We spent 5 days in Chaing Mai, Thailand and had a couple of encounters/activities with animals.  Our time spent with the elephants was by far our favorite of the trip and quite possibly the best thing we’ve done since we arrived in Asia.  It was definitely up there with our hike of the Great Wall and the river boat cruise in Borneo.

Now, I know this post might make some of you animal rights activists cringe, so I will start off by saying that the elephants at Thai Elephant Home are rescued elephants.  Most of them have been rescued from logging companies in Myanmar that used them to haul timber.  So, they are domesticated elephants, not ones taken directly from the wild.  From what I observed, the elephants are treated very well and the workers there seem to really care about them.

Before we started our ride, we picked up loads of bananas to give to the elephants as part of our introduction to them.  Our guide told us “no bananas, no riding.”

 The elephants lined up and munched down.

Then we were introduced to our elephant and taught how to climb onto them.

My elephant had been rescued quite some time ago and she new the drill well.  Benjy’s, on the other hand, was just recently rescued and didn’t know the proper way to allow a human to mount him.  His would get the crouch down part right, but then wouldn’t give Benjy enough time to climb on.  This left Benjy practically hanging off of his elephant as it lumbered forward.

You’re supposed to sit on the back of the elephants head and bend your knees behind the elephants head.  I was having a difficult time with it and my elephant kept skooching me with her ears trying to position me in the right place.  Her name was Wan and she was very sweet and smart.

Wan could smell that I had bananas stuffed in my pockets and in my bag.  She spent the entire day doing this with her trunk, asking me to give her a banana.  She seemed to know when I would start rummaging around in my bag or pockets because immediately her trunk would pop up waiting for me to place the banana in it.

We road the elephants across the road.

Caution: Elephant and bull crossing…

I learned that elephants keep themselves cool by continually blowing on themselves with their trunks.  The result is essentially elephant snot rockets being launched onto you every 5 minutes or so.  The first few times I cringed and protested.  After about the 8th time, I gave up and accepted the fact that I would be slimed as long as I was on the back of this beast.  We road them for about an hour down a steep hillside.

and then came to their favorite place…the mud bath!

They loved the mud bath!  While the elephants relaxed in the mud, we ate lunch.  Then one elephant was brought over to give us some smooches.  We each got our turn.

With an elephant “lipstick” print and hicky left behind on our faces.

We were then “invited” to partake in the mud bath ourselves.  I tried to forget the fact that I witnessed the elephants relieving themselves in the mud just moments before.  And why not add elephant pee and poop to the layers of elephant snot we were already covered in?

Then one lucky pachyderm was chosen from the group to experience his own personal mud bath compliments of all of us.  We rubbed him down with mud all over his body and behind his ears.  He was clearly enjoying it as he curled his trunk up and sighed contentedly over and over.

After the mud bath, we mounted up and headed for the river.

When we got to the river, we all took a plunge into the cool water and rinsed the mud off the elephants…

and ourselves

It was an awesome day!!

Yes, this is a bit delayed, but I decided to write about this portion of our trip to Cambodia separately, so it will be a rather abbreviated post.

On our last night in Phnom Penh we went to a restaurant that served extraordinary table fare.  One of their specialties is fried tarantulas.  Webley and Aaron have awarded me with the moniker “The Cupbearer” because, unlike anyone else in my immediate family, I’m usually game to taste just about anything once.  Since moving to Hong Kong, I’ve only become bolder because I figure:  someone enjoys eating it or it wouldn’t be on a menu, right?

I have to admit, however, when I first heard of the opportunity to eat fried tarantulas, I didn’t immediately jump at the idea.  That might be pushing the envelope a little too far, even for me.  But, I reasoned, most things seem to taste good if it’s battered and thrown into a deep fryer, so I figured I’d just give it a go.

Once your order is placed, you are welcome to meet your future appetizer.  Aaron and I were obliged to make their acquaintance.

