Phuket, Thailand and the Elephant Safari

On another day Miles and I went with Siam Safari to an elephant camp. We got to ride an elephant through the jungle, and meet and play with some fabulous baby elephants, and also learn a lot about history and culture of the people of Thailand including daily life.

This was our elephant. We could not understand her name. Sad. But she was a happy girl and very sweet. Her Mahout (keeper) talked to her the entire trek. We laughed ourselves occasionally because he had full on conversations with her and occasionally laughed and laughed at whatever it was he said in Thai as if he was telling her jokes. We chuckled at how cute that was and how funny it sounded as we did not understand a word of it and yet the elephant must have because she responded very well to his calming voice and his funny stories.
I love her toes! Aren't they pretty?
Our elephant was hungry the entire trip and made frequent stops along the trek through the jungle for light snacks. This was a huge grassy hill that our tall elephant was eye level with and her trunk could reach the "good stuff".
We loved being able to talk to her ourselves and touch her. She was very rough and hairy all over. We found out that she was only 7 years old. Elephants are born with very dark skin and lighten and get more wrinkly and spotted as they get older. She was still very dark skinned and oh so pretty!!!

My new friend.

Pretty eyes! Her finger at the tip of her trunk she used to point directly to the baskets of food. She knew she deserved a snack of watermelon and bananas. She was so smart!

After our ride we got to go to the baby elephant camp. It was one of our favorite little adventures on this safari. We met three babies there who did all sorts of things to entertain us and introduce us to who they were. They were well fed and very well taken care of.
Hello Baby elephants!
The elephants did tricks for us. Here they were being introduced to us as they walked around a ring holding each other's tails. Their "Mahouts" (mah-hoots) meaning "keeper" walk along side them and are the caregivers or personal trainers. Each elephant has his own Mahout who has been with them since they were little...some since they were born. A very trusted and respected honorable position to be an elephants Mahout. They kicked and caught soccer balls to us! Yes, we were playing soccer with baby elephants. It was incredible! The little one kicked a ball rather hard and straight to Miles. He caught the ball and handed it back to Baby.

And if that was not cool enough, they played harmonica too!!! All three of them at once played their version of their 'song" which was wild and crazy and all over the place but the baby had a final note that was a perfect clear note that rang out in a finale and it was so cute, and quite funny. These lil guys were so clever! And so proud of themselves!
This elephant's name was Hutchu. He was so talented. He painted pictures with many colors. The Thai taught them colors that also correlated with the days of the week. Hutchu was very excited to paint and used several bright colors to paint us a very lovely painting. Yes, we bought it and are so excited to show it off to you all when we get home. **

Lastly, they waved goodbye to us with little red handkerchiefs and seemingly blew us kisses with their trunks. So sweet!!!! Sa wat dee kah, baby elephant!

You can check out all the videos of the elepahants and their tricks on the next post.

We even got to feed them! The little one LOVED bananas and watermelon...and was quite grabby. Hutchu on the other hand (far right there) was doing a funny little dance the whole time...shaking his backside as if to say, look at me...i am cute too....I want watermelon. It was so funny. We fed all three of them and it was so satisfying.


After waving goodbye to the baby elephant camp we went on to see other parts of the camp set up in stations and got ourselves an education about the daily life of those who live there. Cooking, plowing, harvesting....it was amazing!
One of the other amazing things we got to see was how to extract the milk from freshly shredded coconut. SQUEEEEZE it! Who knew? To make the oil we learned that they boil the freshly squeezed milk for 6 hours! We got to taste it at every step of the process and it was oh so good!
Petting the buffalo. He really was sweet even after he worked very hard plowing the fields, he was willing to pose nicely for us to take a picture. All he wanted to do was jump in the mud and cool off.
It was rather hot and we cooled off with some Thai coffee with coconut milk at the bottom. It was some seriously good coffee. Wish I had the recipe to share.
We watched a woman harvest rice (jasmine) which was an amazing process. I had no idea rice came in so many colors and was so wonderfully fragrant. They showed us how to hand mix Thai spices and meat and fresh pinapple and mix it in with fresh rice....It was delicious!
I was amazed at all the colors.

