Tag Archives: thailand

Leaving Sangkhla

2015-04-13 ramblintraveler Leave a comment

The time had finally come to say goodbye to Sangkhlaburi and the animal shelter. I say ‘had’ because I’ve now been away from there for the past 10 days (how time flies!!). The hardest part was leaving all the animals behind. Worrying whether the disabled dogs were getting their night-time blankets, whether dogs were getting their proper daily meds, whether laundry had been done and dogs had been walked occupied my mind for several days after having left. But as we all know, the world doesn’t stop turning because one has moved on to something else. Volunteers will always be there to care for the dogs.

Nipper

Balua

NuNu

Jim

USA

Henry

I left for a couple of reasons, the first being that I had been in Thailand at that point for almost four months and yet still had only seen a tiny fraction of the Country. Second, as it was early on during my time at the sanctuary, personality clashes arose again. High School cliques started forming again creating a huge divide between people who cared for the sanctuary dogs and those who cared for the clinic dogs. Personally I think that the two would go hand in hand, but alas it wasn’t the reality.

Bang & Goose

Nikita with Clover, Storm, Goose

Wilma & Mike

Gizmo, Eleanor, Gordon & Emmitt

Gizmo & Wilma

Eleanor, Oreo & Daisy

Thankfully though my last two weeks there, just as the first week or so of first arriving, were my absolute favorite. Not because it was the beginning and end of my stay, but again because of the organic nature and vibe of the workers during those times. That ridiculous line between shelter and clinic was erased. No cliques, no favoritism, no inclusion of only certain people and not others. No more bull essentially. Just everyone working together, learning and aiding where needed. It’s amazing how some people can naturally lead others in working together as a team while others create divides so they can pump up their egos where necessary.

Gizmo, Mabel & Gordon

Mike

Mabel & Emmitt

Wilma

Mike_2

Eleanor, Gordon, Crash, Wilma

I still think of the faces of each animal daily. I will never forget them and though I wish I could take each one with me, I know the chilling reality is that there are animals all over the world that need equal love, care and shelter. For now I’m simply traveling and just as I organically happened to find the sanctuary in Sangkhlaburi, I’m keeping my ears and eyes peeled for the next opportunity. But until then, I’ve headed South to check out the mystery and beauty of the Thai Islands.

Mike_3

Storm

Pino

Clover

Rita

Piglet

On to Unexpected Company

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Travel

Ode to Water

2015-03-03 ramblintraveler Leave a comment

Refreshing and cool, clear and crisp,
Water should always be at the top of my list.

It’s just what the body hungers for first,
And for workouts or hot days, it’s the best to quench thirst.

It satisfies and nourishes in so many ways,
You’d think it’s what I’d reach for at the end of my days.

Alas, I must confess that instead what I do
Is reach for water turned into a brew.

It’s always the same: “Just one for today”
But as soon as it’s consumed I get carried away.

As the cans begin to stack and the fun buzz begins,
The memory of the hangover starts to sink in.

And though I am reluctant and try to not care
I know in my head I better prepare!

Guzzling some water at first is a chore
As the plain taste suddenly seems a bore.

But as the beer buzz is gently washed away
And sleep comes comfortably to bring a new day,

I think just how good that water did taste
And the miracles it worked in avoiding the next day being a waste!

Leaving Sangkhla

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Thailand, Travel

Thankful

2015-02-24 ramblintraveler 5 Comments

Normal life has set in. I haven’t been doing anything special, haven’t been engaging in any new adventure or activity, haven’t gone off to some new exotic place… No, regular life is in full swing. I’m still volunteering at an animal sanctuary in Sangkhlaburi, Thailand so the regular duties of feeding, caring for, and helping to heal injured shelter dogs takes up much of my time. And by the time all is said and done with the dogs daily, while there is time to do something new, I’m just too tired to think about that “something new ” and instead always opt for a quiet night of sipping beer on the porch while watching Sangkhlaburi street life.

I haven’t written anything on my blog in a while because in my mind I haven’t done anything “interesting”. I wonder what exactly to write about and whether people would even be interested in reading “normal life” posts. One thing does always come to mind however, so instead of my usual adventure/travel stories or stories about my random drunken escapades, I will write about this: being thankful.