They were actually quite cute and furry and calm.  Poor things.  It is a bit morbid, I know.  I should also add that they were defanged right after they were caught.

Similar to the trained pigs that sniff out truffles, dogs are trained to sniff out tarantula nests buried in the forest floor.  I wonder how the spiders are then defanged after they are caught?  How does one hold down a tarantula without squishing him as you are pulling out his fangs?  He’s not just going to hold still for you to do that!  Are these really defanged?  Hmmmm…Things you don’t want to spend too much time dwelling on when you’re holding said tarantula in the palm of your hand and its eight beady little eyes are boring holes into your face.

So after a few minutes of up close and personal time, we bid adieu and the arachnids were whisked away.

Moments later….viola!  Fried buggers on a plate complete with a special dipping sauce made from the juice squeezed out of tarantula egg sacks (just kidding about the egg sacks, it was some sort of spicy/sweet vinegar thing).

And the verdict is…they taste like chicken….just kidding again.

Actually, they are quite like fried soft shell crab and I have to say not bad, not bad at all.    One of the high schoolers on our team who had been to Cambodia previously said she preferred the pregnant spiders because they are “much meatier.”  I’ll keep that in mind for the next time.

In the spirit of “giving it a go,” this time, both Benjy and Webley went for it too.  They agreed it was pretty good.  Aaron, on the other hand, opted out.

We spent five days in Cambodia on a family mission trip organized by our church, Island ECC.  When we landed, our first stop was lunch at a restaurant called “Sugar and Spice Café.”  It’s a restaurant operated by Daughters of Cambodia, a Christian NGO that ministers to victims of sex-trafficking.  Daughters of Cambodia operates eight fair trade businesses, including cafes, a boutique (which includes items produced in their sewing room), a spa and a hotel.  The food was absolutely delicious

 and the ambience was lovely. 

I purchased this purse at the gift shop located in the café.  It, along with all the other stuff, was made in the sew shop.

Cute stuff!

To find out more about Daughters of Cambodia and their mission, please visit their website at www.daugthersofcambodia.org

We spent most of our time with an organization called the Jehovah Jireh Center, or the JJ Center. The JJ Center was started by this amazing woman, Charia, and her husband.

With the help of her sisters and others, Charia ministers to the children of the slums.  We spent 3 days at the JJ Center getting to know some of the kids.  They were so sweet and precious and loveable.  We enjoyed every moment with them.

And then we took a tour of the place where many of these children live.

The slum next to the center is located on the former site of the city’s trash dump. Although the location is no longer used as a dump, the trash remains piled up in large mounds.  There’s no running water, no bathroom or sewage facilities and, to my  knowledge, no electricity.  They pay $5/month to live here.

The parents of many of the children at the JJ Center work in the city trash dump. They pick through the trash and recycle what they find. A work day begins at 4:00 a.m. and lasts until 6:00 p.m. They make $5.00 a week doing this work. It’s common for parents to send their children as soon as they are old enough to work in the dump as well. When Charia first opened the JJ Center, she paid the families $1/day so the children could come to her center instead of going to work at the trash dump.  The center provides a safe environment where the children receive food, clothing, education and most importantly, God’s word.  Sometimes it’s the only meal they have during the day.

I’ve seen poverty in Guatemala, the Philippines and Indonesia, but there was something particularly disturbing about the poverty in Cambodia.  Although the country is experiencing tremendous growth, the divide between the have’s and the have not’s is precipitous.  It’s not uncommon to see a luxury apartment building right next to a slum like the one pictured above.  I saw a brand new fancy Rolls Royce parked just a few streets down from the center.  That sort of juxtaposition of lavish opulence alongside such abject poverty was particularly distressing to me.

Before the trip, I have to admit that I knew very little about Cambodia and its history. “Three years, eight months and 20 days” is the phrase I’d hear over and over from the Cambodians I met. This was the period of time when the Khymer Rouge rained terror on the country starting in 1975. Directed by their maniacal leader, Pol Pot, the Khymer Rouge slaughtered millions of Cambodians. The numbers range from 1.5 million to up to 3 million men, women and children were rounded up and executed. One out of four of the Cambodian population was exterminated.  The regime targeted anyone viewed as educated or intellectual, city residents and minorities.