This trip was such an amazing journey. The things we got to experience were once in a lifetime and the memories made here in Thailand will be treasured. It was a magical place with hospitalble people, amazing food, jungles, and water in shades of blue I had never seen before. It was wonderful and we recommend this place and experience to everyone. GO!

(Don't forget to check back again soon for all the videos. They are uploading now)

-Jenny

**Hutchu's painting is now framed in our home. Photos of that to come!

Phuket, Thailand and the Phi Phi Islands

December 5th–12th, 2010

I understand this post is a little out of order, but better a little late than never, right? With the prep work and then the holidays that sent me home to be with my Dad and family in Portland Oregon and Miles left here in India for Christmas this trip we took was left on the back burner of priorities. But FINALLY—Here it is!

My parents offered and then gifted us their Marriott Vacation Club points to use wherever we wanted in the world for our Christmas gift last year. Knowing that we would be in India and needing to leave the country after six months for our visa requirements we decided to go to Thailand. There was in fact a Marriott there on the island of Phuket and we booked the trip and anxiously awaited the departure dates to arrive.

The exotic beaches of Thailand are supposed to be the most beautiful in the world. I have to say, so far, I agree. We were met at the resort with floral lays made of orchids and beautiful leaves and knew that this place was going to be very special. We were taught how to say a few words because we would be greated (literally) by every Thai person we passed with a Hello and they wanted us to be sure to be able to greet them back.... We heard this hundreds of times a day. The Thai people are so friendly and hospitable and just so lovely! So here was our word lessons

Hello and Goodbye = (sa-wat dee kah) for a female

(sa-wat dee krahp) for a male

Thank you very much = (kob kun mak kaa) for female
(kob kun mak klap) for male

I will admit on here i truly did not know what i was saying (some form of Sa-Wat dee kah) but all jumbled together in the wrong order until the day we left. Seriously, I was a mess. I should have learned this before we left. But I know it now, so look out Thai people I come in contact with from now on. I can SAY it back! And I Will!!! :)

The Marriott Mai Kau Beach Resort there was beautiful with a great pool.

View from our 2 bedroom condo.


POOL!

One of our excursions was to the Phi Phi Islands. We got on a boat with lots of other friendly tourists and spent an entire day island hopping, snorkeling, swimming, eating lots of food, and sitting on the beach. We went through Andaman Leisure Phuket. It was very family friendly and and we highly recommend them for their excursions.
It was a rather cloudy day but the sun came through occasionally and showed us just how beautiful the scenery was around us. Sun or not the islands we visited were truly magical. We even went to one called Monkey Island that literally has hundreds of families of monkeys. These crazy monkeys get visitors often enough to know that they will be fed so they met our boat as soon as we touched the shore. We handed out lots of bananas and the branches went nuts with incoming swinging playful monkeys all wanting a banana (or two- or three) just for themselves. Such a cool deal. They were bonkers!

We got to go snorkeling! The salty water was clear and amazing. Our boat took us to several spots throughout the day where we could jump into open sea that was filled with fish. Thousands of fish would surround us. Wild tropical fish I had only seen in the tanks in the dentist's office. You know which ones I mean? We saw fluorescent fish, stripy fish (I do not know the names of them) and swam with (literally) thousands of fish that seemed pleased and excited to have us visit them as they were not shy swimming along side us as if we were apart of their school or facing us directly in front of our masks eye to eye. Incredible! We could throw pineapple and bread into the water and be swarmed by them. That was amazing and somewhat painful as these little fish would be all around us (again thousands) and would mistake us for the bread in the water. They would take little nibbles of us and it pinched pretty good at times. So funny though! Snorkeling is one of my new favorite things. The breathing took a little bit to get used to and the fear of jumping into "unknown" water, but honestly, once I was in the wonders that lay beneath the sea I could have stayed there for hours! I never wanted to get out to move to the next island.

