Wat Pha Lat (our little piece of paradise on the mountainside in the middle of the jungle)
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@uscasbthailand
Wat Pha Lat (our little piece of paradise on the mountainside in the middle of the jungle)
Hiking up to Wat Pha Lat in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
And the Gold Medal Goes to...
Everyday we see Aek and the other volunteer coordinators go for a run. Aek invited us to run with them, but I was initially intimidated. I like to run, but not in 100 degree heat!
Today I decided it was time to redeem the offer. Aek told me to meet at the volunteer meeting place, which is where we start our day every day, at 5:00 pm. I met up with Aek and Say and Aek asked if I had big leg muscles. I told him I usually run two or three miles a day at home and he and Say laughed! I said “are you laughing at me?” And Aek said, “no I’m laughing with my friend at you.” Aek is what we in America call a stinker. He always has a joke, and you’re usually the butt of it. We started jogging and I was relieved that it was an easy pace.
After a while I was neck and neck with Say, who was leading the run. Aek started laughing because I was about to pass Say! They underestimated me for sure! We ran around the perimeter of the park and it was a pretty easy run. No Columbia you have to battle heat and hills, whereas heat was the only obstacle at the elephant nature park.
We rounded the last corner where I saw our group relaxing. I heard someone say, “is that Brooke?” I was leading the pack! Our whole group started cheering for me as if I had just won the gold medal. I laughed to myself at how intimidated I was to go on this run, and how I ended up in the front!
-Brooke
Peace and love peace and love, Stephanie McGough
That time I almost died in Thailand aka Dieland
Dear mom and dad, I apologize in advance for the mini heart attack this may cause you. Now that I am back to a normal temp of 98.7 degrees I think I can tell you what happened two nights ago. I don't know exactly when or how it started but my body just started hating me Tuesday night. After our morning activity of chopping corn I was feeling a bit exhausted, but so was everyone else so I didn't think much of it. Once we got back to the park all I wanted to do was lay down and take a nap. I wasn't up for dinner so my amazing roommate, Morgan, kindly brought me dinner. Ryan came to check on me after dinner felt my forehead and told me it physically hurt her to touch me. She ran to get mom aka Hope. Hope came with her medicine bag and took my temp. It was a whopping 102. Lots of swear words were shared and a couple of jokes about me dying were said. Again sorry mom and dad. Hope and Ryan turned into my Thailand doctors and hooked me up for the best treatment possible. Which included two full bags of ice on my stomach and my neck. Then a water bottle of ice on my feet. I looked like a dying Santa Claus. Also, they got me three water bottles full of ice water with a straw. If my brain wasn't frying it would've been paradise. After a hot and sweaty nap my temperature went down a couple degrees to 100.9. It was a relief to all of us. Hope stayed with me through the night asking me how I was every time I rustled in my bed. Apparently sometimes there was no reply from me. All and all I am feeling much better and I'm really glad Thailand wasn't the end for me. Love, Stephanie
Run Brooke, run!!
(Out for a jog with Say and Aek. Crazy girl…)
Night market fun!
Food, food, glorious food!
Temple Time!
On the morning of our second day of our Thailand adventure we attempted to hike up a mounting to visit a temple called wat pha lat. Before we could even take our first step for the hike our group ran into troubles. Since we are such a big group we had to take two big red trucks, which are the taxis here. The start of the trail was just at the end of the one of the main roads, and so one of the drivers got confused and just drove straight up the mountain to the temple. The rest of the group had to hike for 20 minutes on a steep road just to get to the actual trail. It was a windy, rocky hike up the mountain.
Along the way there were some great views of the city. Some of the trees along the way had Buddhist prayer scarves tied to them, which is to prevent loggers from cutting them down. After another 40 minutes of hiking the jungle cleared and we arrived at the temple.
It was nothing like anything I’ve ever seen before. Every building was covered in ornate carvings and statues. After being in the extremely busy city it was really calming to be in the serene temples. I spent over an hour just quietly walking around the grounds and admiring all of the art and architecture. Some people were able to talk to a monk for a while and ask him questions. The experience at Wat Pha Lat is something that I will always keep.
