There are a few things that every city I have seen so far is really obsessed with. For starters, the cars, it's either Toyota, or Volkswagen, but mainly the Volkswagen Bus. They are EVERYWHERE. If you aren't driving either of those, I have no idea what they do drive cause I've only seen those two plus one Infiniti. Another thing is motorbikes, either vespa like things or motorcycles. I thought that India had a decent amount (from what I've seen in photos and whatnotes), but so does Thailand. They don't follow the laws of the roads, but no one really does. We did something that could get us in trouble in the US of completely avoiding the stop light by changing directions just to go around the light.
This morning was kind of sad. I got up, had breakfast and we had our last gathering. We did a second elephant walk...er...third? We had one on Sunday or was that Monday...? Those first two days blurred together so I don't remember anything from those. I worked a little on my project as we went around but it was kind of hard cause the babies wanted to play. Like seriously wanted to play! The only problem is is that when a baby elephant wants to play you have to move, but they move fast, but you can't run or they think you want to play too. So it was the Otterbein Group going in circles trying not to run from a baby elephant that was chasing us around the area. It was kind of fun, but also a little disappointing that you actually couldn't play with them. We went around until the very end where Mix gave us certificates of actually doing Volunteer work there.
That place was so amazing. There was so much to do, and so many things that frankly I seriously can't sum it up in one word. I am completely speechless towards the experience I had that I can't get over it. So don't ever ask me to describe it one word because I will say many many many things about it. Lek is the coolest woman in the world (minus my amazing relatives and friends). She really has taken it upon herself to dedicate the rest of her life towards working to free elephants from how horribly they were treated. Its overwhelming and I swear if you ever EVER have to pay to ride, or pay to give it food or Teak Wood, or the furniture from World Market, just don't. Don't. NEVER. Those are elephants beaten into submission to give you those things, to drag those logs to create those furniture. Nope, just no.
We returned to Chiang Mai and the same hotel where we had an hour of downtime, which I used practically in the bathroom the entire time because my body did NOT want to deal with the last meal I had (even though they were all foods that I had and handled before). Before we had a class meeting at three to catch up and reflect before we were released to the Sunday Market. It happens EVERY Sunday. It's insane! It's incredibly repetitive, but also not cause there was a few things I saw last time that were here this time and vise versa. I can understand that it's a treat to the locals, and discount galore. I will not be spending money until Koh Chang or the second round of Bangkok. I went around with my roommates before they left and I did a little bit more wandering, looking into the side streets that we didn't do together and learned that's where all the food is. I was always wondering why I had never found really any food and thats why....they're all on the sides.
I'm working on uploading the images as I write this. But boy do my feet hurt and its almost midnight....sooo you know...goodnight :3
-Claire
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