Bangkok
Well, I have finally arrived in Bangkok. A city that is at least as chaotic as the last few weeks before my leave for the city were. After finishing all the organising for the benefit I could finally concentrate on my travel plans for Bangkok. With my final bit of energy left I tried to get some more elephant-steps in. So we went on the program “Mooi weer De Leeuw” on the 17th of September with blow up elephant and all, but Paul didn’t let me actually talk on the live-show so all the effort that I had put into a sms-action didn’t really pay off because nobody really got to hear about it. So that is something we won’t be doing again soon! That is probably the low point off all the preparations, all that work for nothing! Thanks Paul!
Another set back was that galerie Donkersloot was going to put some artist at work to paint some paintings of elephants that where going to be sold and all the money that was made was going to go towards Bring the Elephant HOME. It was a great idea but unfortunately it didn’t get any further than plans!
But of course there weren’t only setbacks . Sandra from the Theresia school came to bring me the earnings from the elephant week, where I also gave all pupils elephant-lessons for a day. They had earned 2.114 euros!!! The kids from group 8 had also made me a book with letters and drawings, that was very inspiring. Looking back at it now we should have put a lot more energy into the school projects. It was so much fun to do and also very successful! Not only financially but also emotionally. I really feel that the children won’t forget this project quickly and I hope that I have inspired them as much as they did me!
But before I left some practical things had to be sorted, like writing articles for Jonas, Leven, Azië-bulletin and Girafpost. I also did some work on the website and had to find a sponsored airline ticket (thanks again China Airlines!!!). I also signed a contract with Nature Conservation Films who gave me a mini-course in filming as well! I’ve been talking with Liesbeth (photographer/co-writer) about the book about the elephant walk that is going to be published. I have had to sort my administration out, I visited the travel-doctor, sorted the needed sponsored communication equipment out (on the last day we got a Bgan from www.gannexion.com sorted so that we can connect to the internet via satellite wherever we are). I also got the insurance sorted and bought a new camera, got Skype installed and got myself signed up for internet-banking. I finished the press list, made some appointments with people in Thailand, emptied my room, had some goodbye drinks and also manned a stall at Artis.
So I had a lot to do just before I left but nothing mayor to worry about. Everything was under control until I got an urgent email from Lek (Elephant Nature Park). On the 28th of September she mailed me to say that typhoon Damrey (cambodian for elephant) had ruined a great deal of her park in the worst floods in years. Just at the time that an article was going to appear in National Geographic Magazine about her work, and she was going to be nominated for her work in Time Magazine’s ‘Heroes of Asia’, she had to watch helplessly how her lifework was being destroyed by an elephant!
Luckily it was only material damage. All the elephants and other animals where taken to higher grounds by the team. The infrastructure, the huts, the fields and grounds have all suffered a lot of damage though. a lot of the mahouts, the elephant carers, have lost all there possessions.
Next week I will arrive at what at the moment is a nearly totally flooded Elephant Nature Park. I want to offer the park financial help straight away to get the biggest problems sorted. For this I am trying to get money sorted, we don’t need straight away because we have enough for the next 5 months. But I am asking you to help us! Help the Elephant Nature Park by making a generous donation! We need the money to rebuild the park and to buy all the materials that they have lost. Please send this plead for help to others who are willing to help rebuild the park. The Elephant Nature Park is too special and important for the Thai elephants to be lost! This is also the sanctuary for “our” street elephants, so you see it is very important that the Elephant Nature Park can keep doing its wonderful work!
Help us make sure that the park will be able to keep it’s head above water financially. You can make an online donation by clicking on the donate button on the homepage of our site.
The bad news about the destruction Damrey did to the Elephant Nature Park took me by surprise. It left me with a lot of questions. What will be the consequences of this? Knowing the Elephant Nature Park they won’t leave it at this, but I want to help, over here I feel so helpless. I decided to go over there and help where ever I can. Then we’’ll see further. So last Wednesday, the day finally arrived I had to say goodbye to everyone. To say goodbye to all the people who supported me in the last few months. To all the people that I have worked with on Bring The Elephant HOME, But inevitably the moment arrives that I have to leave them behind me and get on the plane alone, to go to a country where I still have to see how welcome my project will be. To the elephant park where the people will be thinking of different things than my elephant walk. It’s hard, on the plane I had to give myself a boost a few times, come on, it is all part of it, just keep going!