See, even though my life has settled into being “normal”, I realize on so many levels that it isn’t. While there is a lot I still wish to accomplish and have in my life, I think daily on how thankful I am for the things I do have and have achieved and experienced. It’s almost turned into a form of prayer for me. Each day I try to take time out and think about all the things I’m thankful for. The list always starts general, then randomly pops from narrows to specifics. So here are the things I’m thankful for today. Hope you enjoy and perhaps find inspiration to seek out and acknowledge all the things in your life that are worth giving thanks for.

Aside from the top 3, they are in no particular order. Today I’m thankful for:

Family
Friends
Good health
Being physically and mentally able to workout
Being in good company
Living in Thailand
Working with animals
Waterbelly (a sanctuary dog) NOT being run over by a car this morning
Emails from friends
Having traveled to several countries
The people I’ve met along the way in short bursts, yet who I’m still impacted by today
Having found apple cider vinegar here
The little girl next door who instead of holding a blank expression while looking over at us on the porch actually smiled and waved!
Learning a new Thai word from the market lady (“kai gai” is egg)
NOT seeing the neighbor behind us flash her body parts while walking along the road as she adjusts her clothing
Nambia’s for breakfast
Watching random firework displays light up the sky on the Mon side
Seeing the temple lit up at night
Having the relief of rainfall after a ridiculously hot and humid day, even though we aren’t supposed to get any rain (according to the forecast)
Watching the monks give morning blessings to people throughout the neighborhood
The support and patience of my family as I live a quarter to half way around the world from them
Knowing I’m loved by my family and friends
The hope to meet a man to love indefinitely along my travels
The dogs that survive the unthinkable
The dogs that move on to a better place, freeing themselves of the pain they were suffering here (of course it’s hard to lose them, and we always wonder whether there was anything else that we could have done for them, but I know ultimately they are in a better place)
NOT being woken throughout the night by either barking dogs or our neighbors insomniac tendencies
Hearing the dogs in a synchronized howl
My mosquito net!
Thursday and Saturday markets
Having a day off from the sanctuary
Learning something new everyday
Witnessing small kindnesses (a young brother was helping his younger sister take out several rubber bands from her hair and smoothed it out when done)
Watching the 9 chicks that live in our neighborhood grow up (and seeing all 9 daily)
The water delivery guy
Local community support for the sanctuary (Som Chai, Dr. May, Sai and Charlie)
Meeting new volunteers from around the world
Hearing of friends engagements
Hearing that friends struggling with health issues are doing better
My memories of times past
Being content with what I have and where I am
Feeling blessed in so many ways
The hope that I continue to be thankful and grateful for every little and big thing in my life
And lastly that I am able to continue to travel, explore, and give back to the life around me

On to Ode to Water

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Travel

Laughs from Around the World

2015-02-10 ramblintraveler Leave a comment

One of my favorite parts about traveling is learning about the differences in culture and ways that people express themselves. From the friendly “buenas” greetings you encounter daily in Central America to the bows and prayer position hello’s given and received in Thailand, every culture has ways of defining themselves that makes them beautiful and unique.

Perhaps my favorite difference, yet similarity, in expression however is the laugh… And not just the physical laugh but more specifically the written or ‘text’ laugh.

In the States, to express laughter in a text we use a variety such as LOL, LMAO, LMFAO or the most basic: hahahahahahaha!

It’s the last of those “text laughs” that you find variations for around the world, yet the sound is just the same. For example, in Spanish text they write “jajajajajaja” for a laugh because the”J” makes an “H” sound, so the resulting sound is the same as “haha”.

Just recently I’ve learned another form of text laughter in Thailand: 5555555…. Now you may wonder as most do when first coming across that as to what in the world that means. But once you know that the word, or rather the sound that the word makes, for the number 5 in Thailand is “ha”, then it all makes sense! Repeated 5’s in text literally reads as “hahahahaha!!”

Just love it! I’m curious how many other variations there are out there to express laughter in text form from different countries… If anyone knows of any more, I’d love to hear about it!