We visited one of the killing fields outside of Phnom Penh.

This is one of the mass graves.  Approximately 450 people were found here.

People have left on the slats of the fence colorful bracelets I believe intended to ward off evil spirits.

To say the place was sobering is an understatement.

Because bullets were expensive, the mass executions were conducted using simple tools such as hammers, knives, machetes and sometimes even the jagged edge of a palm leaf.  It’s not likely that death came swiftly or easily.

A memorial was constructed on the grounds of the killing fields.

Inside are the bones of some of the victims.

When the Khymer Rouge took control, its goal was to return the country back to an agrarian society. The regime dismantled Cambodia’s banking system, closed schools, universities, hospitals, churches and government buildings. The country and its infrastructure were utterly destroyed, but probably the most devastating blow to the Cambodian people, was the destruction of the family unit.  Families were broken apart; men, women and children were sent to separate work camps.  The effects of this depraved regime continue to ripple through Cambodia to this day.  You can see it in the human trafficking, the desperate poverty, the pervasive corruption and the lack of emphasis on education.

The scenes were unsettling, but I was shocked to discover that the Khymer Rouge continued to be recognized by the U.S. and other western countries as well as the United Nations as the legitimate governing party of Cambodia until the late 1980’s.  It’s leader, Pol Pot, was never prosecuted for war crimes and he died in his early 70’s surrounded by his grandchildren and other family members.

I was undone by the injustice of it all.  My heart broke for the Cambodian people and I hid my tears behind my sunglasses as I wept on the bus the entire way back to our hotel.

“Lord, where is your justice? Do You see their suffering?”

I felt despondent and overwhelmed.  Feelings of hopelessness for this place crept in and part of me wanted to get on a plane, fly away and just forget all about the things I had seen and the people I had met.

…But then I saw these sweet faces and the hope in their eyes;

I witnessed the love and devotion of this woman…

 and others who tirelessly do the Lord’s work.

 And most of all I’m comforted by God’s word that tells me that He sees their suffering.

And justice belongs to Him.

“I have indeed seen the misery of my people.  I have heard them crying…and I’m concerned about their suffering.” Exodus 3:7

“Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay, says the Lord.'” Romans 12:19

Yes, I know this is quite late.  I was enjoying my Christmas break and never got around to writing about our jaunt to Bali.  We spent Christmas in Bali and I know it sounds so extravagant and indulgent, but truth be told, on this side of the world it is actually quite an inexpensive vacation.  Airfare is reasonable and thanks to some travel money Benjy had to use or lose, off we went.

And Bali did not disappoint.  The beaches were splendid.

I thought this was a neat pic of the beach and a giant Buddha in the distance.

The hotel was straight out of a vacation magazine, truly a tropical island paradise.

There were coy ponds throughout and the kids enjoyed feeding the enormous coy fish.

It also had its share of native residents like this monitor lizard who was sitting just outside our hotel room.

I actually saw one of those things jump into the pool and swim around.  As you can imagine, it caused quite a stir among the guests.

And speaking of the pool, it was lovely as well and I spent many hours snoozing by it.  It’s ingenious how they planted trees all around the pool and on the beach.  Makes for some lovely shade and scenery.

There was also some entertainment provided by the aqua aerobics class with hideously loud techno music and an overly enthusiastic instructer.  I’m glad I only had to endure it for about an hour.

It’s amazing how quickly the kids can make friends.  Aaron met this guy at the pool.  He spoke very little English, but he and Aaron seemed to enjoy each other’s company nonetheless.  Aaron said he was trying to practice his English.

The next day both kids made friends with some American kids who lived in Singapore.  They went to the beach when it was low tide

and were delighted to find all sorts of sea creatures in the tide pools.