On the afternoon that I arrive I have an appointment with the Dutch embassy in Thailand. I feel that it is important that the embassy knows about the project and who knows they maybe able to help me. I get to speak to the ambassador and the coordinator of Culture and Tourism. They are both very positive about the project, but the thing that I was afraid of, they confirm: the Dutch may find this a very good and special initiative but in Thailand the people may see it differently. The Thai people don’t like meddling foreigners, something that I will have to take into account while I am here.
Of course it will help that the crew is Thai and that the elephants will be on the name of the elephant park.
Also during the walk I will try not to be on the foreground to much but actually to turn as much attention to the efforts of Thai like Lek of the Elephant Nature Park, who are protecting the elephants, which the Thai are so proud of, and which form such an important aspect of their culture.
The ambassador also gave me some practical tips and told me that I can always ring them if there is a problem. A reassuring idea! That evening I went to a party of the Dutch society in Thailand (also a tip from the ambassador). It was held in the chique Blue Elephant restaurant, which might even sponsor my walk (already requested). Here I talked with people about possible sponsors, and about giving elephant lessons in a school in Bangkok. I also learnt some more about the street elephants in Bangkok. Apparently they had been seen a lot in the past few weeks in Bangkok. I had let somebody put some crosses on a map where they have been spotted a lot and also of some of the bridges where they might be sleeping under, so all in all a productive evening!
Yesterday afternoon I went to Samphran,a elephant funpark. This is a place where the elephants play football, dance, play war, move logs about, and do tricks for the audience. It felt weird to be in the screaming and laughing audience who apparently enjoyed this show. There were a lot of baby elephants at this funpark. They seem to be extremely tame, they dance, play the drums, stand on their hind legs and even on their head! Afterwards the baby elephants took a walk through the crowd. As I stand filming from a distance a baby elephant starts walking towards me. The mahout isn’t around. An elephant from the Elephant Nature Park wouldn’t think twice about pushing me over or taking my camera but this elephant just looks to see if I have any food that is worth making a bow for and that is it! The elephant isn’t even a year old and is already trained to do tricks all day for tourists so he can fill his mahouts pockets with money. I wonder if this young animal has ever been playful.
That night I go into the centre of Bangkok, looking for elephants. Even though the Thai government has said that there are no elephants walking on the streets anymore I have heard from several people that they still are, but how do you find them in such a big city! I get the map out on which I have crossed off some of the streets where they had been spotted: Nana, Patpong, Soi Cowboy, Asoke, Sukhumvit Soi 2 and 7. The tuk-tuk driver asks me where I want to go and I say that I want to see the elephants. All the drivers gather around, the zoo is closed (as if i want to go there) and there are no elephants on the streets at the moment. I could better come back tomorrow for a tour to Samphran they say. I had nearly given up hope when a driver comes to me and asks: you want to feed bananas to baby elephant? Yes I say, that is what I want! He says he knows where to find them for me. In the tuk-tuk he tells me about the street elephants of Bangkok. He tells me that at the moment there aren’t a lot of elephants in the streets because a while ago the police tried to drive them out of the town but they are starting to come back now. He expects that in about a months time there will be just as many elephants in the streets of Bangkok as there were before. I feel a little weird with the idea that the driver thinks that I am a tourist and that I actually want to see the begging street elephants.
We are racing between the cars on the busy streets of Bangkok. Once in a while the driver shouts something with the word Chang (Thai for elephant) to passers by. The driver really seems to be doing his best for me. Then we run into a truck filled with the harvests of the fields, the moment that I think it, the driver says that it is food for the elephants. We find the first elephant soon after that. Under 20 minutes after starting our search for street elephants I see a baby elephant beside a busy main road. I jump out of the tuk-tuk with my video and photo camera ready. To the amazement of the driver, the mahout and a girl that wanted to try and sell me bananas to feed the baby elephant with, I am not interested in them. All three of them are trying to talk to me but all I have eye for is the baby elephant that I am filming. The mahout realises that he can’t earn any money from me and feels a little bit uncomfortably in the light of the camera and quickly walks on. That didn’t give me a chance to talk to him.
Because of all the chaos and excitement I didn’t get a good chance to look at the elephant. The moment past just as quick as it came. At least I got to see that there still are street elephants in Bangkok!
Next week I will be doing a report about how the Elephant Nature park is doing! It would be great if before that time we get some extra donations! I am counting on you!
Translation: Joanne Smith