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Sangkhlaburi, Thailand

“Ticklet”

2015-02-03 ramblintraveler 2 Comments

This is the story of Piglet, who I lovingly also call “Ticklet”. Since I’ve been here she has been one of the four (now five) porch dogs who live on the porch of the volunteer house, just across the street from the Thai Animal Sanctuary in Sangkhlaburi. Piglet used to live in the sanctuary, as the rest of the porch dogs did, but once better chose to live outside of the gates of the sanctuary, on the street and porch, free to roam around as they choose.

What makes Piglet more interesting however is how fearful she is of humans. She loves being around us, but won’t let anyone touch her. There have been a few occasions however where she has allowed myself and other volunteers to scratch and pet her, but the events are VERY few and far between as she skitters away after a pat or two. When we are away for a bit we are always greeted by her with a friendly face and tail wagging, and she always approaches us as if she wants a pat, but then retreats when we get too close. She even accompanies us to the market or other destinations we walk to but again always just far enough away from us so we can’t touch her.

Piglet came to the sanctuary as a puppy, the sole survivor of her entire family. The woman who opened the sanctuary here got word of a family of dogs (a mother and several puppies) who were going to be poisoned by their human owners because they didn’t want to care for them… She rushed to the site where they were to find the mother dog killed by a machete, and all the puppies except piglet dead by poison. Piglet herself was attacked by a machete in an attempt to kill her but thankfully was rescued. Knowing her past, it’s no wonder she doesn’t trust people.

When I first came here she was absolutely covered along her back, between her toes and on her chest with ticks (hence why I nicknamed her Ticklet). The nasty and huge blood suckers were so prevalent that you could see them sticking off of her from a distance and every time she sat on the porch and scratched, at least one or two would fall off her. Since no one could touch her, the continuous debate on what to do about her tick situation went on. We tried several times to catch her with a net with no success. I once was able to slightly distract her with treats in one hand, and as she ate I brought my other hand around with Spot-On and was able to get a drop on her before she figured out the scheme and went running away, spilling the rest of the Spot-On in the street.

It was obvious that we had to sedate her fully in order to really get in and pick all the ticks off. We even joked about how, when she was finally under, we would each take turns cuddling her and taking pictures with her since we knew we would never get the chance again, lol! Trouble was, I think she heard us… You see, Ticklet is also tremendously smart. So while we sat on the porch in the evenings discussing various things to do, I’m sure she heard when we came up with the plan to put Diazepam (sleeping pills) in some food to make her drowsy, then stab her with a syringe of Xylazine to put her completely out so we could pick off the ticks.

The day finally came when our plan was to come into action! Several five milligram Diazepam pills were purchased to do the trick and she readily took the bait. The pills (about 4 in the first try) were hidden in a bowl of wet dog food that was consumed at a very fast pace. We sat and waited for her to sleep, but while she did doze a bit, she never fully lost her vigilance. Another bowl was offered with three more pills, but still nothing happened. Yet another bowl was offered as we thought to ourselves how ridiculous and amazing it was that she still wasn’t sleepy enough to approach! After a total of about ten pills, she still didn’t show any signs of drowsiness!! She did however decide to take a walk…

Figuring she was finally feeling drowsy, but being smart enough not to fall asleep in front of us, she was probably trying to move elsewhere so she could actually fall asleep without threat of us stabbing her with a full dose of sleeping aid. So of course we had to follow. She walked down the block and into a large area of pure jungle where she sniffed and walked leisurely to find the right spot. She never did actually lay down however, just sniffed here and there as if she was interested in doing so. Frankly I think she was really just having a laugh at us!

It started to look promising however as she looked a bit drowsy at one point, but the second we went to make a move toward her through the jungle she was off again running in and out of various jungle in the yards of the neighbors down the street. We continued to follow at a distance, determined not to lose her! The whole event ended with her walking (quite alert) right back onto the property of the volunteer house. She never did fall asleep even once during the whole ordeal! Funnily enough however, (and maybe it was just that the temperature at night began to drop) after that day Ticklet turned back into Piglet as the ticks began to fall off her body on their own… Personally I think that the ten milligrams of Diazepam, which seemingly had no effect on Piglet, actually worked to put all the ticks on her body to sleep thereby making them drop off on their own, lol!!

