Fade to West

Time flies when you're living awesome. That's how my last 2 and a half months were. I have the words to describe it, but at the moment I have to write a 20-some page research paper about sustainable tourism in Northern Thailand before the end of spring break, so I have to save them. One thing I will say is that it is nice to finally be rid of mosquitos. They weren't exactly a constant problem, only in the bathrooms, at night time, and if they somehow got in the mosquito net. Also, at our village just outside Chiang Rai, they were about a million times worse, maybe the further north you go the more powerful they become. Malaria's supposed to be around the borderlands anyway, but what do I know? That I don't like gettin bit. When I came to my parent's lovely home in Hawaii and sat on the ol' toilet the way I do, I smiled gayly to myself. I didn't have to keep my legs moving, touching my exposed back and bum to keep 'squitos offa me like someone with Parkinson's. I could just sit there, relaxed, maybe light a scented candle, turn on some Marvyn Gaye. Back to Hi-So is what my family and friends would say. "Hi Society"

My return back to the States hasn't culture shocked me, but the reminder has been mentally noted. Going to Costco to do our shopping vs going to Thai open air markets (sometimes called ตลาดสด - fresh food market); more than 4 brands of beer to choose from (we gots ale? what is that?!); white eggs (?); less pollution; a generally higher appreciation for material goods (Is the iPhone 3GS worth it?!). Oh, and Cable TV, HBO, and oh! how could I forget - March freakin Madness!! Got back just in time. There are two lingering things that fail to excite me about being back State-side: Seattle's cold weather, and Seattle's even colder *shudder* girls. Neither of which I need to expound because if you know me well enough you know I'd just launch into a dramatic, moaning, rant despite having inadequate words to come out of it satisfied. Maybe that's the only reason anyone reads my silliness in the first place...

In all, I want to say that I've enjoyed my experience abroad in Thailand and value that experience as something that has, and will, inevitably affect the rest of my life. Cheers ProThailand, for a wonderful time. ขอให้มีความสุขกายสบายใจ ปราศจากทุกข์โศก โรคภัยทั้งหลายทั้งปวง

Elephant Blast

By "blast" I mean "crack," "pop," "boom," in terms of the type of sound this particular elephant made. At about 1 o'clock this morning I was sleeping semi-soundly when something that sounded like an explosion or big gun fire shook me violently awake, heart racing, and developing a sweat in the ~58 degree F night. As I lay there in bed surrounded by pitch black darkness, eyes wide open, I actually felt frightened - a sensation I'm not well-acquainted with as I'm used to a pretty soft lifestyle. The thing that caused this fear was that the sound was so foreign and unidentifiable to my ears. The sound reminded me of youtube videos I've watched about modern/high tech high cal guns, but this blast I heard from the dark jungle not 50 meters away couldn't be something like that. I knew there was a single chained elephant down there, and though I'd heard just about every chirp, squirt, growl, and trumpet from these beasts, this sound was completely new. For better or for worse, The sound jumped from the woods once again about 30 minutes later, shaking me again, but pushing my mind at least to believe 51% that the elephant had somehow produced the sound. After the first one, I lay alert, submerged in total darkness, ears peeled, almost twitching like those desert fox things. My imagination envisioned jungle guerillas kicking my hut's feeble door in and spraying my body full of lead. I even thought about escape route through the single window. I envisioned me rolling to the far side of the bed over the edge and using super firm, no, hard, mattress as a shield. I thought about trying to spook any potential invaders myself. After the second and third blasts, however, I convinced myself I was being silly and the elephant's ever-multi-purpose trunk had produced what can best be described as a snare drum beat but with the volume of an m80 firecracker, assumably because the animal was kept in a small valley that bolstered the sound. Exactly how it produced this particularly effective warning sound wasn't made clear to me until this morning and a few emails to an elephant researcher I found via Google. According to this guy who actually did a PhD dissertation on research conducted not a mile away from my homestay at another camp, elephants will rap their trunks against the ground while blasting air out at the same time. The other factor that led me to believe it was the elephant was that it didn't freak out after the big sound, but actually sort of giggled/chirped just barely audibly. I also imagined a gunfire would send birds and the elephant alike nutso.  Additionally, elephants only sleep about 5-6 hours a day - a couple hours at night (often lying down), and shorter naps throughout the day (sometimes standing up). They can also eat up to 175lbs of food a day. Recent studies have also indicated that when stampeding* they are actually running with their front legs and walk with the hind ones. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8508796.stm They can go up to 11mph, and it's hard to stay on when they run because you're sitting hear their shoulders.

