Turtling In Thailand - My Week As A Kindred Spirit
The most life changing experience started at… 7am… its been
a rather long time since I’ve seen 7am… so that in itself was intriguing… and
not in a good way, lets be honest…
Lets not day by day this experience, its not interesting for
anyone other than the people who experience it (read A Tale of Two Cities – you’ll see what I
mean), but I will say that EVERY day I appreciated the simplicity (by which I
mean… not complicating life the way so many do, with who is what and what is who
and blackberry and blueberry and apple and god help me it sounds like I’m
making a fruit cake!…) of existence, the wee puppies biting at my ankles, the
kittens with twisted tails, the pigs who didn’t give a flying… well a flying
anything as to whether you were there or not, the chickens bricking themselves
constantly – will they ever get used to humans? The family fires burning and
just… actual… life.
Yeah I said it, life… I suppose my farm girl origins might
affect my perspective, but coming here, it was suddenly apparent what LIFE
really meant… and its these things. Its that puppy you cant help but adore,
it’s the sunshine coming through the leaves, it’s the smoke from a family fire
and the ladies laughing around.
So the alarm alerts me to what I’ve rediscovered is called ‘morning’,
it’s a crisp cold, and two pairs of socks are immediately added to my close to
frozen feet. Making my way down the two flights of external stairs and hopping
across the gravel to the wash room, thrusting icy water on my face and flushing
the loo with the small bucket from the large water container… deep breath…
Its time to be brave…
I’ve done all the exercising prep I could manage in a month,
I’ve freaked out an appropriate amount that I’m all… out of freak (one hopes at
any rate), and ye we are here… and maybe I’ll fit in and maybe I wont and OMG
where is a rock for me to climb under?
Shaking this off (or pushing it down as far as it can go), I
head toward the… now where WAS the base camp? Did I come here from the left or
the right yesterday? If the sun is over there… does the sun always rise in the
East… or does it depend on where you are on the Earth?
After some back tracks, I found a road that took me through
the village, across a rope swinging, wood slattened wibby wobbly bridge, met by
a few yapping and excited puppies and into the base camp space. Removing my
shoes with nervous shaking hands, I head up the stairs and into…
“Da Blu!” “Good morning”, “Hiya!”, introductions and toast
and tea and such a
Ok… so… ARGH! What character does one play in this
circumstance?
I sit down across from the lovely Rosella, sipping my hot
tea while we all shiver and shake in the morning mist. My god but its
beautiful, I stare endlessly at the way the light touches the morning dew, the
rustle of long grass as the puppies make their way through, the old Thai man
walking his long horned ox along the road with the wooden tonk tonk of the
bells around their neck.
And just with this I feel utter relief. We’re not in China
any more Toto!
But with the end of breakfast comes the next challenge,
maybe a mix now of psychological and physical. The evening before, while eating
dinner with Bea, I found the courage to finally ask:
“So… Bea… this ah, hiking business – three or four hours…
or?
“Oh no”, she responded non chalantly, clearly not seeing how
terrified I was about the imminent walk tomorrow, “nah, maybe an hour or so…”
“What! Oh my god! I thought we were going to be hiking for
five hours and I was going to die and some poor little village person would
need to come and collect my body from the forest!”
We giggled, and almost every muscle I have un-tensed just a
little.
So, hiking boots were on and off we went… through the
village, stopping to each collect a hessian sack of bananas, some of us with
cameras swinging at our chests. And my good heavens it was like I’d walked into
a page for Nat Geo… again, I seriously could not get over this light – how to describe
it, soft, with a subtle glow to it… flickering over the leaves, sparking off
the running river, whispering over the wooden shack in the middle of a cleared
corn field. It was like a character in itself, a something more than just ‘light’…
Each morning was a slightly different route, as we would
follow to where the Elephants had moved over night… which came as a surprise to
me on the second day because I thought I’d worked out which was the most
strenuous part of the hike and so was mentally prepared for it… and would know
when it was over so I could relax…
Not so!
Fortunately, the extraordinary Alex, who more often than not
lead us through the trail, would give us all a few breathers, a break to have a
drink of water, and… de-cloth. At each stop another layer of clothes would be
taken off as the warmth of the day grew, along with our heart rates!
But the huffing and puffing and red cheeks were worth it, if
not for the glorious beauty of the forest, then for the unique awe inspiring experience
of seeing these mammoth yet graceful, sentient beasts in their natural habitat.
