I arrived at the centre in time for lunch on Saturday. There were so many people here that trying to remember the names is a nightmare. There are now 10 of us working on the elephants but 2 at a time take it in turns to feed and walk the baby elephant and the rescued beach pony. The accomodation is very basic and although I didn't see it myself, my room mate saw a rat in our bathroom. We have a resident gheko in there too but he's lovely. The food is Thai and very nice although mostly vegan.
We start at 6.30 and walk into the forest to collect the 4 big ellies. They are hidden from us by the mahouts so we have to wait somewhere while they collect them and bring them out to us. Watching these 4 huge beats walk quietly out of the forest towards you just as the sun is coming up is breathtakingly spectacular. As for riding them, it is very much frowned upon here and although some people do ride them, i have refused, especially once you learn about their backgrounds. We walk them back to the centre (about 2-3 miles) and then feed and bath them. We can then go and get our breakfast and chill out until about 10am when we have to go and clean their pens out. At 2pm we bathe them again and then walk them back into the forest to be chained up overnight, giving them chance to forage for food. One of the ellies is 60 and she has a deformed back from years of having cages on her back giving rides to tourists in Bangkok. She also has a deformed leg from being hit by a car. The centre has bought her and one of the others but baby and the other two belong to the mahouts who can take them back to the city whenever they decide they want to.
There is also a tiger here who is paralysed and it's one of the saddest animals I have seen. She was kept as a pet in a cage far too small and has permanent nerve damage. Her name is Meow. There are loads of gibbons (noisy things), a crocodile called Dundee and an old beach pony called Sam who I had to groom today. There are also 16 centre dogs and two cats who are all bathed and groomed daily! I can wait for my doggy duty!!!
I was looking after the pony and baby today and when we took her to a quieter part of the centre for her overnight forage, we saw 2 cobras so had to get the other mahout. They went after them with machetes but they disappeared so we had to move baby. A cobra can kill a baby elephant. We then had to go into the long grass to collect grass for the pony. I was not very happy!
Baby is 3 years old and was so say found by one of the mahouts wandering around Bangkok. They broke her spirit, (they are tied up in a darkened room for a week with food put out of their reach and no water. Their ears are then cut and they are beaten with slicks and picks until they bleed. They are then considered domesticated). The centre doesn't own baby and she will probably go back to Bangkok as the mahout has the potential to make a lot of money out of her in the tourist industry. The centre does not have enough money to buy her, so I'm going to smuggle her home.
The other guys here are lovely. A lot of Aussies, a couple of Canadians, some Americans, English, French and Swiss. Theire is a bit of resentment between the elephants volunteers and the wildlife people because they don't think we work as hard as they do. Actually there are only 2 or 3 who are bad but the rest are fine. I've teamed up with an Aussie girl, Abby, who works as a floor manager for Channel 9 in Austalia and we're thinking about getting a film crew to come out. on the way to the centre, we picked up two volunteers from the vllage and Bex, one of them is from Stroud, would you believe!? We are thrilled to be so far away from home with a neighbour.
Abby and I are having Friday off and going to a local spa for the day. For the whole day we get 2 treatments ( the coffee scrub is supposed to be the best), lunch, dinner, drinks, swimming pool and jacuzzi and being waited on hand and foot for approx 35 pounds each so it is a must. We are alos going to Hua Hin for the night market on Wednesday night.
Today we went banana picking. Actually it is chopping down banana trees and then loading them onto a cart. It was hard and dirty work. The sap from the trees stains everything. We had to sit on top of the logs in a beaten old truck. It was terrifying but excillerating too! We then had to unload then back at the centre. I am totally knackered now but usually we go to bed at 8.30 ready for an early start.
I think that's all the news for now. Excuse the typos but the computers are ancient and everything is so slow and tedious (the internet charges are about 10p for half an hour!)
Will catch with you again soon. Take care
Sue