There were starfish

Crabs, sea anemone and other animals.

Probably the most pleasant surprise that we had from the hotel is that on Christmas eve there was a Protestant Christmas service held in one of the ballrooms.  There was a choir and an ensemble of traditional Indonesian instruments playing Christmas carols.  Afterwards, the hotel provided a buffet of desserts, tea and coffee, all free of charge.  It was wonderful celebrating the birth of Jesus with other Believers in such an unexpected place.

On Christmas Day, we went to a restaurant for dinner.

  We got a kick out of the Indonesian Santa who was handing out gifts to the kids.  Webley got this clock.  Not sure what the story is on that disturbing picture in the background.

 While we were in Bali, we went on a white water rafting trip.  It all started out well and good.

We were having a great time.

Then about a fourth of the way down, a plug came loose in our raft and we began to sink.

Since we didn’t have a pump, our guide had no choice but to press on and this made for a very bumpy and somewhat harrowing ride.  The guide looks very concerned for our safety, doesn’t he?

About half-way, we made a pit stop and one of the other rafts in our group had a pump, so we were back in business.

Then we came to this part of the river.

Let me just say that the website said the river had level 2 and level 3 rapids.  I went on a white water rafting trip last summer in North Carolina and the rapids were levels 3 and 4, and never did we encounter a drop-off the likes of this.  Clearly, the international rapid rating system needs to be audited.

And down we went.

Again, it’s obvious that our safety and well-being were of the utmost importance to our guide.

It was a 12 foot drop and for me was a complete surprise.  I think Benjy failed to mention that part of it to me when he booked it.

All’s well that ends well.  Right?

After our orangutan adventure, we had one more night left in Kumai.  We decided to splurge and stayed at an eco-lodge.  The eco-lodge was quite spendy relative to other hotels in which we stayed in Kumai, but 20% of the proceeds went to orangutan preservation, so we figured it was worth the splurge.  This is a picture of our cottage.

As you would expect from an eco-lodge, the building materials are made from renewable resources like bamboo.

The walls were made of bamboo mats and were about as thick as one, too.  So, we could hear everything going on next door and vice versa.  The good news was that only the kids were over there, so we didn’t have to be too quiet and we could keep an “ear” out on them while having the privacy of our own room.

After spending 3 days and 2 nights on a boat, it was luxury living at the eco-lodge.  We had our very own bathroom with “fresh” water and a toilet.  Bad news: still no hot water.

The next day we had a cooking class with a young lady named Febri.

Febri is actually the oldest daughter of our tour guide, Joe.  She spent part of her life living on the orangutan preserve when Joe was a ranger there, so she knows almost all of the orangutans and they know her.  She works part-time as an orangutan guide.  She told us a lot of funny stories about the orangutans.

She taught us how to make a few dishes.  This one is a dessert with a variety of fruit.

One thing that Benjy and I kept saying about Indonesia over and over was how kind, friendly and helpful Indonesian people were.  Complete strangers would go out of their way to help us.  Yes, we were tourists, but I’ve been a tourist in a lot of places and when I’m not with Benjy (which sometimes happens because we tend to travel to destinations separately)  I usually blend right in with the Asian population.  So, I can’t blame their friendliness all the time on the curiosity of wanting to get within close proximity to a white guy.

And I know I said Thai people were also kind and generous, but it really was doubly true about the Indonesians.  It’s something that I have found myself thinking about over and over: what makes a people friendly and kind rather than not.  I really can’t put my finger on it, but one thing that both Thailand and Indonesia have in common is that their culture is completely submerged in religion.  In Thailand it is Buddhism; in Indonesia, it’s Islam.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world.  There are prayer calls everyday, exactly 5 times per day, played very loudly across the cities on loud speakers.  One of the prayer calls is at 4:30 a.m., and let me tell you it’s so loud and piercing that no matter where you are, you are awakened by it.

