Ha tells me that the land is so fertile here that you can simply throw seeds into your yard without even planting them and out grows a plant and in a few years, fruits to enjoy!
Of the fruits we tried my favorites by far were jackfruit, dragon fruit, and MANGOSTEEN! Flavors I've never experienced before :) I liked jackfruit the most - tastes like a banana, but with the texture of a dry lychee.
And then off we went down the river. Yay - I got a yellow canoe :) lucky me!
We saw monkeys, frogs, snakes, turtles, and all sorts of breathtaking landscapes.
Jon and Jeff from the Bay Area were my new buddies on the trip :) great conversation and wonderful personalities. Tours can be dull but I was lucky that the guide and group were a wonderful bunch!
We stopped shortly for a healthy Thai lunch and then headed to the elephant camp.
There are 1,000 Asian elephants in Thailand today. (Asian elephants have small ears and big heads; African elephants have big ears and small heads). Because they were once hunted heavily for their ivory tusks, now there are conservations in the jungle to help them breed again. Since their pregnancies are almost 2 years long, they can only have 3 or 4 baby elephants in a lifetime, but they are hard working and great for farming and tourism. Our guide, Non, explained tourism has been the elephants' big break in comparison to farming. They have to work so hard on farms that their life expectancies drop from 80 to 60 years.
Each elephant has a personal mahout who has to live with the elephant for 1 full year to establish a strong bond in order to train and work together.
Elephants are a huge part of the Thai culture and are viewed as sacred animals. White elephants are rare and when found are always given to the king as a gift.
They eat something like 79% of their weight - so they are constant eating, drinking, and of course, pooping!
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by for some Thai sweets and Thai iced tea. Mostly sticky rice and fruit steamed in banana leaves - delicious!
In the back are Bill and Sharon from Sydney celebrating their 30th anniversary :)
And then back to the comforts of JW Marriott Resort. Ah, what a fun day!
Non rode with me for the elephant trek and we got go talk for a good while. I was so amazed to learn that he pretty much taught himself English, which he spoke flawlessly. He was so eager to learn from the English speaking people on his tours and you could just sense the amount of hard work and diligence exude from this man. Years ago, he was randomly selected by the government to study abroad in Israel for 11 months to learn about agriculture. Though he said the hard and lonely time away was freezing cold and felt like a lifetime, now he has a clear dream to farm a very lucrative product for the Khao Lak area. When he excitedly told me his idea, I was so impressed because it was so clever and so well thought out. His one seemingly impossible challenge is to save up the $3K he needs to start a farm.
When I heard how how difficult it is for him to save the money he needs (he said most Thai people in that area make about $10 a day), I wanted to help him so much! It was such a small amount, comparatively, to get a man's entire life's dreams started ... to maybe change his life forever ... and his family's life too ... Sigh.
I'm not sure why I felt this way. Was it because I wanted to make a tangible and drastic difference I'm someone's life? Was it because I thought it would make me feel good about having helped someone? Was it because I met someone with a clearly defined dream (unlike myself) and desperately wanted him to attain his dream (maybe since I couldn't attain my own)? Maybe all of these things..?
God, what am I supposed to learn from this? How and why are you moving my heart in this way? I'm sure the answers will come, slowly but eventually, as they always do. But in the meantime, thank you for planting these seeds of compassion in my heart today.
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