Guess Who I Ran Into on the Beach Today......

I did walk along the beach today and just killed time relaxing. Around one curve in the beach, however, I came across an elephant. The owner wanted about 50 cents for a photograph and I obliged him. Thai elephants are descendents from Indian elephants and are generally much smaller and more docile than African species. This one was a tusk less female which probably means she is too old to work anymore so now she just wanders around the beach getting her picture taken. Elephants are common in this area, however, and it is a growing problem that when the owner can no longer take care of them they lead them into Bangkok and abandon them. Last time I was here one had been abandoned and had panicked running along the sidewalk tearing up vending stalls and scattering the locals. Sounds funny but the police had to shoot and kill that one.

The tsunami several years ago that devastated Thailand only caused very high tides here but further south it destroyed entire villages and I remember seeing photos of the elephants being used to walk out into the water and retrieve bodies. They are still used for heavy moving and were very useful after the tsunami in removing trees and collapsed buildings to retrieve survivors and even recover victims. This old girl today looked bored with it all but probably doesn’t have all that rough of a life.

These jobs with private transport companies are usually very rewarding and it’s sometimes kind of sad to wrap them up and this was particularly a good job so it was mixed feelings when we finished today. I had three transport drivers and one translator and all four went to great lengths to make my stay a good one.

I arrived on Saturday and on Sunday one of the students and the translator (I found out later she was his girl friend) picked me up and we drove to an island off the beach and visited a Buddhist temple. There was also a Chinese temple on the island and I’m including a picture of the two of them in front of it.

I am working the next two days for a company called Air Products and they picked me up after class today and drove me nearly two hours further south to Rayong which is also on the beach and it an industrial, not tourist, location. Like in Sriracha, the hotel here is first class and almost out of place in the city which is mostly run down and dirty—a typical industrial port town.

I do two days work here and it will be refresher work with the students I had in Pattaya a year and a half ago so I will know them and it should be fun to see them again. Then, Thursday night it’s back to Bangkok and Friday morning I fly back to the States…..