I have spent plenty of time now in communist countries where everyday life is intentionally secularized and I have to say, there is a palpable difference.  Maybe it’s coincidence, maybe it’s not, but I find the people who live in secular societies to be much colder, distant and uncaring.  There’s something better about a society that is focused on a life other than this one.  To me, a completely secularized culture is not one to be desired or aspired to.  As the saying goes: be careful what you wish for.

Anyhoo, we had one last boat trip before we left Kumai.

It was a great trip!

At long last, the orangutans.  I must give you advance warning that I went a little ape-you-know-what taking photos of the orangutans.  After my experience with pandas and now orangutans, I have decided that I may have missed a calling in my life to be some sort of zoologist.  Long after Benjy and the kids had said “enough with the orangutans already,” I could have kept watching them all day long.  So, there are  A LOT of photos.  I’m also going to spend some time writing down the stories I heard about some of the orangutans.  I never grew tired of hearing them.  Yes, I know it might get boring, but I’m doing this actually for my own benefit so that I won’t forget.  You can just skim over it all if you aren’t interested.

We entered the preserve.

Now I’ll turn it over to Webley.

The Tanjung Puting National Park is located in southern Borneo close to a town called Kumai. The park has an area of 160 square miles. It officially became a national park in 1982. The park also has the largest orangutan population in the world.

There are about 6,000 orangutans in the preserve. The name orangutan means in Indonesian and Malay “people that live in the jungle.” In the park there are two different types of orangutans, wild and semi-wild. The difference between wild and semi-wild is that semi-wild have at one point in their lives lived with people and are not afraid of them. Also, semi-wild orangutans like people food while wild ones only eat fruit and termites.

Wild orangutans normally live not more than 60 years. But, orangutans in captivity can live for more than 60 years.  Some males can grow to be 300 pounds. Females grow up to be less than half that size. Females are normally 15-16 when they have their first baby. Most mothers in the wild wait 8 years between having each baby. The reason for this is because baby orangutans do not leave their mothers until they are 10 years old. The baby still visits its mother until it is 15-16 years old.

Each area of about 10 kilometers has a dominant male. The dominant male is the king of that area. He gets to eat first and is the father to all of the babies. For an orangutan to become the dominant male it has to beat the old dominate male. This fight lasts 9 days and is not meant to kill the old dominant male. Once he is defeated he must find another area to live.

 In the world there are two kinds of orangutans: Borneo orangutans and Sumatra orangutans. The Borneo orangutans grow larger and there are more Borneo orangutans than Sumatra ones. The Sumatra orangutans live all over the world, but the Borneo orangutans only live in Borneo.

Now I will tell you about some of the orangutans I saw.

This orangutan is Gundol. He is 23 years old. Gundol is the dominant male in this area.  You can tell he’s the dominant male because he has the large cheek bags on his face.  He weighs about 125 pounds.  When he was at the feeding station, he got to eat first while everyone else there waited in trees nearby.  No one dared take a turn until he left.

Once he was finished eating, he climbed a tree and started “singing” which surprisingly sounded a lot like a whale song.  Then he started “whoo, whoo…..prrrrrrr….whooo, whooo…prrrr” alternating between sounding like an owl to sounding like a cat purring, all done very loudly.  See, I told you I should have been a zoologist.  Joe told us he was announcing to everyone that he was still the dominant male in the area in case anyone had forgotton.  After Gundol left, the others got to eat.

This is Cedang and her baby Casateao.

Cedang is 32 years old, and her baby is 2.

I’m not sure what the name of this orangutan is, but the man below has a big bag of bananas on his back.  The orangutan was shimmying down to grab one out of the bag.

This is a teenager Maraeo. He is 9 years old. He likes to hang out at the boat dock in hopes of scoring some food from the tourists.  In this picture he was making kissing sounds. This means that he is hangry (hungry and angry).

One of our female guides, Siti,  told us a funny story about Maraeo.  Orangutans’ favorite fruit is durian.  Durian is a  VERY STRONG smelling fruit and many hotels in Asia have a “no durian policy” for their little room refrigerators because the fruit stinks them up and it’s so difficult to get rid of the smell.  I took this picture in our hotel room.  Obviously, it’s a problem deserving its own prohibition sign.