It’s been several weeks since the event at this point, and Piglet is still tick-free (at least as far as we can see from the distance she allows). Such a clever dog she is… I’m sure she heard us talking of taking pictures and cuddling with her while she was out that she simply funneled all the sleeping pills to the ticks instead just so she wouldn’t have to endure such torture of cuddling from us, lol!!

On to Thankful

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Sangkhlaburi, Thailand

How Silver Saved Shadow

2015-02-03 ramblintraveler Leave a comment

This post has been a long time coming since the events I’m about to write about happened about five weeks ago, in the early days of volunteering at the Thai Animal Sanctuary in Sangkhlaburi. When I first arrived, among all the other puppies at the Sanctuary, there were three especially tiny ones: Luna, Sky and Shadow who came in with their very sick and skeletal mom, Xena. Xena, trying to simply survive herself never really took to the puppies and rarely fed nor bonded with them herself. Lacking the very necessary antibodies that help puppies and human babies to build strong immune systems through mothers milk, the three puppies were very susceptible to illness.

Sadly, Luna succumbed to her weakened immune system one morning. Sky and Shadow began to grow and seemed relatively healthy. One day however, we woke to Sky looking suddenly terrible. Her face blew up to twice her normal size and her breathing was very labored. Thinking it at first an allergy, she was given antihistamines to try to revert the allergy. But they didn’t work. Several days went by with no improvement as the vets debated what to do to try to help. She passed away one evening and a necropsy was performed by the vets and some vet techs the next day. What they discovered was that her lungs were shot. She had developed infectious pneumonia that led to her demise.

Even though once she became symptomatic, she was separated from Shadow, a few days after her death Shadow’s bark, normally strong and at times annoying, became gruff and sounded like a bark from a dog that had developed emphysema. One vet thought it was just because he had been barking non-stop the night before and had given himself a sore throat. But upon further investigation Shadow’s head, just as Sky, began to swell. Since he showed the same symptoms as Sky, and since we learned that Sky suffered from infectious pneumonia, appropriate courses of action were taken to properly treat Shadow.

Within a couple of days however, yet again nothing seemed to help. Shadow became worse and worse struggling with each breath for tiny bits of oxygen. Normally plump to the point of looking like a dog with a gopher belly, his belly shrunk inward with every breath, collapsing on his body, revealing each rib and bony hips. His eyes told the story of his struggle most of all. Round and dark they gazed up at us with his head extended straight forward in an effort to breath better, pleading to us for help.

On the third or fourth day after no signs of improvement and his health continuing to spiral toward death, as Jo and I sat on the porch discussing what else could possibly help, I thought of the bottle of Colloidal Silver my mom had given me for my travels to stave off any potential illness. Colloidal Silver kills over 650 viruses and bacteria. At the point we were at, nothing else was helping and it certainly wouldn’t hurt him to try the Silver. I first researched whether it was safe to give to pets and found out it was. While my bottle of Silver was a bit more concentrated than the recommended dosage for dogs, again at that point it was worth a shot.

As Jo held him, I squirt several drops in his mouth, then prepared a little pillow with lavender oil sprinkled on it (another thing I read about that helps with breathing as I researched the Silver) to put in his little carrier crate where he slept.

The next day, Shadow was alert and breathing better. Though not 100%, every day after the morning I gave him Silver he continued to improve. Within the week, he began to bark again; rough and course at first, then strong and healthy with bite 🙂

Hanging in the Hammock

Hanging in the Hammock_2

Today, Shadow is alive and well turning into a beautiful young dog full of energy and spark! Some here don’t believe the Silver had anything to do with his turn around in health, but I do. Traditional Western medicines did nothing over several days of treatment to get him feeling better, rather he got worse. But after one dose of Silver, he began to improve. Again some could argue it was complete coincidence. I’m a believer however and in my opinion, Shadow is the proof!

On to “Ticklet”

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Sangkhlaburi, Thailand

More Muay Thai

2015-01-27 ramblintraveler Leave a comment

Simply more pictures from Muay Thai boxing matches January 2nd 2558 (that’s the year that Thailand is currently in:)) Enjoy!

