Elephant Round Up Round 2

Laura and I went to the Surin Elephant Festival again. Not only did we get to see our friends from last year, I was greeted to the show with a "Niiiiicccoooo!!!!!" from an rice farmer on top of an elephant, as a group of about 20 onlookers stared in odd amusement. They insisted we get up bareback on the elephants and paraded us through backstage. It was the best thing ever.

The elephant trainers are rice farmers for the rest of the year. They walk around the festival and sell food to give to the elephants. This boy was awesome; his head scarf is Cambodian, they are decedents of the Cambodian Khmer empire.

They put seats on the elephants after the show and people pay for rides. The district is the poorest in the country... this guy was top notch. He played elephant soccer with his in a match. They only wear the wraps as costumes for the show.



You know you're in Thailand when five rice farmers want to be your boyfriend, take you on their elephant and cruise around for awhile...

The real LT deal

So here's an example of a real Luk Thung show...Pattaya style. Pattaya is considered one of the sex-tourist capitals of the world...seeeeeeedy.

The background is painted like the rice feild...alot of the songs are about leaving the country for the big city, yearning for home and lost love type thing.

Yes, these are "working boys".

Luk Thung Halloween

If you've been following, you know I've developed a taste for Thai country style...especially Luk Thung music. So for Halloween my friend and I dressed up as Luk Thung dancers. Girls will rock these dresses and then go on stage and do painfully rehearsed moves. Often "girly bars" in the provinces will have girls dancing and singing this music, dressed like this.

My friend and I bought our costumes in the Thai/Burma border town. Of course, all the dresses were waaaaaay too small. The woman was going through them and finally pulled out these perfectly sized dresses: her little girl walks by and declares "UAN" (FAT!!!!!!). I was like "Chaaai...uan!" She looked at me in fear that I knew what she was saying.....

The flags are of the King's regalia. The King rules all. I fear saying anything more.

B-day in Sri Lanka

This is really old now....but here are the only pics of me on my birthday (that I know of). I was in Sri Lanka for a "human rights defenders forum", where all the brave amazing souls that work at the grassroots (re: deal with murders, "disappearances," intimidation on a daily basis). They came to this conference on threat of their lives to learn about human rights. Since I had been working for Sri Lanka, I got to meet all the people I was assisting from my safe post in Bangkok. We are in the mountains in Kandy. Imagine, 30 Sri Lankans singing me happy b-day. It rocked.

The hood...

A trip around my hood will reveal many splendors.... Muslim cemeteries by the river... motherless kittens....jungle hide-outs....

The sticks.....

Went for a little jot to the country side...real Thai livin. I can't disclose everything about the weekend, but let's just say, sometimes a lady has to step up and kick some ass in snooker.

Lao Pinny!!

This is Tao Wan...he was soooo Pinnington. Note the mesh shirt. He drives a tuk tuk by day....

Laos

Spent acouple days in Laos, for a visa run. I liked it. Most notable was how class divisions weren't so gaping, like in Thailand. We went to the most bumpin club we could find in the capital city, Vientiane, and there were Japanese buisness men with prostitutes, fat white men with lady boys (unbeknownst to them!), high budget Laos b-boys, tuk tuk drivers and hi-so girlie girls. If you want to party in Laos, the options aren't exactly abundant. If you want to hit opium, heroin, or meth, however, seems like Laos is the place to be.....

KO CHANG

In early June, I went to Ko Chang (Elephant Island) for the weekend. It's about a five hour bus ride, but it pays off! There's lots to do here, but all I did was lay on the beach. It's low season, so there was no one around. If I ever get wildly rich, I plan to fly all my friends from around the world to one location and PARTY. How about Ko Chang?

Yup he's still alive

Sri Lanka

A pic from Reuters. For work, I monitor the situation in Sri Lanka, writing press releases, statements and participating in advocacy campaigns. Besides a blown out civil war between the government and rebel Tamil Tigers, the whole institutional structure that could protect the people (judiciary, Human Rights Commission, police) has imploded. It is now a common example of a failed state in Asia. People are abducted and killed in broad daylight; the culprits are mostly paramilitary, LTTE and government. It is so easy to kill people in Sri Lanka that abductions and disappearances are an industry for bribe-money. This pic is from a protest that took place in SL.

Mae Sot: Thai/Burma border

After a 8 hour overnight bus ride, my friend and I show up, with a roll mentality...hence why I look pretty roughed up. Since Mae Sot is the border town with Burma, it has a huge Thai military presence. I forgot my passport (wickedly unintelligent, I know) but managed to pass through 6 military checkpoints on my Canadian friend's passport...I don't know how we pulled it off.


This is under the bridge passing into Burma. You can see Burma on the other side of the river. Our friend who lives here is a former fighter with the Shan army (forced recruitment). He is a recognized refugee but has no citizenship status. He spends all his time promoting human rights for Burmese refugees...an amazing person. He took us to the refugee camp for various Burmese, mostly ethnic minorities. I have no pics of the camp....they made us dinner later....which included pork intenstines...wasn't going to say no!

What the??

We looked out the window while at work, to see a plume of yellowish smoke coming our way...think it was a chemical explosion of sorts. Made the day interesting, anyway.

Hua Hin

Went to Hua Hin, a traditional Thai beach town...more Thais, less tourists...better! It is only a couple hours south of Bangkok. We took a train down though, that took about five hours, and bantered with a drunk Laotian the whole way. Bus next time, I think.

The new family member

I know everyone out there is oh-so-concerned, but my life is now full of renewed joy....A new radio!!!! with tape player!!!!! I now go to the flea market and find goodies like: led zeppelin, hendrix, nirvana, fleetwood mack, sonic youth, Tu pac, snoop dog, Brasil!, Cuba!, Beastie Boys. A motely collection, but hey, the best I could do. The best one is the Brasil! tape, compilation of brazilian songs. Yup.

Kanchanaburi # 3

Went to Kanchanburi again, in early May. It was all together exciting, mostly cuz my friend and I rented bikes (yip yip) and rode around all day. A luxury not to be had in traffic logged Bangkok, which includes twelve year old kids riding around on motorcycles with their baby brothers strapped to the back. Small town central Thailand is amazing, especially because of the low tourist population and friendlier people.

Bird as a Monk

My friend and I (thanks for the pics Laura!) got invited to a monk initiation ceremony for our friend Bird. Young men often do stints as monks, for a week up to a couple years.

Kuala Lumpur: 80s design nightmare

So I went to Malaysia for a visa-run, visiting the capital Kuala Lumpur for three days. Let me say, KL is an 80s design nightmare. My friend and I (Laura...thanks for the pics!!) thought it would be cool...maybe even more of a scene than Bangkok. You know, maybe we'll go to a bar and people will actually throw their hands in the air!! (Bangkok Thais are so conservative and self conscious that dancing is practically like pulling teeth).

But KL turned out to be BLA! It was stuck in a weird middle zone, sorta like Cambridge, Ontario. Too small to have a local vibrant culture, but not big enough to have strength in diversity. I think KL had an economic boom in the 80s, which flattened out thereafter...leaving the city stuck in a brutal time warp. I thought I might have been lost at the Toronto zoo, circa 1996.

One good thing though, after coming from Bangkok, was that there was a some ethnic diversity going on...a mash of South Asians, Chinese and Malays (which are a historic mash anyway). I liked being in an Islamic city as well.