Look at the color of this water! I had never seen such teal and perfectly clear water before. We jumped out of the back of the boat into this water which was a private little lagoon. It was so quiet and peaceful. I wish we could have stayed there all day. I swear we would have seen mermaids. I had no idea such places existed.




The colors of the umbrellas made me think I was not in a "real" place. It was so pretty and colorful, and the perfect place to sit with perfect and fine white sand and a coconut drink complete with another colored umbrella and watch the water. Paradise for sure!

40 More Facts About Our Life In Chennai, India—Plus a Giveaway!

A few weeks ago we posted “50 Facts about Chennai” (which you can read here if you missed). Well, we’ve been here a while longer now, and we are always learning or noticing interesting things about this place, so we thought we would do another one.

51. Road and lane direction are not set in stone. One of the roads I take to work is two ways most of the time, but one way in the morning and early evening.

52. Stoplights often have timers that count down how long a light will remain green or red.

53. This seems like a good idea, but everyone here starts going on red once it the time gets down to 5 seconds.

54. Traffic cops are often in the middle of the roads directing traffic even when there are stoplights.

55. Policemen here all have the exact same mustache. We joke about it being a requirement to be a cop because we have yet to see one without it.

56. Traffic cops pull people over by waving them to the side of the road.

57. We know this because our driver in Delhi (not Rama) ran a red light, and we got pulled over (oops).

58. India is a very overcrowded country.

59. This overcrowding spills over into customer service too. Grocery stores the size of an AM/PM will often have about 12 employees working and offering to help you find something.

60. Even automatic ticket machines in parking garages have someone standing there to press the button and hand you your ticket.

61. The overcrowding causes people here to have no concern for personal space.

62. In a line it is common for a man to be standing directly behind us pressing up against us. Not out of any strange intentions but simply because of lack of the sense of personal space.

63. There is a sign on the elevator at Amnet’s offices that says only 8 people to an elevator.

64. I’ve been in that elevator with 12 people.

65. It is common to see men holding hands or walking with their arms around each other.It doesn’t mean anything. They are just very comfortable showing physical affection here with each other.

66. However, it is not common to see men and women (especially older) holding hands or showing public displays of affection.

67. Most marriages in India are still arranged, although that is starting to change in the bigger cities.

68. Marriages that are not arranged are called “love marriages”.

69. Our Driver in Delhi was very curious about how marriage works in America. He seemed shocked to find out that virtually no one practice arranged marriages.

70. Different trees are in bloom and flowering all year round as create more color and beauty to this place we call home.

71. There are three seasons in India: Hot, Hotter, and Rainy.

72. We are currently in the monsoon season (October and November), although it hasn’t been too bad yet.

73. Chennai has the best tropical storms. When the lightning is far away it will flash several bright flashes in a row like a strobe light. When it is close the streaks are visible and the thunder is instantaneous and deafeningly loud.

74. Apparently, it is not required to turn off your car when stopping to fill it up with gas. We have seen several cars with their engines running while their gas was being pumped.

75. When someone dies there is no embalmment. They are laid in a glass coffin and wrapped in some sort of thin paper like tissue paper that covers their neck down to their ankles.

76. We know this because we were stopped in traffic next to one of these dead bodies.

77. For the funeral the streets are filled with a huge procession of drummers and dancers in a parade and petals are flown into the air.

78. Hindus are usually then cremated (more than one body at a time) and then the ashes are spread in gardens and in the local rivers.