- Sam (three)
Machetes, Sweet Corn, Squatting Toilets & Slurping Honeysuckle
At around 8 am this morning, our group piled into the back of a truck bed, dressed in long sleeves & long pants ready as ever to do the dreaded "cutting grass" project. We had been told this was the toughest day, a precedent that most certainly didn't bring the our spirits down. The adrenaline kicked in as the truck sped off down the bumpy road, each of us unprepared for an adventurous ride to our destination. Picture 17 gamecocks lined up against the walls of a truck bed, holding on to their hats as the warm wind whips through their hair, feeling the bruises forming as they bounce up and down on the metal floor. Add in some classic camp games (think Telephone & Big Booty), an attempt of French braiding hair (extreme version), and trying to stay balanced while surfing the truck bed. We picked up a fellow Thai worker along the way, passed through a government check-point, and laughed a little too hard at an inappropriate joke Prof. Julie told us. Upon arriving to the corn field about an hour away from the Elephant Nature Park, we filed out of the truck and were told to put down our stuff while they handed us machetes. It was time to get to work. For the next two hours or so, we discovered the best way to relieve stress. Swinging machetes at the roots of corn stalks that had been husked already for human food, we made large piles to be gathered and taken back to the camp for the elephants to eat. Occasionally we would run across a left cob of over corn, and after Aek encouraged us to eat it, we all enjoyed the sweetest snack of corn we could have ever imagined, sweating under the 95 degree Thai sun. The backdrop of our morning was casually steep peaks, rising sunshine and lush vegetation, blurred by the relentless smog. We had the chance to serve alongside Thai workers, enjoying their banter and skill with the machetes. During one of our water breaks, I began asking more questions to our group guide, Aek. I asked him what the most pressing environmental issues in Thailand were, and he described the issues of water and air pollution from the rising industrialization the in the cities. We talked about technology spreading throughout the country. "Some people think this new technology is good; the phones and computers. They think they need it. I think we have enough, though. People don't realize that you don't need more to be happy." I asked him if this saddened him, and if he saw the industrialization of Thailand changing the way Thais lived. He said yes, and that he is worried about the future. I feel extremely fortunate to have the chance to talk to these locals, and hear their stories. Aek comes from a village, and studied tourism at his University on Chiang Rai. He loves working with tourists (I couldn't believe this), but I can see his passion for this place in his eyes. He has already memorized all of our names (he somehow knew mine on the first day), and his English is impeccable. He loves saying American jokes and phrases, and his knowledge of the elephants, lands, and people is inspiring. Aek is my favorite person that I've met in Thailand. After we worked on cutting the grass, we then compiled the stalks into piles, had them tied, and then threw them all into massive truck beds (yes, the ones we rode to the field in). We filled three of these. Apparently, this feeds the elephants (all 68 of them), for only a day & a half. This place continues to blow my mind. We then all enjoyed a delicious lunch of vegetable rice, yellow noodles, egg frittata, bananas, and delicious cookies with pineapple jam filling. To get back, we all had to squeeze into one small van and the front of a pick-up truck. Hope, Lil, Whitney, Ryan & I all sat in the trunk. Once again, sorry Mom. We all passed out almost instantly, exhausted from exhaustion. We awoke to see we had stopped at a convenience store, where we all shuffled out and took turns using the (squat) toilet and got ice cream treats. Yum. On our way back to the park, they dropped our group off on the side of the road to chop down more grass as they took what we had already chopped back to the park. This task was a bit challenging, considering we were basically wandering up & down the road looking for the specific kind of grass that elephants eat. At one point, Hope & Brooke were bush-wacking in an overgrown vine pit with a machete. A friendly Thai man stopped by on his motorbike and pointed to a beautiful flower in the vines and told us the elephants love to eat it. He pulled it down, and it was SWARMING with ants. He looked at his, smirked, and said "You try?" I told him if he could manage to rid the flower of the ants, I would try it. Of course, he managed to, and I found myself slurping on a sweet honeysuckle flower given to me by a stranger. It was one for the books. At last, Aek returned with the truck and we gathered the grass into the bed and rode back. Aek pulled up to some elephants roaming in the field, and told us we could feed them with what we found. At the time of collection, we figured we could probably feed one elephant for 15 minutes with how few grass stalks we found. Turns out, we could feed 3 elephants for about 10 minutes. We got to satisfyingly witness them chomp on the grass we collected for them, scratching behind their muddy ears. I'm in love with this place. Namaste, ~~Caroline~~
Love at First Sight
