Thai Farm Cooking Class

Yesterday we drove an hour out of Chiang Mai to an organic farm for an amazing cooking class.

Pai, Thailand

View of the rice paddies in Pai, a small artsy town with hot springs, coffee shops, high mountain roads, caves...and only 4 hours from Chiang Mai. Well worth the visit.

Ryan and our friends Amanda and Felipe. They are thenearest non-Flahive neighbors to our Jungalow in Costa Rica. We randomly bumped into in Thailand and shared a number of adventures to waterfalls and hotsprings as well as sharing lots of wine and good food. Motorbikes were the best way to explore the area around Pai.Hiking the narrow trails on the top of Pai Canyon.

Inside of Lod Cave, 45 kilometers from Pai.

Colin enjoying the waters of Pembok Waterfall.

ITM Massage School

Last day of class after two weeks of learning Thai massage at ITM Massage School. Now Denise is able to complete a 3- hour Thai Massage. Any takers?
Classmates for level one and two after Qi Gong in the park.
Friday Qi Gong in action.

Chuck Chuck

Colin and Ryan with our personal Tuk Tuk driver - Chuck Chuck - in Chiang Mai. This is how we got around everyday.

Cooking Classes at Baan Thai- Chiang Mai

We took an all day cooking class at Baan Thai in Chiang Mai after between Denise's first and second weeks of massage school. We went to the market to buy ingredients before the class began.
Denise cooking spring rolls for the group during a Thai cooking course at Baan Thai.

Different kinds of rice at the market.

More Pictures from Elephant Nature Park

Baby elephant napping in the corn stalks while mom and auntie try to feed around him. After a while, they gently nudged him out of the way.
The slippery hike back down from Elephant Haven after the rains.

Pom- our leader at Elephant Haven. She walked up a fairly steep mountain trail with bare feet.

Denise tending to three tiny finches whose nest dropped from a tree at the sanctuary. They made it through the first night alive, which was a good sign, and were doing well by the time we left 3 days later. Mushed bananas and cat food did wonders!

Added Ireland and Middle East Videos

They are not as entertaining as the elephant video below, but I wanted to get caught up with my editing and posting.  You can either scroll down to those sections or click on the following to watch:

• Ireland Video (with Omey Island and Belfast)
  
• Turkey and Dubai Video
  

Definitely watch the Elephant Nature Park video FIRST, though!

Elephant Nature Park, the Movie

Don't worry, Cousin Kelly, this time we kept all of the baby elephant footage.

Elephant Nature Park, Thailand

Stopping for a quick butt scratch on the long hike to Elephant Heaven - a mountaintop forest sanctuary where the elephants can roam free and search for medicinal plants to supplement their generous diet. Each family group gets to make this trip once a week.
By tying these crimson strips of cloth to the larger trees, we alert the local villagers that they have been identified as sacred by Buddhist monks and therefore cannot be cut. Saving trees helps fight erosion and keep local water resources clean and sustainable, helping all local people and elephants. Hope is the only long-term resident of the Nature Park who has not had to go through the cruel 7-day torture session used to "break the will" of young elephants so that they can become working elephants. He was found as a young calf after his mother was killed and raised by the park's founder, Lec. With his "will" fully in tact, he can be quite a rascal. The mahouts call him a "cheeky bugger".

Our glorious and couragous leader, Mammoth.

Bath time. The elephants at the park get 2 baths a day which include hand-scrubbing from the volunteers and day-visitors.
Our volunteer crew.
Overall, this was an amazing and memorable experience. We lived for a week on the grounds of the nature park. Every day we woke up for breakfast at 7:30 and reported by 8:00 for our first round of chores. These would include cleaning up elephant poo, cat poo, cow and/or buffalo poo. Who ever thought that cleaning up poo would be so rewarding?

After our first round of chores, came the morning project, which involved fence-mending, drainage digging and other physical work. Before lunch, we fed the elephants and after lunch bathed them. Then, we reported for the second round of chores/projects, which often meant shucking corn or chopping grass.

By far the hardest day of work was chopping 230 bundles of corn by machete and then carrying the bundles over muddy rice patties to the truck for delivery back to the park.

The food was great. Dinner was especially tasty and the many Chang beers that we enjoyed over conversations with fellow volunteers felt well-deserved. After dinner we had an hour Thai massage. The lodging . . . OK, but not so great.

The side-trip to Elephant Haven (at the top of the page) was definitely the highlight of our week. We hiked to an overnight camp where we stayed with the elephants in a wild setting. It was a long and muddy hike but the food and the view that we enjoyed from the sleeping platform made it worthwhile. Before bed, the mahouts sang us songs on improvised flutes made of PVC pipes and drums made of anything they could hit.

Pom, mother to all of the elephants. They listen closely to every word she says.
The elephants at Elephant Nature Park have been rescued from a number of terrible situations. One had his foot blown off by a landmine. Another was blinded with hooks when she refused to work because her baby had just died. The stories go on and on. You can meet the entire herd HERE.

Updated Pictures of the GeoDiscovery Lab

I just recieved the following pictures of the GeoDiscovery Lab that we built for orphans in Ghana. They were sent by fellow volunteers who helped with the launch. Thanks again to those of you who helped fund this effort.

Istanbul and Dubai, The Movie