79. It is strange being minorities and also tourists while living here. We are usually stared at wherever we go.

80. We also get many requests for pictures. It seems like locals take more pictures of us than we do of them.

81. Obama is currently visiting India, but not Chennai. He is only going to Delhi and Mumbai.

82. Indians follow American politics a lot more than we follow anything in India.

83. The front page of The Hindu’s (one of India’s biggest national newspapers) website today: “Republicans take House”.

84. Trash build up is also a problem in India both in and outside the city.

85. There are some very pretty looking forested areas, but the ground is still covered with garbage.

86. We often see wild pigs, stray goats, or even cows eating the garbage in the forests or on the side of the road.

87. Public urination is not really frowned upon here. We see men peeing on the side of the streets all the time.

88. People here prefer to drink room temperature water because they think cold water will make them sick.

89. People also often drive without headlights or turn them off at stoplights because they think it will save gas.

90. Our driver in Delhi told that Hinduism is the best religion because they get to choose their own god. In other words they have a lot of gods but they can choose which one they are most devout to.

That last one is especially sad, but we love it here regardless and are having the time of our lives soaking it all in. This place and the people here certainly have their quirks, but all in all it is fabulous, and we are loving the process of learning and growing and the adventure that each day brings.

- Miles and Jenny

*******************************************************************

Well it is November! And you know what that means! It's Giveway time, as promised! One lucky commenter on this post will come away with a secret surprise gift from India. So comment away!!

The winner will be announced on DIWALI ~Friday, November 5th (your time).

Good Luck and have a great day!*******************************************************************

50 Facts about Our Life in Chennai

We’ve been living in Chennai for over two months now. Some of you reading this blog may not know very much what day to day like here is like, so we thought we would write up a list of interesting facts about where we are living and some of the things that are different here.

1. Chennai is the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

2. It is also known as Madras.

3. It has a population of around 10 million (it was 8.24 million in a 2001 census).

4. That makes it only the 4^th largest metropolitan area in India (following Calcutta, Delhi, and Mumbai).

5. Different regions in India have different languages. Tamil is spoken in Tamil Nadu, while Hindi is spoken in the north.

6. English is spoken pretty much everywhere, but some people’s accents are very tough for us to understand.

7. The weather has been very consistent since we got here. Highs are in the mid-90s, and lows are in the upper-70s to low-80s.

8. There are no clothes dryers in Chennai. Everything hangs on lines.

9. Ovens are very rare, except in restaurants. Everything is cooked stove top.

10. Toaster ovens are in Celsius, not Fahrenheit (oops).

11. Kitchen sinks do not have hot water to wash dishes in.

12. Showers do not have hot water unless attached to an individual water heater.

13. Our showers are attached to individual water heaters.

14. Groceries are generally cheap. Vegetables are so cheap they are basically free.

15. The exception is American brand of items. A box of Cheerios or Honey Bunches of Oats will cost about $10 US.

16. Milk comes in a box that is not refrigerated in the store.

17. Butter comes in huge blocks like Tillamook cheese.

18. Traffic in Chennai can get pretty bad. Driving somewhere that should take 15 minutes during peak traffic time will take around 45 minutes.

19. People driving motorcycles are required to wear helmets, but passengers on motorcycles are not.

20. Most helmets are placed somewhere on the motorcycle rather than on the driver’s head.

21. There are also signs saying that no more than two people are allowed on one motorcycle.

22. We have seen as many as six people on one motorcycle.

23. We have also seen a motorcycle with two men and a goat.

24. A lot of people here are vegetarian. It is common enough that most menus are divided into sections of Veg and Non-Veg.

25. Dinner is very late in India. Some restaurants don’t open for dinner until 7:00, and most people do not eat until around 9:00.

26. There are some very nice restaurants, but the service is very inconsistent. Sometimes it will take a half hour to get water, and sometimes we have a different person asking us if we need something every 10 minutes.

