Sunday Night Walking Streets, Chiang Mai

The month of November in Northern Thailand is nothing less than *magical*. The rainy season is starting to clear away, the mountains are getting noticeably cooler, the humidity mercifully eases, and across the country celebrations are under way.

Last weekend I stayed at Kristi's Guesthouse in the center of the old city quarters. This guest house is a personal favorite of mine, and I'm coming to terms with the fact that it's no longer the hidden gem it used to be a few years back. It's located on a charming 'soi' lined with cobbled streets, modest and shy guest houses, a temple, a cafe or two and several Thai cooking schools.

I woke up at an ungodly hour on Sunday morning to the BANG! of fireworks and gongs going off in the temple outside my balcony window. It's official, the Buddhists are in full-force celebration mode now...monks are filing out of the temples with their precious few belongings to go home for the first time in months.

In the later years of Buddha (~540 B.C.) villagers complained about his monks traveling through their rice paddy fields. The rainy season is the most important season for growing rice, and the monks were accidentally damaging crops as they traveled the countryside spreading his message. He ordained that the rainy season months should be a time for monks to stay inside the temple walls, perfecting their meditation and focusing on their teachings...this tradition has carried on nearly 1,500 years later.

To this day, young men are traditionally ordained as monks at the beginning of the rainy season, and remain inside the temple walls for 3 months straight, the duration of the season. So today, on a clear, bright and sunny day, a small migration of monks set foot outside the temple doors and started their journeys back home. Music and messages of good luck were blasted from megaphones and fireworks shot off in celebration. Some of the monks had suit cases in hand, others had duffel bags, Ipods and cell phones already tuned in as they exited the gates.

Today also happens to be the most special of market days in Chiang Mai, the Sunday Night Walking Street. It's a cultural market that takes place every Sunday. The city street traffic is shut down and artists from in and around the province come together to sell their artwork: handicrafts, jewelry, hand made clothing, paintings, sculpture, woodwork...any possible trinket you could want. Music, massage parlors and street food vendors add the appropriate ambiance, and every once in a while I battle the crowds to treat myself to some quality shopping and local treats!

*This video was shot from the front gates of a temple, where the festivities mix in celebration of the end of the rainy season and the ambiance of the Sunday night walking street markets.*

*Moo Ping! Grilled pork with sticky rice and dipped in a spicy green chili sauce.*

*A little mood music, a little soft lighting, and even you can fall asleep in a massage chair!*

*Of course, a quick stop to visit my friends (Nim and Ning) at Parasol Inn and to steal some of their food!---this is also when I unknowingly ate a dish loaded with 30 chilis...*

Burmese Elections Just Days Away

November is officially upon us. The nights here in Chiang Mai are starting to get cool, the rain has stopped and Thais everywhere are gearing up for the 'Loy Kratong Festival of Lights' about to take place in a couple weeks. This is a magical time of year. Festivities will be held in all the local temples, paper lanterns will be released into the night air for good luck, and 'kratong' banana leaf boats will be artfully decorated with flowers and incense and released into the currents of the Ping River as a gesture of making merit and giving thanks to the river goddess for giving life and prosperity this year.

Across the border, it's a whole other story right now. November 7th is the expected date for the first elections in 20 years by the Burmese military government. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will remain under house arrest until the elections are over, and no one's really sure what's going to happen once the election gets under way.
My friends working on the border right now in Mae Sot and Sangklaburi are worried: tensions are running high, violence is expected, and there's talk of minority groups gearing up and banding together for war again.

I myself will be heading to the border again soon, staying with a Burmese orphanage just days after the elections take place, and I'm a little bit nervous about what waits for me there these next few months.

Watch More Videos about the Burmese Military Gov't, Nov.2010

"Burma's 2010 election to be held this November is political theater designed to legitimize the military regime that has violently held power in Burma since 1962. 'This is NOT Democracy' examines the true reasons and historical context for the current election and why the regime's so-called "Roadmap to Democracy" is only a smoke screen to mask the regime's continued human rights abuses and refusal to relinquish leadership of the country to the people's chosen representatives." (17 min. Produced by Burma Partnership and Kestrel Media)

This Is NOT Democracy Part 1, youtube.video

This is NOT Democracy, Part 2

Sleeping With Elephants: Chiang Mai, Thailand

Overnight trip to Elephant Nature Park

...sleeping with giants, cycling through rice paddies, and planting trees with the local children = the perfect weekend.

