Ha! It has to be my hangover...

That is some funny shit
(and if it's not, it's because my hangover is in charge of humour today)

As was pointed out, he beat the shit out of it.

Lady Gaga's new single "Born This Way"

Express Yourself. You're doing it wrong

no i am still not pregnant. it was the virus.

and just for the record i don't want to be pregnant.

so here is the picture of myself and crazybaby. as you can see, and as i did see, i do look pregnant. Truth be told i gained a lot of weight on my last boat and i just thought it was that. I also thought  "fuck vanity, this is an amazing photo of  two friends playing together. who cares if i look fat". Anyway what the severe bloating was (under the rolls i mean) was the onset of the virus attacking me. The one I got from cow? The one that turned into a bacterial blood infection? Yeah that one. I ignored the first stages of the virus because I thought it was gas. You know the really painful kind that feels like a knife? And vanity aside for this photo , it was still in check when I was rushed by ambulance to the hospital and was thinking to myself "oh my god i am going to emergency for farts". Anyway, it's all better now. And my hospital room was the best ever. I didn't want to leave. But I did, they discharged me into the night with raging floods and only my passports,a lighter and the pyjamas I'd been wearing for days. i am happy i had the lighter. oh and the meds. they saved my ass

my loves

splish splash

the best part of the day was always going to be bath time. even though cutting 500kg of cane by hand (and 1 small scythe) was shed loads of fun it is all about the shower at the end of the day. they el's love love love their water. the mahouts love telling their el's to dunk us under the water. i took a lot of video for this but all you can hear is laughing and i'm shaking so much from laughing you can't see much. anyway, here are some pics

THE TWINS! learning how to swim but mostly just rolling around 

snorkel

a crazy love affair with crazybaby (one word)

attempt to climb over the fence. more play time on this side

I didn't mean for it to happen. I already had my favourites, the twins. but no. slowly and surely crazybaby, not so subtley charmed his way into my frozen  heart. I would walk past his house at lunch every day and with each step saying to myself "do not look, make no eye contact. show no emotion!" and then I would see it. this  small bundle of grey goodness trundling over to the fence with dust puffing up with every step. reaching out to play. SO FREAKING CUTE. yes elephant babies are cute, all of them and they have the most mischevious personalities. But this baby is crazy. It's play play play, trunk around the neck, arm in the mouth, blowing air in my face, hair pulling etc

I blow in his trunk and he blows back. ridiculously cute. 

it was a mutual love and i've heard mothers say before - the time went by so quickly, i wish that he wouldn't grow up in a way. anyway, i will try to attach a video to this later but it was nearly impossible to get one of crazybaby because he is so crazy. super frisky at all times. i love him and i miss him.

more crazybaby after the jump

it's in the ears

Crazybaby 5 months old. My obsession!

As elephants age the upper part of their ears start to curl down. As evidenced in the following pics. I tried to remotely write the age of the el's on the phot's but it was very small (ha because I was still in Thailand?) so have written underneath in caption instead.

Vanda 12 years old

Noi age 47 years

Old guy, don't know his name AGE 70 years!
Check the wrinks on his shoulder/legs

Volunteer project in elephant village Thailand. Mahout mania

Sawadee-kah, my name is Noi. 

So the village is called elephant village not because they made it for elephants but because there are about 500 homes and over 300 elephants. They are everywhere! It's like coffee shops in Canada or karaoke bars in japan. You cannot imagine. The ellies live underneath the homes of the mahouts. Mahouts are there carers, 1 mahout to 1 elephant. They live sleep breath their elephants. Kind of like babies they need 24 hr care, over 500kg food a day. Plus bath's and scratching time. Each elephant  has a different way  of letting you up. Some lift their leg for you to climb. Some sit down, some you stand on their trunk and climb over. Our role as volunteers was to assist the mahouts with their daily activities and immerse ourselves in their lifestyle. There is a lot of work to do with just one elephant and it's not the kind of job where you can call in a sick day. The 500 kg of cane they eat? Well you chop that by hand, with a scythe, a few times a day. Shovelling shit? Kind of like mucking a stall for a horse only this stall is the size of a small house. Shower and bath time is also important. We are assigned to one elephant for the duration of our stay and with the elephant comes the Mahout. My mahouts name was Yan and my Elephants name was Noi.

me knees, Noi's head taking me to the pond.

Noi is quite the curvy gal. Rounder than most.

WE ARE BOTH SMILING!!!

Yan and Noi

I have loads of pics. Can anyone tell me how to make a separate page of photo gallery? with the link at the top of the  homepage?

shower time