Elephants and Tigers and Crocs, oh my!

My school delivered a nice surprise circa de Wednesday this week: there would be no school on Friday due to a district meeting for the teachers. I was invited to attend the meeting, provided I could understand the discussions solely in Thai, with no translation. So three day weekend!

First thing Friday morning, I was picked up by one of my Thai besties, Amonrat (Aom). I cooked us some breakfast burritos (black beans, guacamole, salsa, eggs, rice, homemade cheese, tortilla! Leftovers from home cooked burritos week). Aom took a few bites and handed me the leftovers, deciding it was not tasty. I’ve gotten used to the Thai’s we cook for just politely trying a few bites. I am pretty sure they are just used to Thai food and don’t like other tastes, but maybe I really am just a bad cook!

We drove about three hours to the beach in Chonburi province and met with my other Thai bestie Thanawat (Sam). Sam and Aom both work for the private hospital near my home. Sam had a training seminar at a nice hotel near the beach in Chonburi. We arrived in time to join him for the complimentary buffet lunch provided to attendees. I think they may have noticed me, the one white person at the buffet, but everyone was OK with it! After lunch, we traveled up to the Sriracha Tiger Zoo. The owner of the private hospital also owns the Tiger Zoo, among other businesses, and so had given Aom four VIP tickets for the weekend.

Our first stop in the Zoo was the elephant show. Man, those elephants sure do seem to have fun and enjoy performing! They danced, performed tricks, and even gave two brave volunteers an elephant massage! After the show, the elephants posed for pictures. If you walked by with a banana, they stole it right out of your hand!

Next was the crocodile show. Truly amazing and deadly creatures, we got to see their scary jaws open and snap shut more times than I’d like to remember. A muscular Thai man was the main trainer and he wrestled several crocs on the stage for performance. They actually don’t so much as wrestle them as they ‘hypnotize’ them. By rubbing the crocs snout with a stick, they were able to make the reptiles open their mouths and keep them open for several minutes. Long enough for the trainer’s to safely put their heads in the mouths! The other trainer was a small Thai girl, but she bravely and effectively battled those crocs. You know, just another day at work!

This part of the zoo was saddening, however, because the animals really seemed to be “living without souls.” They had been in captivity for so long that they had forgotten their dangerous nature. The stage was a big factor: it was a very slippery tile, preventing the crocs from easily running, much less walking across. If they moved, they would almost always automatically lose their footing and fall over themselves. Safe for the trainers of course, but we still felt for the crocs. Half of the reptiles did not even put up a fight or protest when the trainers dragged them around by their tails.

The next show, my favorite: tigers!

They were so much fun to watch. I wish I could post a video! They danced, jumped through hoops, rolled on the ground, and more.

Afterwards, we went to another area of the zoo and observed the young tiger cubs playing in their cages and then I took this picture with a baby cub! That is one cute cat! And the tiger cub is cute too :-)

Day Two: I volunteered to go on a school field trip to Ayutthaya for the day, and I really wasn’t sure what to expect. Ayutthaya is the old capitol of Thailand, before it was destroyed by Burmese invaders centuries ago, so I knew I could appreciate the historical sites. But students on a weekend day?!? Well the trip turned out to be great fun. All the teachers and students were loaded into double decker, air-conditioned buses: a comfortable way to ride! The students were well-behaved throughout and gave us teachers plenty of space! I got to see one of the royal palaces (outside and inside), a European-style temple, and a museum for one of the Royal Projects. Also took a ‘ski-lift’ ride across the river. Perhaps the best part of the trip was seeing my co-teachers dressed in normal clothes, outside of school, being silly and having normal people fun :-) It was a very nice trip and time well-spent.

Day Three: As I write, I am planning on heading to my favorite restaurant cafe in Bangkok for a pancake lunch and to type, type, type on my computer. Then home to clean house a bit and get ready for another week of classes.

Another great weekend!