We woke up to the sound of drying clothes indicating that the night before it had rained. Though my clothes had fully dried by then and I brought them in, what I wore for this day would be the last time I would ever wear a piece of article, one that I had worn only three times before and bought in Chiang Mai the second time around at the market. We first went to the Jungle, something I wasn't quite interested in doing which came from the fact of possibly getting ticks, which I think that came from that one time I was getting ready to take a bath and mom found a tick on me and we had to get the neighbor to come over cause he knew how to take it out completely without leaving the head in. So I was really nervous about that entire fact, that and that Olivier would stop every few seconds to talk about one of the plants and I just wanted to trot along in silence to listen to the sounds. But then it started to rain. I like rain, in fact I love it. Thunderstorms I just adore and could never live without, but when I'm caught in the rain, thats a whole other side of things. I don't mind if I'm running through it, or if I have a hoodie on because then I am not getting wet, the hoodie is. But I was getting drenched wearing only a t-shirt and my elephant pants and my elephant bag that luckily didn't have any electronics in and I slipped my phone into a dry bag one of the girls had brought. That just changed my entire mood of annoyed that we were taking forever on one plant and not silently taking it all in to the most sour person ever who felt incredibly stiff and wet. We trudged back to the trucks for the people with cameras but then ended up heading to a coconut shop before heading to Mangrove and then finally, the rain had lightened up and we went to lunch. My mood changed as I got some good prawn omelet and rainbow ice cream into me. But then the worst happened, as we were loading up to head back to the hotel, my elephant pants ripped, right at the crotch too. I am completely devastated at the fact that those pants ripped. I am hoping that my mom can possibly fix them or my aunt but they may already be too far gone D: I really like them and the only way I can get these pants with the patterns again is if I probably go back to the Sunday Market in Chiang Mai... ~sigh~ I was happy to get out of wet, ripped pants and change into something dry (that didn't last quite long). As we headed to an 'abandoned' island. It was abandoned when Shannon, Janice, and Johnathon went last year, but since then it has picked up and been being cleaned and people are now living on the island again. Two other girls and myself did find some abandoned places that were out of the eyes of the caretaker of the island and I took some photos before we got back onto the boat and went into the middle of nowhere for one last plunge into the Gulf of Thailand. At first, I didn't want to do anything with it, I was comfy, hiding from the sun, trying to catch some sleep and not get into the water. Plus I didn't wear a bathing suit. But after quite along time of every other student being called into the water, and even Janice it ended up for me taking my shirt and pants off and jumping from the second story of the boat in my bra and underwear, which you can find the image somewhere on my FB, thus of course I am in the water so it's actually not that obvious.
We returned for our final night of Koh Chang where we were given the best meal of them all, crab. Well there was more, but I really enjoyed the crab. Though my body quickly rejected it the next day. And a nice glass of wine, where I once again learned, no to white or red wine, but I could do rosé. Bed.
Saturday May 21st
Carli and I were woken up at about 3-45-ish to the sound of a very wonderful thunderstorm and the really weird sounding frogs outside. Though I think I actually just woke up to use the restroom. We talked a little before falling back asleep and waking up for breakfast before leaving Mangrove Hideaway to the tourist side of Koh Chang. There we stopped at an elephant trekking camp where we watched the elephants sway and...this is what Shannon wrote, I just can't....
"Before leaving Kog Chang, we went to one of the least seven elephant camps on the tourist-industry-devastated west coast of the island to learn the painful practice of witnessing as activism."
"We know now that the swinging head is a clear sign of derangement, that those are likely urine puddles on the floor (she had taken a video), that they only escape the stalls with metal seats on their backs, that the chunks missing from their ears are pulled out by hooks while training, that the buckets of water (when available) are not adequate, that the chains serves only to remind the elephants of the trauma of the crush (Look up elephant crushing/ or elephant training crush, it's horrifying). And unfortunately it can get much, much worse than this."
"We rejected the welcome, did not pay any money, did not touch the elephants. We looked until we saw, took photos to raise awareness back home, and somehow found the strength to walk away."
I lasted a good two solid minutes before I couldn't hold it in and turned my back wanting to leave as I wept. I seriously wept. To have worked at Elephant Nature Park the week before and to see those free elephants and then see what some may have done...I...mmmmmm....
We went to a view point afterwards, have some recovery food, cinnamon roll for me, talked a little, had a group photo taken, said good-bye to Olivier and Jean-Luc before getting on the Ferry to return to Bangkok.
Ten hours, ten freaking hours in those vans. I lucked out again on getting into the one with less people and read Hollow City the second book of Miss Peregrin's Home for Peculiar Children, and got pretty far in it. We stopped three times, twice for bathrooms, once for lunch where it was supposed to be only fifteen to twenty minutes that slowly turned into forty-five minutes. So haha...Arrived at seven at night to the hotel. So from nine-thirty to seven-thirty we were in those dang vans, getting in and out and getting caught in traffic due to several things.
Sunday May 22nd
A full day in Bangkok. We took a van to the airport, then a train to the city subway, city subway to a mall. Where we had lunch, and I bought a few more souvenirs for some people before we went to an itty-bitty Hard Rock Café Bangkok, where I got my pin and a pin for a friend before we headed back to the mall (all of this was walking) before we took a Subway to a stop and got off and walked to where we would have dinner. We had one last group chat of how we felt about leaving.
Like I said before I'm "Ehh" I could stay probably much longer but I could also go. I am very glad to have gone on such an amazing trip that I truly feel like I may have found my calling of working at Elephant Nature Park, or one similar to it somewhere else. It was amazing, peaceful, and I still can't get over the fact that I was there. I fell the urge to return and sometimes do wish that I had just not gotten on that van to return to Chiang Mai and waved good-bye to all the Otterbein students as I turned to return to working there.
Things have been running through my head and my weird dream from Friday to Saturday I think was a very big worry dream that had to do with the possibility of returning with diseases. Thank you anxiety...
We took a large van back to the hotel and now here I am, showered pretty much packed besides the last few things I will use today and tomorrow...making sure everything is charged.
I am not able to transfer the last of my images to the interwebs so that will have to wait until Tuesday until then I will be in no contact until I am sure we have fully entered the US area to turn my data back on before landing in JFK. So this time around it's:
Bangkok -Tokyo = 6 1/2 hours
Tokyo-JFK = 13 1/2 hours
JFK- Columbus = 2 hours and 10 minutes
-Claire
P.S. I will post when I have landed safely in Columbus :3
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