It feels as though an age has passed since I last wrote. I'm in a completely different time and space. This blog finds me in Bangkok, Thailand surrouded by a myriad of people, cars, motorbikes and some very, very tall buildings.

The last 6 weeks have been a bit of a blur. I left Guatamala for Los Angeles, where I spent a couple of days (mainly at Disneyland!) before I left for Sydney. Most excitingly I got upgraded to Business Class on my flight from LA to Sydney - the first time it ever happened in my flying career. It made a big difference on such a long flight!

I spent a few weeks in Sydney catching up with everyone and working a little, and before I knew it it was time to leave for Thailand! I flew into Chiang Mai, a really lovely city in the north of Thailand. I spent the weekend here, and took the ride up to Doi Suthep, and amazing temple on the top of a hill overlooking the city. That weekend happened to be Halloween and Loy Krathong - a festival that occurs once a year in Thailand where people let off paper lanterns into the sky and decorative floats down waterways and rivers. It was really amazing sitting in Chiang Mai watching everyone letting off their laterns into the sky from the local rooftop bar. I really like the symbolism of the whole festival as well - floating the raft away is symbolic of letting go of any grudges or anger, and starting fresh.

On the Monday I left Chiang Mai for Elephant Nature Park to start a week of volunteer work. Elephant Nature Park is a sanctuary for Elephants that have been rescued from really dire straits - some had come from trekking camps, circuses, as pets and a lot from street begging. And all had their maladities - some were physical such as broken backs, hips, absycess where their tusks had been removed. But most of them were psychological. These elephants had endured a really hard lives - all you had to do was look in their eyes to see their pain. Most people aren't probably aware, as I wasn't, that elephants are thought to have the intelligence of a 12 year old, and have actually been found to be self aware. They are also highly social creatures.

Elephant Nature Park was started by an inspirational Thai women named Lek, who wanted to create a sanctuary where these poor animals (who have no animal protection or rights in their country) could just be elephants, eat a lot (and I mean a lot!), play, bathe in the river and enjoy each other's company. The week I spent at Elephant Nature Park was a really amazing. I learnt so much about these amazing creatures. As volunteers we got the pick up the elephant poo, prepare and wash food for the elephants, and even go out into the fields to cut things like corn and sugar cane for them to eat. We even got to walk with a family goup of elephants up to Elephant Haven - an area of land set outside up a mountain for the elephants where they get to be free overnight and learn how to be wild again.

It was an interesting week for us to be there as well, as there was some controversy involving Lek, another ex volunteer who has set up her own foundation in Thailand to suport the elephants and the government and media. In the face of struggle and adversity it was really amazing to witness how the organisation and local community pulled it together for the sake of the elephants. We were even lucky enough to be a part of a buddhist ceremony calling for protection for Lek and Antoinette, her ex volunteer.

I took a week off volunteering and went travelling in the north for a week with Anton, one of the other volunteers at the park. From Chiang Mai we took the winding road up through the mountains to Pai, a lovely little hippy (if not a bit touristy) town. We had a really fun time there taking in the local vibe, and spent a day riding our push bikes around the surrouding area which was really beautiful and swimming in waterfalls. Next stop for us was Mae Hong Son, a futher windy trip into the mountains of Northern Thailand, quite close to the Burmese border. We took a hike here up the hill overlooking town, and chilled out out the temple at the top.

I had some time to spare in Thailand, and decided to take the road less travelled here and not head down to the infamous touristy south islands. Instead Anton and I met up with some of the volunteers in Chiang Mai and headed down to Surin, in the South East of Thailand to work on Elephant Nature Park's affiliated project, which is quite new and needed lots of volunteers and help. Surin province is the main area in Thailand where the Elephants are from, before they leave for lucrative work in the field of street begging and the like.

Here the foundation is trying to work with the province to bring back a lot of the Elephants back to the area, and trying to set up a large sanctuary where Elephants can be enjoyed by tourists in their naural surroundings, bathing and eating, rather than painting for them or taking them for elephant rides. We were only the fourth group through the project, so there was a lot of hard work to be done. We worked with elphant mahouts to cut food for their elephants, water the crop growing for the elephants and we even built a shelter so people can enjoy watching the elephants frolick in the lake in the shade.

Emotionally, it was really tough few days at the sanctuary. As the project is so new we only had a group of 7 elephants to cater for, however there are many elephants there not involved in the Surin project. These elephants were stuck on short chains most of the day, some had their two front feet tied together, and all they had to eat was a small ration of dried grass - their ribs and backbones were really pronounced and you could feel their desperation.

Toward the end of the week we left the sanctuary for the city of Surin, where they were hosting the big elephant round up which happens every year to celebrate Surin as the home of Elephants. Elephants from all over the country are required to come home and participate in the festivities. We stayed there on the military site (with most of the elphants and mahouts from the festival), camping for a few nights with our mahouts and their elephants. Every day we walked with our Elephants into town and tried to promote the foundation, during the festivities such as a big elephant buffet and show.

It was also a really hard few days, as I'd never seen so many elephants being forced to do so many unnatural things all in the one place. In particular, the elephant show where the elephants were made to do headstands, paint and throw darts. The experience was amazing though and something we were all really lucky to experience and take away with us, in the hope of further helping the cause of the asian elephant.

I'm in Bangkok now, and today I head to Vietnam. My travel in Thailand is over for now, but I know i'll definitely be back to help the cause of the elephants.

If you're interested here are the web address of the projects I was working on:

Chiang Mai - http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/

Surin - http://www.elephantnaturefoundation.org/

TTFN xo