On to How Silver Saved Shadow

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Thailand, Travel

The “Bum Gun”

2015-01-27 ramblintraveler 1 Comment

Bathroom activities are certainly not at all among the list that many want to talk about, but I just have to talk about the “bum gun”… That phrase was actually coined by one of the first volunteers I’d met while here, Megan from Ireland, who also was the one who taught and told me its real function!

When I first arrived in Bangkok and stayed at the hotel near the airport, I noticed that while they had a Western toilet complete with a roll of toilet paper, they also had a hose connected to a water pipe with a nozzle at the end of it that when pressed would squirt out water. I thought it was a rather clever way to clean the toilet and flush out the areas under the rim when scrubbing the bowl out. I had seen this arrangement in every other hostel/hotel bathroom I had been in and continued to think how clever it was…

Then I arrived in Sangkhlaburi… And while J’s Family Homestay, where I stayed for the first couple of weeks, had a bathroom with a Western toilet with the spray nozzle attached, they didn’t have any toilet paper in the bathroom nor a bin stored in there to be able to throw away toilet paper that was brought in… Hmmmm….. That made me wonder a bit and was quite annoying really to have to bring in my own bag for used toilet paper.

A few days after being in Sangkhlaburi while drinking at Baan Job with Megan, Nyzil and Omar (a volunteer from Spain), Megan and I went to the bathroom together (as girls always do) and she made a mention how she really quite enjoys the bum gun as it made her feel so much cleaner! “I’m sorry, what?? The bum gun??”. “Yea that hose attached to the toilet”… Now I was really confused. So… That isn’t to clean the toilet but rather for… cleaning… instead of… toilet paper???

Yup. Indeed the “bum gun” is used in place of toilet paper. Several seconds of squirting water in the areas required is all it takes to get you feeling fresh and clean! Of course you had to wait a few seconds to dry a bit after using it, but it seriously does make you feel so much cleaner! Suddenly it made perfect sense as to why several places had no toilet paper but always had the hose and squirt nozzle! A word of advice that Megan also shared with me however was to always test the pressure of the nozzle before pointing it to yourself as it can sometimes be a bit strong.

So there it is. My knowledge of the bum gun. Use at your will:) Oh and I have thought to take a picture to show you all what exactly it looks like, but really don’t want to be caught walking into a bathroom with a camera… I can only imagine what people would think in seeing me do that, lol! Funnily enough the bathroom at the volunteer house doesn’t have a bum gun… Otherwise I wouldn’t mind sneaking in there for a shot of one. We have an Eastern toilet and utilize Western methods of cleaning since there isn’t a gun there. Honestly I do wish it had the nozzle as it really does make you feel cleaner than toilet paper!

On to More Muay Thai

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Sangkhlaburi, Thailand

Spay Camp and Elephants

2015-01-27 ramblintraveler Leave a comment

Part of what the Animal Shelter does here, aside from the everyday free care and treatment of animals, is to go to neighboring villages and monasteries to spay and neuter dogs and cats of the area. These spay camps (as we call them) are great opportunities not only to get a day out and away from the everyday tasks of running a shelter, but also to better the community so animal populations don’t run amok and also provides a way for surrounding villages to get to know who we (the animal shelter) are so they can feel more confident about coming to us if ever needed.

Dr. Mays set up several camps for us, two running on consecutive days and then two more for the following week. Though I have had experience in basic horse care/vet skills, dogs and cats are a different beast. I had no experience in giving shots, IVs, prepping animals for surgery, etc. The spay camp I attended quickly changed all that very quickly for me however 🙂

Jo Driving

We set off around 10 to a nearby monastery about 30 or so kilometers away (myself, Jo, Nyzil and J. (the vets)) and arrived about a half hour later to an absolutely serene and beautifully peaceful monastery nestled off the road among gentle slopes and lush vegetation. We were greeted by residents of the monastery and were shown to a large covered car port where we began to set up two tables for surgery. Since this was my first go round with spays, I was mainly just taking instruction on how to set up the table and basically aped Jo (who is well seasoned with spay camps) asking about a trillion questions along the way.