I once said I had a love affair with Thailand. Elephant Nature Park is a big part of that love affair... maybe obsession is the word I'm looking for.

The sanctuary is home to 32 elephants, all of them rescued from an abusive tourism industry. They roam free everyday, unchained and happy to spend their days bathing in the river, grazing, toppling fruit trees and chasing the dogs around the park. They don't perform tricks, they don't paint, they don't dance, they don't beg for money in the streets of Bangkok or Chiang Mai, and they don't carry tourists on their backs anymore...they just simply exist as nature intended, as gentle giants.

The State of Asian Elephants Today...

Asian Elephants are struggling to survive. No one knows exactly how many are left in the wild, but here in Thailand the numbers are in the low hundreds. People say that in 30 years or so, they'll be wiped out from the wild completely because of loss of habitat, cities expanding, poaching and the black market ivory trade that still persists throughout Asia.

Let's put one thing in perspective. The number of wild elephants in Thailand are in the low hundreds. The number of domesticated elephants working in the tourism industry are in the thousands.

Thai people revere elephants. Elephants are the vehicles of kings, they were tanks in times of war during the ancient kingdoms of Siam, they're spiritual guides, they're demi-gods and symbols of luck and grace so important to the foundation of Thai history and culture. You can't go a city block anywhere without coming across an elephant in one form or another, and even worse it's harder to go one night in Chiang Mai or Bangkok and not come across baby elephants begging in the city streets for food and money.

How did this happen? As most atrocities do...lack of education and awareness.

Asian Elephants have a tradition of being domesticated. This has existed for nearly 2,000 years already. They were used in battles, they were used in royal ceremonies, more recently used as loggers in the money making Teak industry, then finally today used as entertainment. When the government banned logging in the 1980's, thousands of elephants and their owners were out of work and dying in the jungles. So the idea of elephant tourism was embraced to initially help them...until now, it's just spiraled out of control.

Tourists come to Thailand with the big idea of riding on the back of an elephant in a green jungle. What they don't realize is everything that happens behind the scenes. The process of training an elephant happens at a very young age. Around 3 or 4 years, babies are separated from their mothers and placed in violent crushes: sleep deprivation, torture, cutting, bashing, and gouging from metal hooks are common place in a training process that can last months.

The theory is barbaric: break your elephant at the youngest age possible and teach him to fear man. It is the fear and constant reminder of the trauma from this training process that allows tourists to ride elephants today.

The more elaborate the tricks an elephant is taught, like circus performance, the longer the training process and the more violence involved.

What's happening now in Thailand, is that every year more and more tourists demand elephant entertainment. More efforts are being put into building this elephant tourism industry, and less energy focused on restoring the dying wild populations. The cycle of suffering needs to stop. Tourists need to make educated choices, people relying on elephants for work and livelihood need to be given access to a new set of skills and work, and elephants need to stay off the city streets and remain in the forest where they belong.

What Elephant Nature Park represents, is a new hope for the future generations of Asian elephants. Domestic elephants who have been rescued from abusive owners and street begging are brought here to the sanctuary to live out their lives in peace. The only interaction with tourists allowed are feeding times and bathing times. Tourists directly bring joy to elephants, and not the other way around. The point, is to spend a day or a week in the presence of elephants acting as they would naturally in the wild.

Elephant Nature Park is my heaven on earth. It's a wildlife rescue project, a community development arm and a source of inspiration for all of us around it. The founder, Lek, has her hands in everything: working with elephants, stray dogs and wildlife rescued from illegal trafficking; reaching out and hiring from within Burmese refugee camps; tree planting and forestry development to restore the jungle; creating jobs for local farmers since 32 elephants demand a lot of food sources; sending volunteers into local communities to help with funding and construction of every day needs like water tanks, temples, bridges, and roads...she can do anything. One day at her park and you'll be overwhelmed with the amount of good work being done, I guarantee it.

