Hello!

Finally able to get a blog up. This will more than likely be the last blog of the trip as we shall be home in less than two weeks! Which seems crazy as it doesn't seem like 3 months ago we left!

As im sure you have gathered now we are in Thailand, its pretty awesome and we are very much enjoying ourselves! Em has discovered her inner traveler and gets fidgety if we stay in one place for more than five minutes!!

We got to Bangkok and were met by a Philipino called Glen Angus (we were expecting a big ginger Scots man!) and he checked us in to our hotel and from there we found it real easy to explore the delights of Bangkok. Chatachuck weekend market was where we spent most of our time, it's one of the biggest markets in the world and sells everything!! On our way back home we have a day to kill in Bangkok so we have given ourselves a budget of 20 pounds each to blow at the market, it may sound a small amount but Em bought two really nice handbags for about 4 quid, so with 20 we can get so much!! Gonna have to clear some room in the rucksacks though first! We wandered central Bangkok to, taking in some of the epic shopping malls, we also intend on nipping back there. The city itself is enormous but compared to Delhi, Bangalore and Kandy it's a piece of cake and the sky train makes it so easy to get around.

After a very comfortable bus ride to our project (the seats on the busses massage your backs as you go and have 'air' hostesses to give you food and drink) we got settled into our new surroundings. Our village Ban Tha Klang is home to over 200 elephants. We are living with a young mahout and his pregnant wife in a wooden house on stilts. Under the house are two elephants, one we call jingle due to the bell round his neck and the other is called eric due to a very tasty sweet called eric elephants Em munches back home. The house is literally two bedrooms and an outdoor toilet. Our shower comes in the form of a water container where we scoop water onto ourselves using small tubs. Its officially called a Thai bucket shower, on the days it been 40 degrees it is actually better than showering at home. When its less than 40 degrees though its blimmin horrible!

Our day usually starts with amazing breakfasts at about 7-7.30 cooked mostly by the wonderful Poom our project coordinator. We then muck out the 11 elephants on the project and go to play with enormous machetes to cut sugar cane to feed our elephants when we walk them through the forest twice a day. Other standard jobs are watering and planting bamboo and hoeing weeds in a field two miles away, which we walk to with the elephants. Major highlights though are Wednesdays and Fridays when in the afternoons we go to the river and swim with the elephants, feeding them cucumber and generally mucking about. I think the major thing we have both got out of this place is the close contact with the elephants we constantly get. Every day we get to feed them, play with the baby elephant on the project and you really get to know them and their personalities. They are the most incredible animals and the mahouts really look after them.

Every Wednesday we visit a local market and munch on random unknown food. Favorites so far are potato balls and wan tons stuffed with pork. This Wednesday we intend to indulge in everything! We have also been to a temple festival, this was weird as I expected a religious festival but infact we saw Thai boxing (including 8 year olds kicking the hell out of each other) and a west end style show with the production values of a Take That concert, this was the weird bit as the show starred 5 or 6 ladyboys one of which being a midget. Quite a sight! Our first weekend here was elephant day and there was mass village karaoke one evening, they love it over here and hundreds showed up to the big outdoor arena created just for the event, the singing was abysmal but it was all good fun. Our mahouts were with us and kept giving us rum which made the evening drift by nicely! I also got interviewed by Thai radio on the state of the park and my vision for the place in a years time. Not knowing anything the blag was sensational!!

Last weekend Em and I and two others went to Ko Samet, a small island of the South Eastern coast, it was a mission to get there, bus-songathew (a pick up truck with seats in the back)-boat-walking, but it was worth it. The sand was white and the sea was clear blue. Em got involved in the cocktails and I tried several local beers and the pancakes on the island come with our personal recommendation! A really good weekend chilling and it was good to see more of the country. Depending on cost a few of us may head to a nearby national park for our last weekend to trek and camp. We shall see.

Right I had better be off, got bamboo to water. Sadly, there wont be any new pics added as its to hard where we are. We will put them up when we return! See you all very soon.

Love

Mike (and Em)