goodbye feasts

Saying goodbye to students and colleagues inevitably means goodbye feasting.  When Thais eat together they eat "family style" and with a large array of delicious Thai delicacies in front of you, your tongue is always in for a spicy treat.  

Jeannie, Allison and I joined some of our students at a popular hot pot restaurant on the last night of finals.  The whole restaurant was teeming with all our students in their matching uniforms, chowing down.  A hot pot restaurant is a cook it yourself buffet and I'm always shocked at the amount of food a fifteen year old Thai girl can eat!  

One of my favorite students.  I'll miss you Tunkpang!

I don't know how we ate it all... 

The next day our whole English department crammed into one of the best restaurants in town for another mouthwatering feast.

friends in far away places

feeding animals

I'm a fan of zoos and after visiting the Chiang Mai zoo, my zoo experience has been forever changed.  While I know I should be against what I'm about to praise, to be honest it made the zoo really awesome.  What is it you may ask?  It is exactly what you are not allowed to do in any other zoo I've ever been to.  

YOU CAN FEED THE ANIMALS.

Instead of straining to see the leopard hiding in his corner, you stick some raw meat on the end of a stick, put it through the fence and then BAM! You are face to face with a leopard, staring into it's eyes as it snatches the meat from the stick and then retreats back to it's shelter.  

So, as a result of this interaction, two new animals have made their way to the top of the coolest animal list. 

Number One: The Hippo

Usually I overlooked the hippo.  They tend to just float apathetically in the water, uninterested in the humans staring at it.  Here, they would swim up to the edge of the water and stretch their mouths open wide in anticipation of some green leaves. 

Number Two: The Giraffe

Again, another animal that usually couldn't care less about humans.  But, with a little coaxing and a few green stalks, you get to see the giraffes creepy and gross long purple tongue spiral out and snatch the food.... and then proceed to drool all over you.  They are majestic and sloppy at the same time. 

I was mostly afraid to feed the ostrich.  They honestly scare me and I was afraid it's little beak would remove a few fingers.  

So, while I know that feeding animals in zoos is wrong and it changes the natural habits of the animals; the level of interaction it created was (unnatural and) just too cool.  

temple trees

Outside the monastery walls of Wat Phra That, there is an ancient bodhi tree whose branches are supported by a forest of wooden crutches.  Old trees in Thailand are some of my favorite things to discover.  Colorful strips of fabric wrapped around the trunks of trees indicate that a spirit resides there. The tree may not be cut down before warning the tree spirit in order to let them find another tree to inhabit.  Monks, in order to protect against logging, have ordained some trees and wrapped them with thin orange cloth.  This signifies that the trees are now sacred and they are not allowed to be harmed.
*

*

Wat Phra That

teacher patrick

elephant conservatory

With our students we visited an elephant conservatory in Lampang.  They raise and care for elephants and have the only elephant hospital in Thailand.  I have always had a love for elephants, but have never come into contact with them until living here in Thailand.  They are such majestic animals and looking into their eyes you know they are wise, feeling creatures.  Whenever you come across elephants here, there is always someone close by selling corn or bananas for you to feed them.  Because of this, physical contact with elephants has become a normal activity, one I know I won't be able to repeat inside the U.S.  

They trained the elephants to paint pictures which they then auction off to raise funds for the conservatory.

Elephant trunk reaching for some snacks!

Rocking a dorky grin because I'm touching an elephant.