Final Thoughts on our Asian Trip

Our trip through Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and India was a great experience. With taking a "Gap Year" common in the UK, Richard felt like he had passed up every opportunity, and with American vacation standards, I never thought longer term travel would be possible. It is such a backpacker cliche to say any amount of time is not long enough, but it's true. Even in 10 weeks (5x what most Americans get per year), we still only caught glimpses. But they were beautiful and humbling and amazing and interesting and...

Here are the flotsam and jetsam thoughts:

Everyday Exotic Creatures

- In Siem Reap, it was great to glance out of your tuk-tuk and see a troop of monkeys in the forest bordering the road. A family also hung out around the roof of our hotel in Agra, and Rich only just missed getting the perfect shot of a monkey framed by the Taj Mahal.

- Even after a week at Elephant Nature Park, one never got tired of the occasional realization of "hey, that's an elephant standing right there" as you go about the more banal activities of life, say, waiting in line for breakfast.

- Throughout our trip, Pepper-like dogs hounded us - sorry, cheap pun. It would not be an exaggeration to say we saw at least one of her twins everyday in India! We decided either a) our girl was sending out her doppelgangers to check up on us or b) the more mongrel the population, the more common are brown dogs with white markings.

The Obligatory Toilet Commentary

I was surprised and very grateful for the prevalence of Western-style commodes in the places we visited. With proper prior planning, squatter use was kept to a minimum. Sometimes, you could even find the perfect trifecta of toilets: Western-style, toilet paper, and soap! If not, arming yourself with a bathroom bag (basic model: toilet paper + hand sanitizer, or the deluxe model: + immodium + cipro) is essential for peace of mind.

Rugrats, i.e. Traveling with Young Children in Developing Countries

Yes, it is true that most Asians, with our love of family, may enjoy meeting and playing with your child. This aspect of the cultures does not grant you freedom to indulge your flaky parenting style and get some free babysitting out of unsuspecting, probably underpaid and overworked hotel employees. A particularly heinous example of this we observed in an Aussie couple with their 4-year-old daughter in our homestay in Vietnam. While Mum was off on a trek, Dad decided to wander off to do some photography, calling over his shoulder, "Dakota, just hang out with them for a while. I'll be back later!" We looked around and to our horror, "them" was the four of us backpackers who were just finishing breakfast. Now, being decent human beings instead of, say, the secret axe-murderers and child molesters we could have been, we had just been thrust into babysitting a tot we only met the night before... instead of also being allowed to enjoy our own vacations. Dakota's precocious Shirley Temple charm already was wearing thin with her habits of sucking on a dirty comb and sticking her snotty fingers in the communal serving dishes. With parents like those, I suppose consideration of others was pretty low on her list of lessons to learn.

Photography (Other People's)

Sometimes photography can be an antisocial behavior like smoking. At the Nehru Trophy Boat Race, we were jostled constantly by amateurs who felt a giant lens attachment on their SLR camera entitled them to front and center seating. Nevermind that we all had arrived 4 hours before the event to get those seats! One woman even had the gall to cast dirty looks at anyone who jostled her tripod in the crammed standing room only section.

Expenses for Curious Minds Who Want to Know

The whole thing cost us about 12000 USD. Almost half of that were flights, many bought not far in advance of the departure. Hopefully, some of you can see this number and be inspired to go on your own great adventure.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our families for being supportive and not freaking out too much. May I suggest less Andrew Zimmerman for next time? Special thanks to Mom and Dad for watching Pepper and my sister for watching - and not touching- the bank (just kidding, Ate!). Special thanks to Mum and Michael for the great shower, sleep, and steak and kidney pie (!) layover and Dad for bringing us back to Heathrow by dawn.

Bangkok and Chiang Mai (Thailand)

We flew out of Cambodia and into the Northern Thailand city of Chiang Mai via Bangkok. It was immediately evident from the Bangkok airport that Thailand is the most Westernized of the countries we have been in yet. Some people have criticized Thailand as being too open to foreigners, and it is a little surreal at times... Bangkok airport looked like it could have been Heathrow, and we had to resist stopping in the Dunkin' Donuts!

After this brief glimpse into the industrialized world, we headed in the opposite direction while we volunteered under more rustic conditions for a week at Elephant Nature Park (or ENP, www.elephantnaturepark.org), a sanctuary for Asiatic elephants about 60 km outside of Chiang Mai. The elephants at ENP were rescued from a variety of abusive situations.

It was a fantastic experience even though the day-to-day life initially may not sound so exciting. The morning chores mostly revolved around elephant upkeep like preparing their food, and of course, picking up poo! Afternoon chores and other jobs involved taking care of the park itself like weeding and planting... hmmm, that sounds an awful lot like what I would be doing anyway this time of the year. In the process, we managed to pick up mad machete skills cutting grass (looked exactly like maize, just as tall, but without the ears... and very satisfying to take down) as well as learn more about tropical agriculture with jobs like preparing and planting sugarcane cuttings. We also spent one morning at the local school, doing a horrible job trying to get Thai kids to practice their English.

Of course, our favorite part of the whole ENP experience was getting up close and personal with the elephants. Every day it was a whole lot of fun getting into the river and bathing the elephants in the morning and afternoon! Feeding was also twice daily, and we "got" an elephant to present to the day visitors during these times. Our elephant was Lilly, who was rescued from a family who worked her day and night by feeding her speed. It took Lek (the founder) almost 2 years to wean her off the amphetamines. Lek was just as amazing as her reputation, too... we saw her sing lullabies to the baby elephant while sitting underneath it, care for orphaned birds that needed feeding every fifteen minutes, and even cook lunch for over 50 people!

The real stars were the baby elephants... every time. Faa Mai (the girl) and Chang Yim (the boy) are about a year old and painfully cute. Despite most of the elephants being unrelated, they have re-formed family groups. Volunteer contact with the families with the little ones was limited (since the herd gets very protective, and even the babies weigh over 300 kg). However, we did get to feed the babies a couple of times and helped prepare their mud bath with a citronella and lemongrass solution (night time bug spray).

Our last afternoon we spent trekking to Elephant Haven, where Lek originally started rescuing elephants is more jungle than the open plain of ENP. The way was very steep, but the elephant family we were taking up there (Jungle Boy's) stopped to eat every 10 feet or so, making it a pretty easy stroll. Most of the way there the last elephant in the line had a flatulence problem, and we all found it challenging to not erupt into giggles every time it let one rip! The human overnight accommodation at Elephant Haven itself was stripped down with termites doing their fair share on the meager platforms. At night, the mahouts treated us to their version of STOMP!, playing songs using PVC pipe flutes, a trash can drum, and the best - a tambourine of kitchen utensils in a plastic laundry basket. Their odd repertoire included a couple of Christmas Carols and Auld Lang Syne, which funnily enough, we also heard randomly at a concert in Vietnam. In the morning, we had to look for the elephants, who were allowed to roam in the night, and Rich and I learned a mahout trick to call to them by making a firecracker sound with your hand and a leaf. We also were given monk robes to tie onto trees, which would protect them from being cut down by illegal loggers since most Thais would respect the Buddhist blessing.

The stay at ENP was educational and fun, and doing manual labor for a good cause was refreshing. It really gave us food for thought, making us consider the use of elephants in industries, including elephant trekking, use in entertainment shows, and logging operations. This was especially poignant knowing the elephants we helped take care of came from these situations.