Monastery Grounds

Monastery Grounds_2

Monastery Grounds_3

Monastery Grounds_4

Monastery Grounds_5

Monastery Grounds_6

I was paired with J., the newest vet on the team, and Jo was with Nyzil. I will admit I was at first a bit reluctant about how J. and I would work as a team because we had several miscommunications that led to many frustrations in times before. I don’t know what it was exactly that happened however in the first few minutes of setting up the camp. To this day I still can’t pin it exactly. But what I do know is that as the table was set and the first two cats were starting to doze into a deep sleep in preparation for the surgery, something just clicked with J. and I. It wasn’t spoken, it just happened and suddenly I began to understand how she thought and worked.

Hard at Work

Spayed Cat Line-up

Shaving the Cat

Shaving the Cat_2

Shaving the Cat_3

She taught me how to shave the cats, how to give injections, tricks on how to tell whether the animal was starting to come out of their slumber, how to check the heart rate and much more. We worked fabulously together and by the end of the day, after a lovely lunch provided to us by the monastery residents, we had banged out 8 cat spays. Well, in all honesty one of the cats whom we tagged as being female turned out to be male after failing to find the uterus! Hey now, we all make mistakes! No judging!! 😉

We finished about 3pm, packed up and headed out. Since it was still relatively early and we had not received any news from the shelter about needing to return immediately, we decided to check out the Khao Laem National Park, just a few kilometers down the road. The park boasts a nature trail several kilometers long with 9 different waterfalls and a rather impressively large tree. We all set off for the hike and crossed the river about 250 meters in to see the tree, but when we crossed back over, Jo broke one of her flip-flops making it basically impossible for us to hike any further. We instead opted to swim in the river for a bit then made our way back to the car. The day was still young however so we decided to head off to a village Nyzil knew about that had elephants!

Kratengjeng Waterfall Walk

Kratengjeng Waterfall Walk_2

Kratengjeng Waterfall Walk_3

Kratengjeng Waterfall Walk_4

Kratengjeng Waterfall Tree

Kratengjeng Waterfall Tree_2

The turning for the village was only about 10km from Sangkhlaburi, but getting to the village required quite a bit of off-roading and a few minutes of scary grounds to drive across. The dirt road kept splitting and though Nyzil was navigating, every now and again he’d say out loud “I’m not sure this is the right way because we are supposed to be heading toward the mountains”, lol!!

Off Road

Off Road_2

Luckily he did get us to the right place and my oh my, what a beautiful little village it was!! Nestled at the base of a mountain, across the river on a rather shady yet sturdy bamboo bridge lay a magnificent quiet little community full of life of all kinds. Nyzil had been there before on a previous spay camp and even recognized several of the dogs he’d operated on by the little notches left in their ears. No one in the village spoke even a word of english and of course none of us knew the word for elephant in Thai, so we were left to a game of charades. Correction: we actually left the game of charades to Nyzil who proceeded to try to act out what an elephant looked like to the locals all while repeating the word “elephant?”. It was seriously quite amusing to watch and I’m sure the villagers were probably playing dumb for a bit just to keep watching him make impressions, lol!!

Elephant Village

Elephant Village_2

Elephant Village_3

Elephant Village_4

Elephant Village_5

Elephant Village_6

We finally found one villager who acquiesced to knowing what we were trying to get to and he led us the way. We walked through a rubber plantation… Here I have to stop because I had no idea that rubber is made from tree sap!!! There were hundreds of trees lined and tapped with a little collection basket for the sap and when I was told it was a rubber plantation, I just kept repeating “rubber??? As in rubber tires??” because I’d just no idea that’s where rubber came from. I just assumed it was all a petrochemical production! Just goes to show you learn something new every day:)

Moving on, we walked past the rubber plantation following the sound of a distant bell along a wee path. Our guide then started off the path through the field to which Jo wasn’t able to walk on (no shoes) so she headed on the path just to explore while myself, Nyzil and J. followed our guide.

The sound of the bell grew louder and louder and a few minutes later, up ahead in the bushes enjoying a meal of various natural vegetation stood Moosa!! What an absolutely BEAUTIFUL creature!!! She wasn’t scared of humans as she worked in the village but when not working she had the run of the land, going where she pleased and had only a rope with a bell around he neck so she could be found when needed.

