Day 2 in Elephant Park

I woke up early this morning, and headed down to the dining area-which is right across from where the elephants sleep for the night (they sleep in an open air pen- apparently the overhead costs would skyrocket if they were out in the wild all day and all night long, so they roam around in the day only). I had the amazing experience of watching each mahout come tto greet and take his elephant out for the day (mahouts are all male- not sure why, but it must be tradition?). I know how some mornings I get out of bed and stretch my legs because of a sore hip, and I’ve seen dogs get up and do that morning back legs & hips stretch- but to see an elephant stretching out those back legs is something else!

They have tons of dogs here- and they seem to roam in packs. If one pack of dogs gets too close to another pack (each pack has its own turf), the barking starts until they sort it out.

In Haiti, it was the roosters who made a racket all night long; here in Thailand, it’s the dogs. If you walk by them at night…say, after 9pm, they bark their fool heads off as you enter their turf, and then several times during the night, they get set off by something else and bark again, but when you pass by them in the morning, they are all snoozing- sleeping in after their long night of carousing, I guess!

We went on an outing Sunday afternoon with Darrick and Lek to see some acreage they own about an hour from the park. ( I really can’t tell you where it was, as I have no idea!). Lek inherited this old growth forest from her grandfather, and with it, his respect for the land. As in many parts of the world, Thailand has probably been logged to the tune of 80%, so preserving the remaining forests is critical. Lek says she remembers when she was a child how many more birds and animals were in the forest, who aren’t there anymore.

They are growing coffee, oranges, lychies, and tea on this land (or, rather, they are having them grown- there were some beautiful Burmese people living on the land and caring for the gardens and crops). We took a hike up into the mountains, where Darrick wanted to show us a most stupendous view from the porch of the cabin he built.

Many of the orange trees were dying- the watering lines to them had been accidentally cut when someone was cutting grass in the field, and as a result, the trees were dying when we got there. It was disheartening for Darrick & Lek.  It reminded me a bit of Haiti…in the same way that Ospri has challenges with the managers and workers not completing jobs, or materials going missing, or jobs not being done fully or properly, I was seeing and hearing examples of the same thing here, in a place where Darrick can’t be there full time. It’s tricky, as you can’t closely supervise something that is as far away as this land is to Darrick, or Haiti is to Ospri. Is it cultural? It seems that it is to a certain degree.

Some of the beautiful people tending the land. 

In any case, this outing was a most delightful way to end my first day at the park. Actually, the way the day really ended was with a feast- there is a large spread of food at every meal. Mmmmm, Thai food at its best!