I actually don’t mind durian, the taste or the smell, but I can see how some might find it offensive to the senses.  There’s a smaller variety of durian that grows in the jungle and Siti loves it too.   One of the rangers had picked some durian fruit for Siti and gave it to her to take home to eat.

The ranger warned her to watch out for Maraeo when she gets on the boat because he loves durian and he can smell it from a long ways away.  So, she hid it under her clothes.  As she was approaching the boat dock she saw no sign of Maraeo and thought the coast was clear.  Then, out of nowhere, Maraeo appeared.  She screamed and began running and Maraeo starting chasing her and grabbed her feet.  Normally, orangutans seem to be these docile, slow-moving creatures when they aren’t in trees.  But, I guess they can run fast when properly motivated!  She dropped the durian and he let her go.  Then, she ran to the boat, durian – less.

Here are some pictures of Maraeo with the kids.  Since Joe was a park ranger and now a guide, many of the orangutans know him and the sound of his voice.  Joe had a banana and gave it to Maraeo so he’d let the kids take a picture with him.

We went to another feeding station and saw some more orangutans.

This is a male orangutan who is about 16 years old.  He’s just starting to develop the cheek bags on his face.

This one is of a mommy orangutan and 2 babies.  The bigger one is about 8 years old and the smaller one is less than a year old.

I don’t know how the mommy orangutans do it.  They swing through the trees with their babies constantly clinging to them.  You can see how the older one is more independent, but the smaller one never leaves his mom.  When everyone was finished eating, both babies jumped on mom and away she went.

These were some of my favorite photos.

While we were at this feeding station, it started to rain.  The 8 year old climbed up into a tree and started grabbing leaves and making a cover for himself.  Joe told me that wild orangutans don’t normally do that, but since these are semi-wild ones, they copy what they see humans doing.  So this one was making an umbrella for himself because that’s what he sees humans doing when it rains.

The orangutans have their own versions of “hanger-ons.”  A family of wild boars showed up and ate the banana peels.

Black monkeys join the party too.

The orangutans were shooing this guy away, but he was undeterred.

I love the mommy/baby shots.

In high school, one of my favorite movies was “Harry and the Hendersons.”  It’s a movie about Big Foot, but portrays the mythical hairy beast as this gentle giant who is a vegetarian.  I have no idea why I loved that movie, but I must have watched it a dozen times on HBO.  This guy standing completely upright reminds me of “Harry” from that movie.

The dominant male in this area was a big guy named Tom.  He didn’t make an appearance at the feeding station.  On our way back to the boat, we walked past the rangers’ quarters (visitors aren’t permitted in that area) and Webley spotted this huge orangutan hanging around the huts.  His back was to us.  Joe called his name and Tom swung around like he recognized Joe’s voice.  He is ENORMOUS.  Joe said he is nearly 300 pounds, twice as big as Gundol, the dominant male pictured above.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good shot of him.  I asked Joe why he wasn’t at the feeding station and he said that Tom sometimes gets tired of the tourists and he knows tourists can’t go near the rangers’ quarters.

Joe told us one time an old lady was determined to get a photo with Tom standing right next to her.  Despite protests and warnings from the guides, she got up close to him.  Suddenly, Tom grabbed her and started shaking the stew out of her.  It took 10 men to stop him.  That’s how strong he is.  I don’t think she had any serious injuries, but I bet she learned her lesson after that experience.  Sheesh…some people.

Shortly after seeing Tom, we came upon Siswe.  She is the dominant queen, Tom’s queen.

Apparently, wherever Tom goes, Siswe is not far away and I was told that Tom sometimes gets irritated by this.  Siswe likes Joe, so he said it was OK for us to get close.  You can tell after hearing that story about Tom, I’m not exactly thrilled being right next to her.