I forgot to mention possibly THE most exciting moment of the last two weeks. I fed an elephant. I have officially interacted with, touched and FED and real live elephant. It was a highlight of my 24th year. There I was, sitting at a local Thai restaurant, when an ELEPHANT comes wandering down the street with an old man perched on its back. A woman traveling with the elephant was selling elephant food to wide-eyed tourists (ME) to feed to the elephant.
Speaking of elephants. In a comment by my one and only commenter (possibly my one and only reader) there was an invitation to discuss the elephant that was featured in post number one, and specifically why it was chained up for no reason, and how unfortunate it was. Anyways, I wanted to elaborate on how strange it really was that this elephant was just chained to a mountain in a little elephant garage. This wat was way out of the way, a decent drive up a mountain from Chiang Mai. There is a little market area/village that had grown around the wat to sell things to tourists etc, and way at the back, at the bottom of the wat stairs, hidden away by the bathroom, is the elephant.
Which raises a few questions.
Such as: is the elephant a tourist attraction, and if so, why is it hiding? Is it holy and thus must remain in the vicinity of the wat? Is it evil and possessed and therefore held captive by the local people?
Moving on from elephants. There is a particular type of motorbike in Thailand (that has also made a huge splash on the moto scene in Cambo) called a Yamaha Fino that I WANT. I want to rent one, and drive it, with a matching helmet. My motorbike driving has kind of plateaued at driving around the driveway of the BAB house in Chiang Mai, but I think what I need is motivation, and access to my very own (pink checkered) FINO! I can't really accurately describe it - you could google it, its awesome -
but if MarioKart had a motobike it would look like the fino. And Toad would drive it.
Anyways, when dreams become reality and I'm cruisin in my fino, I will be sure to post photos.
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1 comment:
I googled it. I want it. But what I really want is an updated post. Kthxbye.
PS. An e-mail would do me fine too.
PPS. Yes, it might be my e-mail turn, but I'm hereby lobbing the ball into your court.
PPPS. I signed the contract with HuffPo. You are looking at Verena, the new Associate Editor, Huffington Post.
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