Last time I wrote, I was gearing up to go to Thailand with the fam on an elephant adventure. Turns out it was the elephant adventure that almost didn’t happen. At least for me. The night before our trip, I was up all night tossing and turning with a relentless fever. I seriously considered sending my husband and kids off without me as I lay burning in my bed swathed in cold towels, drifting in and out of delirium. But thankfully, just before dawn, the fever subsided and like a switch had been turned off, I felt well enough to get up and get on a plane to Chiang Mai. I’m so glad I did. What a time we had!! I could go on and on but then you would be bored and annoyed with me, so I’ll just describe a few pieces of the trip that will stay with me and build on the many wonderful memories of our time in Asia.
~ One of the impressions I had in Chiang Mai (and which I also felt in Siem Reap and Hanoi) is a sense of ease about the place. Yes, it’s a developing country and in parts, people are about as poor as they come but there is an openness in the faces and stature of the people that I deeply admire. They do not seem, as is sometimes the case in Singapore and elsewhere in Asia, to be putting on airs or trying to be something they are not. There is, to me, a lack of self-consciousness, a comfort in their own skin, which results in a willingness to engage and be engaged. Maybe this is summed up in the beautiful gesture people make to one another with their heads bowed toward their hands in prayer postition. Namaste: ”the peace within me acknowledges the peace within you.” This is one of the many reasons I love Thailand.
~ When we arrived at the elephant conservation center where we would spend two days learning how to ride on elephants, mahout-style, Bobby and I realized that this was the same place we had come 7 years ago when I was preggers with Saylor. I remember that back then, I had been envious of the tourists who got to stay overnight there and help take care of the elephants. And now, here we were, taking our two children, to do just that!
~ I came away from the two days of training with the conviction that human beings don’t belong on such majestic beasts. Don’t get me wrong. I loved being near them and touching them; looking my elephant in the eye and “communicating” with her was a true honor. But I had the urge to just behold rather than bark orders at her (which is, as we soon learned, what being a mahout is all about). Grabbing hold of her ear and climbing up her leg which she bent on the command “Soong!” was no doubt a supreme privilege but somehow did not feel right…and not only because of my awkwardness in getting up there. I had the distinct sense that at any moment of her choosing, she could waste me; flick me onto the ground like a pesky tick and grind me beneath her foot. Mind you, I had the most gentle elephant of the group. Her name, Tantawan, means “Sunflower” in English.
~”Tantawan likes to talk” my mahout said one morning when she was being particularly vocal. She wasn’t like Caden’s elephant who trumpeted quite frequently, especially when she didn’t want to do something the mahout was telling her to do or when she had found an extra tasty bush to uproot. Tantawan communicated in the way that all elephants do: through deep seismic rumblings . Hearing and feeling the sonic vibrations from deep within her while I was astride her neck was an experience I will never forget. I felt the same sense of awe-struck humility I felt when I saw a giraffe at a walk-through wildlife park in Kenya, some 20 years ago. She had startled from her spot next to a tall tree, perhaps by our voices, and galumphed past us in that awkward yet fluid and elegant way giraffes run, close enough that we could feel the ground vibrating like a train going by, leaving us agog and profoundly affected for life. There is something about close encounters with wild animals that wakes you up and makes you realize how small you are and just how deeply and inextricably connected we all are.
~ And lastly, since I was still pretty darn sick the whole time we were there, I found myself seeking out healing foods. It was sort of like deja vu since last time I was in Thailand, I was trying to find foods that didn’t turn my pregnant stomach. Luckily for me, both times, Thai food came to the rescue. It was just the right blend of spices I was craving 7 years ago and on this trip, I became a Believer in Tom Yam soup (aka my Savior). With its knuckle-sized hunks of ginger, kaffir lime leaves, chillies and all manner of other yummylish spices, it certainly hit the spot, opened the pores and unclogged the pipes. And just like last time, I left Thailand feeling quite a bit healthier than when I arrived.
the gorgeous Tantawan
view from an elephant
wise eyes