Elephant Village_7

Guide to Elephant

Moosa

Moosa_2

Moosa_3

Moosa_4

I had never touched an elephant before. Had only fed them cucumbers and other veggies when in Ayutthaya. This was how I’d wanted to experience them though. In the wild, free from cages and tourists, no forced tricks or contraptions on her back to give tourists rides, no sticks with sharp hooks at the end to make her go one way or another, simply living free. I couldn’t stop petting her and telling her how beautiful she was!! We spent probably a good half hour with her as she continued to nibble then said our goodbyes and headed back to the path. Interestingly enough our timing was just right as Jo was also returning from her walk along the path and she too had spotted the other elephant of the village down the way.

Moosa_5

Moosa_6

Moosa_7

Rubber Plantation

Walk out of Village

Elephant Village_8

The sun was starting to set at this point and we were all getting hungry, so we set off for another spot along the way back to Sangkhlaburi for some dinner. The Nature Club, a hotel and activities center only about 5km from the town was where we chose to stop. It too is set in a beautiful location surrounded by mountains and a rather large lake. We had a few drinks and food, then headed home. The days activities and bonding that occurred throughout the day between the four of us was unexpected but absolutely amazing. That day is now one of my fondest memories of Thailand. It was truely a day I think we all came away feeling absolutely blessed and thankful.

Elephant Village Sunset

Elephant Village Sunset_2

Elephant Village Sunset_3

Nature Club

Nature Club_2

Nature Club_4

On to The “Bum Gun”

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Kanchanaburi, Thailand

Crazy Kanchanaburi Nights

2015-01-19 ramblintraveler 3 Comments

From my other posts about Sangkhlaburi, it’s probably easy to tell that it is a teeny little place and while it has a lot of the necessities, it lacks quite a bit as well. We have no proper grocery store here. The market is where you go for meat, veggies and fruit (which personally I prefer anyway) but for other necessities that are generally found in a grocery store, well, we have a place called CJ’s that has the basics and believe it or not, if it’s not in CJ’s, the other “grocery store” in town is 7 Eleven… Yes, 7 Eleven!

Kanchanaburi in contrast has proper grocery stores and even stores comparable to Sam’s Club or Costco. They also have proper pet and vet stores where supplies are easily found for the shelter. As some items were starting to run out at the shelter, it was time for a run to Kanchanaburi to stock up. I went along with 2 other girls from the shelter for a weekend getaway. We drove there in a truck lent to us by another gem of Sangkhlaburi, Dr. Mays, a dentist in town and avid animal lover and made the 212km trek to Kanchanaburi mid-day a week ago on Saturday.

J, one of the three on the trip, drove. She is from the UK so was used to driving on the left and had amazingly picked up the Thai driving style as I had several mini heart attacks along the way dodging in and out of traffic along the road. Due to traffic we arrived later than anticipated and missed the vet supply office hours. So we simply headed to our hotel, took showers in warm water (there is no warm water in Sangkhlaburi for showers unless you shower in the middle of the day when the water has been heated up by the sun), put makeup on for the first time in a month and a half and headed into town.

I will say since being in Sangkhlaburi, I don’t think I’ve seen myself in a mirror except maybe two or three times. So needless to say, once in a bathroom with a mirror in it, it was almost surprising and shocking to see myself, lol!!

We headed out and first had a drink and shared a pizza at Bell’s, then went to the Lady Boy bar for some more drinks. Surprisingly the other volunteer (K) who tagged along for the weekend getaway after only 4 beers was already quite drunk! Normally she can hold her own, but for some reason not on this night. In any event, since there was more drinking to be done for myself and J, we continued on to the Monkey Bar for another drink. Then…. Well… though I had stayed away from the “get drunk for 10 baht” bars during my last time in Kanchanaburi, we ended up stumbling into there as well…

In all fairness really it wasn’t myself or J stumbling, it was only K. Jo and I had a delightful time taking shots and sipping on buckets of booze while K kept excusing herself to the bathroom to vomit… Joy!! Since J and K had been to Kanchanaburi several times before for these types of excursions, they inevitably made friends with some of the locals, including a tattoo artist with a shop in front of the Sugar Member bar, just across from the 10 baht bar. The night continued with lots of drinks, conversation, and many bathroom breaks for K. She ended up going back to the hotel early and passed out outside the room on the lounge chair (since she didn’t have the key) while J and I continued to party until 4am.

