Chiang Mai

I’ve been in Thailand for three days now, and it’s unlike an other place I’ve been. According to my Facebook travel map, I’ve visited 8% of the world’s countries, so Thailand’s uniqueness shouldn’t surprise me, I guess. The world is a big place.

I didn’t have much of chance to deal with my jet lag when I found myself up in the mountains north of Chiang Mai. ISV is working with the Elephant Nature Park this summer, an organization which rescues mistreated elephants and rehabilitates them on their private reserve of several hundred acres in a serene river valley. In the morning we awoke the sound of elephants trumpeting in the distance, walking through the tall grass in their family groups. They are incredibly intelligent and social creatures. But in Thailand, and many other asian countries, elephants are nothing more than beasts of burden. Mahouts, or elephant owner/operators, often beat them with iron hooks, using negative enforcement to train them to fulfil such tasks as pulling wagons and farm implements and carrying tourists up and down mountains. Most elephants are scarred on their heads from the regular beatings they receive. The ENP exists to provide a refuge for more than 40 elephants of all ages. They are fed daily, often with special diets to deal with their various ailments, bathed twice a day in the river, and given shelters to sleep in in their family groups. Volunteers visit from all over the world and help with the daily chores of mucking out the stalls, bathing and feeding the elephants, and assiting with building projects on the property.

After two days at the ENP, Kieran drove me back into Chiang Mai. Kieran is Thailand’s ISV country director, and has a full plate overseeing all of the projects running in the country (three at present) and the adventure tour, fourteen high impact activities, from whitewater rafting the Mae Taeng river, sea kayaking around Phang Hga Bay and climbing the limestone cliffs of Railay Beach. I’ll be blogging on all that as we do it the week after next!

I’ll be here at the Parosol Inn for two more nights, a neat little hotel just a few blocks from the Silver Gate and the old city. I went for a stroll this morning through the gate and saw a marching band going though it’s drills, and a dozen or so Buddhist “novices” – monks in training – on their way to the temple in their bright orange robes. Temples are everywhere. Right next door to my hotel is the one of the oldest “teak temples” in the city. I’ll see lots of these during my three weeks here, and they are a focal point of the tour. I bought two 300 baht phone cards this morning – that’s a little less than $10 each – and called home to talk to Lynn and the girls. I really needed to talk to Shaniah as she struggles when I’m gone. The cards only last 5 minutes each, so our conversations were a little short but sweet. Was good to hear familiar voices, even if they were a little tearful. I’ve often said, this is the only downside of what I do – being away from my wife and girls. I hope to tale Shaniah with me on my next trip, whenever that may be.

Just in case I can’t blog much this week, I’ll be here until Monday morning, at which point we’ll be driving back up into the mountains to the Mae Sai area of northern Thailand. ISV is working with an organization that has rescued children from exploitation in the huge sex trade industry. Many times parents sell their kids to work in sweatshops, and then they are moved into the sex trade. ISV’s partner organization takes these kids off the streets and moves them into secluded mountain villages where they will be safely rehabilitated and educated. On Thursday night, I’ll be joining another group of students who are doing volunteer work among a remote hillside tribe, and will be there until Sunday when we return to Chiang Mai to begin the two-week adventure tour.

You’ve seen a few pictures here, but you can see more over at my Facebook page (link on the right). I’ll post several albums there during my trip.

|