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.