days there. Here it goes: Elephants are soooo cute! There we go. That pretty much sums it up. No, not quite, but almost! There are 15 elephants total at the camp, but Charlotte and I mainly had the opportunity to work with Tao (the second biggest male) and Bean (a very sweet, but mischievous female), both of whom are in the elephant show at the camp. They're incredibly intelligent and know so many different commands (more than I can remember, that's for sure)! It truly is incredible just how smart they really are. With their trusty mahouts on their backs (and sometimes Charlotte and I, too), they'd bathe in the river, paint with a paintbrush carefully placed in their trunk, and even "play golf!" Charlotte was a natural mahout, and seemed quite at ease atop Tao, even though he tao-wered (haha! towerd!) over the other elephants. I, on the other hand, took some getting used to riding Bean....

Yeehaw!

Woah, girl!

Tao waving hello.

She's the next Picasso.

Kickin' it, elephant style!

Thanks to the mahouts, though, we learned several different commands and hopefully the elephants will remember us in the future, now that they know what we smell like. Since elephants have a very acute sense of smell, we had to wear the same clothes for 3 days so they could properly learn what we smell like. (I guarantee you, if I were Tao or Bean, I wouldn't want to go anywhere near someone or something that smelled like we did!) Occasionally, the elephants would extend their trunk to us and sniff us all over, as if they were carefully examining us, but with their long, hairy trunks instead of eying us over. Or, if you're a baby elephant like Nung (yes, a BABY elephant), you'd wrap your trunk around just about whatever you can find (feet, hands, anything) and stick it in your mouth, very much like a human baby that has to put whatever it finds in its mouth.

Baby 1.5 year old finty with mama!

Bath time in the river! I had no idea they stick their heads completely underwater! Hence, I ended up in the river.

Another interesting thing I noticed: All of the elephants were significantly more hairy than I'd anticipated. I knew baby elephants were pretty hairy (which of course they baby calves at the camp were pretty hairy), but I didn't think they adults would be so furry. Not so much for Tao, but Bean had these long, bristly hairs that poked me whenever I sat on her. They only just added to her charm, though!
Aside from helping out at the camp, we also started teaching English to grades 4-6 at one of the local elementary schools. I certainly hope we can improve their English skills, particularly since some of the children only get their lessons from a video program as of now, since there's a shortage of teachers at the school. The kids were all really sweet, too, but they're up against some tough competition in the cuteness contest (what with the elephants and all). We both had fun teaching the kids (despite Charlotte's previous plan to "pawn the kids off" on me while she would go play with elephants), although I don't know what we'll do when we no longer have Matthew to translate for us! Charlotte and I had better learn more Thai words than just "delicious" and "very spicy!"

Matthew, an expert Thai-English translator.

Speaking of delicious things, all of the meals we had the past few days were so yummy! Khun Koi, the camp manager, is a most excellent chef, and she made very tasty meals while we were there. Between curries, soups, fried rice, and stir fries, we definitely did not go hungry. Yum! 

A hearty breakfast.

Ooh, and look at this tiny banana! They're much more toothsome than regular bananas, and have a slightly different taste too.
Even though I still have plenty more to share, I'd better get some shut eye. Until next time!