Day 2: Meeting the Elephants We woke up bright and early this morning to get ready for breakfast at 7 followed by our 8am group meeting. We enjoy breakfast with a view and met as a group after to go over the plans for the day. Group C (USC Group)-First thing on the agenda: walking with elephants. I don't think we were even paying attention the rest of the meeting we were too excited to be with the elephants (at least I wasn't)! We follow our group leader Aek out to where the giants roam. Within a few seconds of walking out they were passing us left and right, popping out from all sides (if you consider slowly trekking along "popping"). Tears of pure joy start to well up in my eyes as they move all around me. Everyone is mesmerized by their beauty and are getting super cute pictures with all the ellys (as Caroline calls them). We continue walking and meet some more elephants enjoying a snack. Everyone starts walking up to pet them and I am so overwhelmed with excitement I can't even move. Stephanie and Hope nudge me towards one of the beautiful giant creatures. I reach my hand out to touch her and before I even make contact start completely sobbing. I place my hand on her and it feels surreal (Whitnie's perfect description), it's more beautiful than I could have imagined. Everyone snaps pics of me awkwardly rubbing this beautiful elephant as tears roll down my eyes. It's the best moment of my life! Her name was Jokia and I lover her, I love them all! I never want to leave. We roam around some more and see some babies playing by the river. We go to the male enclosure (they have to be kept separate because of their aggression). Hope gets to meet Hope, a male elephants that was rescued a few years ago, who she heard about when she was in Cambodia and has been waiting to meet here at ENP for two years. It's so amazing to see the emotion these animals bring to people as she sheds tears upon sight of elephant Hope. When we reluctantly leave the elephants to unload pumpkins from a truck our teamwork really shows. We're tossing pumpkins off the truck and they're catching them down below and passing them quickly through an assembly line. We finish off the day in the river, building a dam( which took two hours!) and after we got to bathe some elephants! I don't think I speak only for myself when I say we went to bed completely exhausted and full of happiness, not only the first day but every day after! -Ryan
Traveling With Our Tummies
Being the picky eater that I am, I thought I wouldn’t eat or enjoy the food. I thought I’d be living off of granola bars for 10 days. Surprisingly I love most of the food. I loved the fresh fruit smoothies in the city. All the fruit here is so sweet and fresh tasting, the bananas are my favorite. The elephant nature park hasn’t stopped feeding us amazing food. I love all the weird spicy foods.
-Erika
Zipadee Do Da!
Saturday morning eight of us loaded into a van and headed off to Eagle Track Ziplining for tons of fun. Buffalo, our instructor, briefed us on all the safety specs, and then we lined up at the first of 32 platforms. Flying through the treetops was exhilarating. Our guides all glided through the course looking like playful monkeys. They teased us by yelling that we had unclipped the wrong cables, and they would shout, "Wait! Don't go!" after we had already left the platform. The guides did their best to make us fall off the ropes course obstacles by shaking the lines, but we showed them how great USC students are, and we rocked that course! After we finished zipping through the jungle we enjoyed a huge buffet lunch. From tofu curry and pad Thai to an amazing dessert of bananas in coconut milk, we left with very full tummies and very happy memories. On to the next adventure! - Whitnie
Out On the Town!
If I had to describe the night market in one word it would be alive. With our baht in hand we all ventured to the Sunday night market with hopes of spending all of our money. There was everything you could ever imagine at this market: most importantly food, clothes, bags, trinkets and more. The best part of the markets in Thailand is being able to barter for a better price. Sometimes when you barter too low they actually laugh at you which is pretty funny. It was amazing to see the products actually being made by hand behind the stands. The stand that stood out the most to me was a mug stand that had hand painted animals mugs. Each one was different and had its own unique style. I don't think I've ever seen anything this authentic in America. Also, the food was absolutely amazing. I would recommend the chocolate covered strawberries. Hope and I tried to find a tarantula to eat because of a bet we made on the plane ride over (not to fall asleep...obviously we both fell asleep). Unfortunately we could not find any so we settled for crickets...I would not recommend this to everyone (example Liz) There was Thai music playing with traditional dancing and music. What made this even better was the adorable children performing. It's so interesting to see every generation so involved in the culture. The atmosphere was something I will never forget. I hope to come back and visit again. - Stephanie
Sign outside of the Women's Ex-Prisoner Massage and Spa
The Doer of Good Becomes Good
Saturday afternoon, Erin Jessie and I decided to roam the city together. We stopped at several shops and took a break at cafe 151 which we had amazing frapes and a piece of crape cake. ( clearly not the Thai food type of girls). After that we wondered down the street to the womens ex prisoners massage and spa. At first we were hesitant about getting our feet rubbed by an ex prisoners and signs around the place said “do not ask about their story because they are trying to integrate them back into the society without discrimination”, but once we decided to just go for it, we came to realize it was the best decision we’ve made all day (after zip lining through the jungle). All three of us agree that this is a great idea for the prisoners to have another chance. -Erika
Note: Most of the rest of the group followed suite and got massages from the ex-prisoners after returning from a hike on Sunday. Many volunteers were astonished with how “rough and tumble” the Thai massage technique was.
“I walk in and see Whitnie in a headlock as they throw her around. I’m thinking to myself, what have I just gotten myself into!”
“I’ve got bruises all up and down my legs from those little Thai women’s sharp little elbows!”
…needless to say it was an experience for all!
Ryan's dream come true! Before arriving at ENP and while feeding an elephant a watermelon. So much excitement!