Overnight at the Park....

One of the first things I did when I got back to Thailand this month, was visit the park. For anyone with a couple days to kill in Chiang Mai, I highly recommend staying overnight. Day visits are great too, but overnight allows you to see a lot more of what rural life in Thailand is really all about.

The park highlights include washing and bathing with the elephants twice a day, as well as up close encounters with feeding every day. There are babies that are constantly playing and getting into trouble, so keep your cameras loaded for some awesome photography.

The accommodations are nice, and the food is mind-blowing. Your night's stay will be more than comfortable. An extra full day at the park will allow you the time for a bicycle tour of the area if you're game.

Ride through the forest, across the Mae Taeng river, through fields of rice paddies and flowering tress, and hike the steps up to the local forest temple with a guide from the park more than happy to teach you the basics of Buddhism and temple history.

And there's always something going on at the park that needs a few extra hands. When I was there it was my dear friend Lek's (the founder) birthday. In honor of her, the local community and children worked hand in hand with volunteers to plant 500 trees in and around the park as her yearly "Green Forest Day" program.

If you have a couple days, stay overnight. If you're limited, the one day visit will be just as awesome. Prices and booking information can be found at the Elephant Nature Foundation website here....

If you have more time, consider volunteering for the week. Read about my experiences volunteering here...(Prices and booking for volunteering is also available at the Elephant Nature Foundation website.)

Asian Elephants are not the only ones suffering: gibbons, monkeys, bears, tigers...so many animals need your help in Asia...volunteer your time and energy into making a difference next time you travel.

Video: Moon Bears in Laos & Vietnam need help too!

more info here...Animals Asia.org

For a list of volunteer organizations I've worked with here in Thailand, scroll to the end of my post here 'Thailand: Paradise or Not?'...

If you have shared similar experiences with wildlife conservation or community development projects around the world, please share them and let us know where we can lend a hand next!

Zipline Adventure Chiang Mai

Jungle Flight Zipline company is based in Chiang Mai and offers an amazing adventure package nearby Doi Saket mountains. It's a couple hours' drive out of the city to get to the forest, but once you're there the jungle takes over. Up close enounter with nature and a low impact adventure activity makes the heart sing!

This company was fun, professional, with great safety standards and highly recommended for a 'get away' day from the city of Chiang Mai. (One recommendation: bring your own water bottle with a carabiner clip, this will cut down on the plastic bottles wasted on tour.)

May and I inspected the company together and had 5 hours of perfect weather, dizzying heights, and laughs all around...especially when May got stuck on the 300 meter zip and had to get rescued!

One day in Chiang Mai with Queen & Stef

A Driving Tour of Chiang Mai: One day in the life of Queen & Stef...

Last night the girls (me, Queen and May) did a bar hopping welcome back tour of Chiang Mai: bourbon & cokes at the Thai rock joint Warm Up; tequila shots with the hip hop d.j. at Zoe in Yellow; a quick beer watching the lady boy show at Spicy; then whiskey & sodas jamming with the live band at Discovery...

It was a great night out, but moving around the next day was a bit painful...so join us, on a typical 'day off' in Chiang Mai city.

We cruise through the old city running errands, passing by beautiful temples Wat Chedi Luang and Wat Phra Singh. We grab lunch off a local noodle shop, before stopping in at the ISV office in Nimmenhamin to catch up on work and emails.

Little Girls Drive Big Machines, Western Australia

Perth, Western Australia- Sept.2010





Days in and out while working at the Palms Galore Nursery in Perth. The men there are pretty useless, so it's up to us...the little girls...to handle the big machines!



Had a great last day of work today, I probably spent 5 or 6 hours just loading and unloading massive palm trees with Liz all over the nursery.

• Learn to drive tractor---CHECK


• Learn to drive Bobcat---CHECK


• Learn to drive Ultimate Demolishing Bulldozer (aka Home Destroyers!)---...someday soon...
  
  

Zorbing Gone Wrong, New Zealand, June 2010

Apparently this was the first time in 14 years anyone's ever seen this happen...the girls inside the ball were fine, just a little confused when they came out on the other side of the fence!