Amazingly I woke the next day feeling great! K and J, not so much… We had to move rooms around noon (they put us in the wrong room the first night) so everyone was up in semi-good spirits around 11. We jointly decided the best remedy for our hangovers was to have a yummy pizza yet again, though this time we were each getting our own to soak up the liquor, lol!! We checked out Bell’s again (they seriously have a really good pizza!!) all craving the deliciousness we had the night before but to our dismay learned it didn’t open until 5pm!!

The idea was in our heads already however, and there was nothing to change it. We were bound and determined to starve ourselves all day until Bell’s opened again!! It seriously turned into a bit of a torture game and that day was the longest day I can ever recall!! One would ask “what time is it” and learn it was 12:15… Then what seemed like forever later another would ask again the time only to learn it was 12:22 😦 The day went on like this with time slowing down just to mock us and as we didn’t have anything else to eat, the hangover symptoms started to even creep up on me!

What does one do to stave off a hangover?? You got it! Drink more! I caved around 3:30 and went to the bar at the hotel with K and proceeded to drink three White Russians. Yum!! It was definitely just what I needed to tide me over until Bell’s opened! 5pm FINALLY rolled around and we went for our indulgent meal of pizza with mushrooms and ham. After dinner, K said she wanted to get a tattoo. I, the night before, after meeting Joe the tattoo artist said I wanted to have him draw out a tattoo for me that I’d been thinking about for 7 years now. So I tagged along… J (the smart one) went back to the hotel for an easy night…

Well, of course since the tattoo shop was in front of a bar, we just had to get a bucket of booze to share! I chatted with Joe about what I wanted, describing the design that I saw in my head and he set off to work as K and I got progressively more inebriated I kept checking back in with Joe every half hour or so to see how the design was coming along, giving input where needed. About 2 hours later the design was done! I really was thinking to just pay for the design and get the tattoo later, but then I started thinking “why not get it done now??”… Or maybe it was just the booze talking, lol!! In any event, I bit the bullet and got it done!

Tattoo

Tattoo_2

It’s still a work in progress as I want some shading done on the moon and a Japanese word written in the space between the moon and cherry willow tree, but nothing another trip to Kanchanaburi can’t fix 😉 I will say I was quite impressed with Joe as when I said I wanted a Japanese word written in he said “I don’t speak Japanese” (he’s Thai) to which I replied “Google translate!” to which he replied “are you sure??”. He got me to thinking and I’ve decided that until I find someone who speaks fluent Japanese, and someone who is trustworthy, I won’t do the lettering. I’m not going to lie, the tattoo was quite unpleasant to get! I thought the booze would numb me up a bit, but no luck there:(

In any event, after I got my tattoo done, K got one as well even though Joe strongly advised against it since he deemed her too drunk to get one. Eventually he relented and gave her the tattoo and after a bit of drama over her paying him for his services (she only had a quarter of the money it cost and instead of going to get more money from the ATM in front of 7 Eleven, she wandered INTO 7 Eleven and proceeded to read the wording on every package of items sold in an attempt to avoid (?) having to pay… Once that was sorted out and she finally paid Joe, we wandered back toward the hotel and passed out around 4am… again… lol!!

The next day we rose (K with a hangover) and finally got the vet supplies bought. We stopped at a REAL grocery store to stock up on goodies not found in Sangkhlaburi (coconut oil, apple cider vinegar and tabasco sauce for me) then headed home.

In all honesty, I was a bit worried that when I woke that morning I would be a bit regretful about getting the tattoo. But when I thought about it, I had no regrets. No butterflies or tight feeling in the stomach when one thinks of something they wish they hadn’t done. It’s still a work in progress of course and it still has to fully heal (the wrinkles will dissipate) but I’m happy I’ve got it:)

On to Spay Camp and Elephants

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