Retirement Home for Elephants

We We went to a sanctuary for old, injured and/or sick elephants. We first changed our clothes before doing various activities and getting up close and personal with the local residents.

We fed them bananas.

Made poopoopaper by boiling the dung to sterilize it then so reading it over screens.

Drying it and then carefully peeling it off.

Ta da!

We prepped the evening feed - some sort of grass chopped up and mixed with vitamin pellets, coarse salt and water.

We also made Tamarand/ginger balls to aid in digestion. Lots of mushing around.

The best part was bathing them.

This one almost knocked me over....

I lost my shoe and had to go back to camp "commando".

This maybe the best thing we did in Thailand. Thank you teacher Ellyn for telling me about it.

Knives and other sharp and pointy things

We can always count on the lads in our family to bring home sharp and pointy things. Tom has quite a collection of fancy French Lagiole knives, Alec and Duncan have collected a few swords (not to mention cannon balls, artillery shells etc).

We stopped by the side of the road for an "learning and discovory" moment and happened upon a foundry making knives, machetes and other farm tools.

They buy truck springs in Bangkok

Cut them into lengths.

Then they heat them in a charcoal  furnace and pound them into rudimentary shapes

Next the blades are heated to temper the metal and pounded into their final shape.

Grind the edge and put on a handle et voila! Sharp and pointy.

I didn't buy any, some people will be dissappointed.

Some of my favorite things so far.....

This Indigo dying

This is the indigo plant. She is holding the branches that the dye is extracted from.

Lye and potash is used to male the dark color.

 I scored 2 table cloths, 2 pcs of fabric and a skirt. Definally impulse shopping, we only had 10 minutes.

This is my tent cabin on the River Kwai.

I love these old teak houses. The support beams are massive.

We've had 2 cooking demos. This one is for green Papaya salad.

This one for a yummy noodle dish with minced pork. 

When we visited an ancient site everyone was riding around on bikes (except us) and this one was perfect for a family.

We visited a Akha village- one of the hill tribes in the golden triangle and got a demo of traditional headdresses.

This group only wears them on special days.

And we had lunch. Grilled fish, saffron rice steamed noodles and bamboo shoots. So far the food has been pretty tasty and not at all like Thai restaurant food at home.

I love a little boat ride........

NThis trip is all about boat rides, starting with a ride to a lotus farm.

Next was a ride up the river to the royal Barge Musuem. That was full of boats too.

I missed the boat ride from the Grand Palace, I've comedown with a miserable cold. Hold to feel better soon.

After a trip to a floating market (via boat of course)

Lunch on a riverside restaurant we had a boat ride down river to check out the fishermen. 

In "Bridge over the River Kwai" country we had lunch on a party boat, meandering up and down the river.

But, the best ride was along the Kwai, beautiful scenery and lovely breeze.

Things one sees along the way- monkeys, fish ponds, cows teathered at the shore, sea salt ponds

A motorcycle/pedestrian ferry

And no end of temples and shrines

Just look at the weather!

Day one

While we were waiting for the rest of our tour group to arrive we went off on for a day trip sightseeing outside Bangkok. First we went to see a giant Buddha in a park surrounded by topiaries and bonsai. 

Then we continued on to experience rural lifestyles at Klong Mahasawas.

We fed the huge cat fish- 2 feet or more long.

We took a boat to a lotus farm where we learned how to fold the lotus petals for offereings to the buddha

 

We took a tractor ride around a local farm and a had a sample of their products - fresh and dried fruit,

And a cooking demo of fried rice crackers at a women's coop. A lot like making tortillas, squish the leftover cooked rice, dry them 2 days, then fry and eat them. Yum.

And a tour of the farm. Not like the California rice fields, no mosquitos. Encroaching civilization in the background, commuters into Bangkok.

 

We continued to the Woodland Museum where we saw a bizillion wood carvings some ancient some new. All with amazing detail. And The private owner has a school for wood carvers. This one is carved from a tree root.