*We were going out for a short ride one evening at maybe five with all 7 elephants including the baby. I was on one of the elephants, a big ol' girl, with a (well-experienced) mahout riding behind me. We were at the back of the pack, and the baby elephant was being a retard and somehow found itself in a position in front of my elephant but with a blind spot of the road. It was sort of weaving and trying to navigate amongst the larger elephants, but eventually I watched an "Oh Shit. Time to hang on" situation happen right in front of me when a truck came up the road behind us right as the baby turned towards the road and got freaked out crying out and causing the whole lot to go for a stampede. I was lucky enough to have had a rein around my beast's neck, so just held on for dear life as did most people ahead of me. One unfortunate girl fell off, scraped up her foot, but was luckily fine other wise. My mahout got control of our elephant after about a hundred meter dash and I jumped the hell off to see if the girl was okay. My flip flops had come off, but I seemed to be the only one concerned. The villagers living on this street of course were making a ruckus pissed off to see a stampede past their front "lawns" and also concerned for the shocked, then frightened and tearful young lady. After taking her to the hospital for bandaging we shared a round of road beers (Chang) and grilled eggs finally agreeing it was neat experience. I only had some minor scratches from the elephant's tough skin. I think she mentioned being frightened in da early morn next day by a growl - I chuckled inside. If there's one thing living at the TEH it's that elephants are beasts. Trainable. Lovable. But still a beast.

Football & Politics (sort of)

I've been horribly out of touch with Western sports only catching random Premier League games every now and then. I've also been horribly out of shape and was only recently reminded of this fact when I decided to saunter on down to the local football, soccer, pitch (Dirt and rocks below the village school - at least there were goals), and jump in on the pick up game. The dust and overall conditions didn't make my game much good, and I must have looked like an old fart. I've played three times now. The first day was the most difficult, although I put in a pretty left-footed goal at one point. The other guys who play are local boys, some mahouts, all simple laymen. The last time I played I ate shit slipping on the one wet patch getting proper muddy. The last few times there have been too many people so we've been forced to rotate, golden goal style. Our team was rather talented and not all that bad at passing; one of our guys bid the other team goodbye with an easy goal from a cross I sent. I almost forgot how much fun soccer was. And what exercise felt like. It was frightening and enlightening at the same time. It's also cute how they don't really discriminate whether someone's a different age or nationality. I ask one a dem boys if he like playin wid foreigners, n he say ya. One of the best goalkeepers I saw was a young kid no more than 12 years old - no one could score on this little puke. Of course, I wasn't in either. It's still unusual to me when everyone accepts a newcomer right off the bat. I go to the local restaurant, and all the staff wants to be my best friend. Last night some random dude noticed me chatting up the waitress and decided I needn't walk home so drove me back the few hundred meters not taking no for an answer. He must have been drunk. My political science mindset consequently thinks as such: campaign like me. Easy. No wonder Thailand's never been conquered/colonized, their nature is too noble, diplomacy is therefore the same. At the same time, however, I think Thais can be extremely passionate folks, and this is why we see so much political activation. Al Jazeera English covers the topic very well here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2Gmt7dvOWs There has been recent unrest in Bangkok because the Supreme Court of Thailand ruled former Thaksin still guilty of corruption and so on, and consequently seized forty some billion baht (over $1 billion) worth of his assets. What the government plans to do with these moneys I have no clue. Consequently, the red shirts and Thaksin supporters are pissed off, and a mass protest is certainly foreseeable. I've been following this political bipolarization that  continues to plague Thailand but so far without personal conclusions. I'm still orange I guess.