They are
Upon our arrival we would have the opportunity to feed the
elephants, ideally with palm flat to allow the elephants to take the fruit… in
my case, the youngest elephant at one stage decided to make the eating process
somewhat more efficient and went straight for the back, grabbing out a whole
bunch of bananas and thoroughly enjoying a mouth full of happy potassium!
Then there were maybe two or three hours to observe the
elephants, what they did, how they interacted… follow them in through the
forest (well, Alex was off into the bush and I wasn’t going to miss THAT
adventure! Tori (the new teaching intern) has the same idea as me, unfortunately
out of all of us I seemed to have sea legs and ended up stuck in a gully from
which I was retrieved by one of the mahoots and Armando (photography intern
whom I’m exceedingly jealous of his incredible talent). Only one wee cut, a
lump on the leg and a wee bit of bruising.
“Well”, I said, “Was going to happen sooner or later, glad
to have gotten that out of the way!” Little... did... I... know
While observing the elephants Jade, a long time staff member
and bug obsessed individual with a particular hatred of China… for reasons she
was delighted to explain often… enticed us into conversation including… if you
were an animal what would you be and why (I said a phoenix, but that’s
apparently not a real animal – so far as we know… - so I changed to a caterpillar
which I think is kinda the same thing).
I followed up with which BUG would you be, and she was at an
absolute loss with the wealth of options… before becoming distracted by the
sound of a bird she couldn’t see and grabbing out her ‘Birds Book’ to see if
she could identify it.
Often we would join the mahoots for lunch… they’d cook up
noodles on a
Lets just say there was a lot of rice. You might think this
would not be of concern to me… but while I do live in China, I cook for myself
every night and there are more potatoes had than rice…
But sitting out there in the open, the elephants meandering
around behind us, Jade pointing out a wasp or a bird of prey, Armando dashing
here and there for the best snaps, Tori taking everything in in the quiet
observant way she has, Rosella (beaming with just goodness) chatting away with
Kerri (Oh – she is the boss! I was most intimidated at first, I mean… who opens
a bloody elephant sanctuary before they’re 30… before I was to come to learn
that this is simply a generous, genuine and ridiculously motivated woman… now I’m
just jealous!)
So often I had to pull myself back… no, you are not in a
dream. This is a moment in your life. Thank god you’d had a few wines that
night and signed up to the wrong country for the right reasons!
Have you ever heard the word, it’s a verb, ‘turtleing’?
Well, it was upon one of our hikes out to the elephants that I came across this
word, thinking I’d coined it…
It was the third day, I decided not to take my camera this
time as I kept taking photos of the same things because I couldn’t get over how
beautiful they were… but DID decide to take my journal, believing there might
be some time for writing during observation and wouldn’t that be just lovely.
Again, we took a different route and had to cross a wee
stream, just three steps along a sturdy enough looking log. Now given I grew up
jumping over and off logs, running about in paddocks and riding down gravel, I
had this in the bag.
Yes a little overweight, but still nimble as a ballerina!
Or was I.
I stood back as one, two, three, four people made their way
across. My turn… totes fine…
Second step, I was little less than centre on the log, the
log… rolled, I turned… arms outstretched to the sky as a descending
unpoetically arse first into the running river… next thing my arms and legs are
flailing, while my torso enjoyed the massage of the fresh current…
And here, ladies and gentlemen, I experienced first hand the
verb… TURTLING…
As adrenaline does… everything slowed down, I could see some
of the faces of the girls, at once horrified and somewhat amused… because, how
could you not be. Meanwhile the mahout and Armando went into Avengers mode, trying
to yoink me unceremoniously from the running stream.
Saturated, but admittedly refreshed, I had been over heating
from the hike, I stood while the group fussed about… are you ok? Omg! Is your
camera ok?
I grabbed my backpack (which I’d sewn up before I left
China, thank goodness…) and checked my journal – phew, it was ok! My phone?
Well I’d stashed that in the safest place… my bra, so was nice and dry.
We all just started laughing… and continued on the hike. On
the journey back we were to cross the river again, I chose to remove my shoes
and simply go THROUGH the water rather than try any sort of further acrobatics,
meanwhile Jade asked…
“Oh by the way… did you get a change to pick up your ego?”
Bitch :)
In the afternoon I had the opportunity to go with Bea,
Rosella and Tori to teach (or help teaching). The kids are delightful, but
cheeky little monkeys! The girls laughed knowing, somehow inherently, that I’m
a relatively structured person and here… was… mayhem!