27. The main difference in restaurants is getting the check. If you do not ask for it, they will never bring it.

28. Hotels sometimes have bands playing, but apparently Indians have no concept of volume level. They are WAY too loud.

29. At one outdoor buffet, we had to make sure we ordered our meats while the band was in between songs.

30. Alcohol in Chennai can only be legally purchased in hotels where there is a tax of over 50%.

31. There is also a tax of over 100% for items like luxury cars.

32. Most toilets in India do not come with toilet paper. Instead, there is usually a spray nozzle you can use. In some cases there is only a bucket of water with a pitcher.

33. We usually carry toilet paper with us when we go places.

34. There are a lot of TV commercials for skin lightening cream. Apparently, it is considered more attractive to have lighter skin, which is strange when we are used to a country full of tanning salons and lotions.

35. There are many of the same American TV shows on here. They are usually just a season or two behind.

36. They also repeat the same episode over and over again.

37. Many American shows will have English subtitles even though they are in English. Sometimes the subtitles do not match exactly what the actors are saying.

38. Movie theaters in Chennai are very nice with large screens and comfortable seats.

39. The seats are not general admission. Instead, you buy specific seats the way you would for a concert or sporting event in the States.

40. Also, all movies have an intermission. The movie will abruptly stop about halfway through, sometimes right in the middle of a scene.

41. They love movies here. Usually when the movie begins there is a large round of applause. When popular actors first arrive on the screen people applaud again.

42. The best part: movies here cost about $2.50 US. Popcorn and other refreshments are also way cheaper than back home.

43. Everyone here owns a cell phone and is on it constantly.

44. You are not allowed to talk on your cell phone while driving. It looks like India was ahead of the curve on this one, since Washington State just recently made this a primary offense.

45. We use pre-paid phones, which are incredibly cheap. We put about $12 each on ours when we first got here and are nowhere near running out of minutes.

46. No one has voice mail. If you want to leave a message you just have to text.

47. It is not true that elephants roam wild through the streets.

48. There are some wild monkeys around some nearby temple ruins, but not in the city.

49. Wildlife in the city consists mostly of street dogs and cats as well as geckos and birds.

50. We are really enjoying our time here. While there are many things that are unusual or make us uncomfortable, we are loving the experience of it all.

Heavy Rains

Well, the monsoon rains have hit. This is rain like I have never seen before. Absolutely pelting, drenching, instantly soaking rain. And with this rain and 100% humidity you simply do NOT DRY OFF EVER EVER OR EVER. YAY...voice literally dripping with sarcasm. Did you catch that? Well, bear with me as I *check my heart* and have an attitude adjustment and tun on the Pollyanna. *ahem* Ok, we are good. We are thankful for our car. Seriously we are very thankful especially on days like today. The lightening storm that hit before we left for our outing was incredible! It was right over our heads and on our balcony you can see black sky with flashes every couple seconds and then every once in a while an intense jagged line of electricity would spear through the clouds right in front of us and we would jump as the immediate thunder boomed around us. Super cool storms here in Chennai.

On our trek through town while being thankful for our car we took several pictures of the less fortunate souls who did not have cars. Many people in Chennai use motorcycles to get around as they are fast and economical and can wind through traffic easier than a car. Those on these looked absolutely miserable. It was awful to watch and yet we still took pictures. In Chennai when it rains the streets quickly become flooded and sidewalks and thin passageways between pedestrians and cars are eliminated. The pedestrians have to walk in the streets closer to cars which means directly in the splash zones. Women in beautiful silk saris, men walking to work, and kids riding bicycles are are completely drenched with the muddy filthy water that the tires explode their direction. I felt so bad for all the people attempting to run for cover and getting caught in the cross fire of water between them. I thought our tiny, little car was bad, you should have seen it when the buses went by. Oh sadness.

The rain is incredible here. It is as warm as bathwater and like I said before the drops are huge and incredibly drenching. I love the sight of them on the pavement though. They are so big that they ricochet off of the pavement and bounce back. It is really pretty. See, we can find beauty even in the rain. It's is all around us. Sometimes it is just difficult to see when you are feeling wet...(very wet)...but it is there.