But the respect the kids showed for Bea, the interest in the
classes, was palpable. Funny that the girls were aware of one element of me,
but… and did I mention my issue in (a village smaller than my home town) I couldn’t
find base came? They saddled me with a GEOGRAPHY activity…
Totally fine…
So… Australia is in the middle right?
And… as far as I’m concerned there are five continents… I’ve
now been advised that continents as I understood them are land mass, and
continents are… not countries but a group of them… and WHY DO THEY KEEP
CHANGING THE FACTS!!!
I was able to get my own back when Bea was introducing
animals from different countries and coming to Australia… PULLED OUT A BLOODY
RABBIT!
A rabbit! Vermin… An English brought on the boat virus to
the point we had to build a fence dedicated to the wee beasties! Oh the insult!
My heart burst as we played and taught and interacted with
these bright and bouncing young people. The kids had a unique confidence unlike
the students I have in China… they are spontaneous and uninhibited which warmed
my heart but also reconfirmed my desire to remain childless… teaching is enough
me thinks!
The evenings were spent with banter and activity. Wednesday
was Jade’s turn at running a quiz – Rosella and I looked at one another and
signed…. “Well… this is going to be science… nope”. For the next hour we just
giggled like naughty school girls at the back of the room acknowledging our
utter lack of knowledge for ANYTHING Jade was asking!
Another evening I was introduced to a murder type game…
After one round the guys identified that I might be a bit of a story-teller, or
bullshitter as my brother might otherwise describe, and so was given the role
of narrator – hoorah!
Its one of the most enjoyable evenings I’ve ever had. A
group of us sitting around on the floor, the night stars sparking outside and a
light breeze as the
“The year is 2052!” I announced, “Unfortunately civilisation
as we knew it has collapsed. However, from the ashes has risen a new society…
The City Of Queens! Women now control the earth (there were three women and two
men in the game, plus me!) In order to continue our population, women scour the
forest to collect men to make use of their… sperm!”
Shock, horror and giggles from the guys…
“However, we do have TWO experimental subjects… two men
within our group… BUT!” I shouted… “An attack has occurred in the night! The
body of Chris was found… HEADLESS… in the lab… who is to blame?!”
What a great game! It was theatre and comradery and referencing
things that happened during the day… Now there’s a way to spend the evening.
All is fun and games til someone cant poo.
Now, I know you don’t want to hear this, but for the
purposes of a blog, we must have honesty and transparency.
Like I mentioned, its all about the rice. And I wont lie,
the food was delicious, but there was A LOT of rice… for lunch and dinner and…
it was on the third day I realised that no movement had been had and I was
feeling somewhat similar to an overstuffed teddy bear.
Somehow coming up in conversation, Rosella confessed she was
having the same problem, and was rather annoyed at Armando who had some relief
the day before… Now when you’re jealous of someones number 2’s, there are
serious issues.
I thought no more about it, except for every hour or so… and
then the last day arrived. Its as if my body was waiting for this opportunity…
as if it was holding off in anticipation… and 11pm I was dashing sock and shoe
free, down the midnight stairs, across the gravel, kitten at my ankles and into
the lavatory for what can only be described as an explosion… an utter explosion…
The relief at first was soon replaced by concern as to… well
HOW much can there be?
The answer was two days worth of every-two hour dashes, and
some VERY near misses… the answer is also, no loo roll in the loo and no way of
getting more… resulting in the use of t-shirts… yup… material… which I then
secreted deeply into the depths of previously used toilet paper…
I had to decline the final hike to the elephants, preferring
instead to stay as still as physically possible and google non medicinal cures
to what I believed was gastro.
Followed by a five hour car ride back to Chaing Mai…
Let us not end on that note… though it is a note to be noted…
In one week I met some people who seemed to know me within a
moment.
Some people who I think I’ll be friends with for life.
I walked in with so much fear and shame, and walked out with
a lightness (and no, not just cos of the diarrhea!) of heart. Forgive me, but
a zen… Between the nature, the elephants, the comradery, and an opportunity to
experience something so beyond my day to day… could I be any more fortunate? I
think not.
On one of the last days I sat myself with a tea by the
river, joined by three dogs coming for a cuddle and a snooze in the sun. I
scribbled away in my journal while watching the sparkling stream run and bounce
off rocks below, wavering leaves and swaying grass, and smelt fires burning and
heard pigs grunting, and birds singing and I felt my chest ready to burst with
utter unencumbered bliss.
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