My Granddaughters

Emma

These are my granddaughters. Emma is Kyla’s daughter — Allie and Zejah are Lyndsie’s. I have a grandson too but I haven’t met him yet.

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Emma and I have always had a special connection. She reminds me of Lyndsie when Lyndsie was young. Never able to sit still – always willing to jump into something unknown. Yesterday, she told me she wasn’t afraid of anything because she has so many stuffed animals to protect her. It’s good to be brave.

Allie

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Allie is careful and thoughtful. She reminds me of Kyla as a child. Allie likes to know how things will turn out before she begins. She likes things done correctly and she’s very clever, often showing me how to work the TV or DVD. She’ll need a lot of room to do things her way.

Zejah

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This is Zejah, She died on her birthday. Never having taken a breath or opened her eyes. She never knew fear, pain, anxiety, loneliness or hunger. Her life was bliss from conception to death – children who have only known warmth and love must make very special angels.

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Vietnam

A Fishing Village on The Mekong

 

Vietnam is a beautiful country, it seems more tropical than Thailand. More congested. There is still a lot of French influence in the architecture and language. Catholic cathedrals are the center point of both Hanoi’s and Saigon’s old quarter. I was surprised to see so many Christian churches, I only saw one Buddhist monastery and only two Monks (and they were at the airport) – in Thailand it seems every fourth person is a monk.

 

Hanoi -- The Old Quarter

Restaurant, Welder and Mechanic

Hanoi’s old town would fit well in Europe if not for the masses of people living and working in the streets – not like homeless people – they simple sit wherever business is good. As I walked down the street I would weave my way through diners eating rice on make-shift tables, around men welding iron bars together and over the strewn pieces of several motor bikes being repaired. All the time horns are blazing, not out of anger but to let others know where you are. It reminds me of chicken coop, everyone moving and clucking but no one seems to be going anywhere.

Hanoi Crosswalk

I actually enjoyed crossing streets. You don’t look left or right, you just walk into the moving traffic. As long as you maintain a straight course and constant speed all the vehicles will miss you. It is a little unnerving though at first.

 

It was cold in North Vietnam. I stayed in a hostel hoping to hook up with other travelers but got stuck with four Aussies who kept to themselves. The hostel had no heat, but the top bunk was warm. I did find a few people to sit and have a beer with. A Bosnian expat named Elias, traveling to sort out the murder of his family 20 years ago; An ex F4 Phantom pilot named Ernie who flew in Vietnam, after watching the traffic for a few minutes he said: “If it weren’t for the politicians we would have cleaned up this mess” I just looked at him and said, “Yeah, some people believe that”. We got a drink and talked for a long time. I met a Malaysian restaurant planner who took me to meet other friends eventually there were 10 of us and we went bar hopping till early – I think I woke the Aussies when I crawled back into my bunk that morning.

 

A mommy and her baby

 

I spent three days on Ha Long Bay – it’s clearly a magical place but it was so damn cold I spent most of my time inside watching the cloud covered islands go by. Still, I like being on ships and my cabin was decent. I stayed one night at a beach resort which, again would have been really cool if it hadn’t been so cold. I got a little bored so I left the resort and started to climb the mountain. At the top I bunch of monkeys found me – they were clearly used to people since they had no fear and kept grabbing at my pockets. I would like to come back here in the summer It’s a very beautiful place.

 

A room with a view. That's the restaurant across the alley

I left the group I was with on the way back to the hostel. The bus driver just stopped the bus in the middle of nowhere and I got out and caught a cab. For 500,000 dong ($25) he took me to a hotel – I said any will do just make it close to the airport. So he dropped me off at his cousins place. A small village built on an off ramp. No one spoke English, in fact I’m sure they’d never seen an American. The room was clean but no amenities. I asked if there was a restaurant close by and the hotel owner (a really nice ancient lady) pointed me to a garage – inside were some low tables, strange food and a mass of soldiers, police, mechanics, and other people all sitting at a long, low table – so I joined them. Soon we were sharing really bad vodka and really tough chicken. The dogs near the table were happy to get all the scraps, not knowing that they were on the menu tomorrow night.

 

 

Saigon Street Vendor

 

 

Celebrating Tet in Saigon

Saigon couldn’t be more different than Hanoi. If you didn’t know better you’d swear they’d won the war. Wide streets, sidewalks and all the major store brands – they even had street lights but no one paid much attention to them. In the North buildings were made with bricks and stucco, in the South they were concrete and steel. January starts with the Western New Year and ends with the Lunar New Year (Tet) so there are lots of decorations. All the people were friendly although the South clearly caters to tourists. Drinking an shopping is about the only thing to do in Saigon. I did get to the “Unification Palace” that’s the building you see in news reels where the helicopter is trying to evacuate hundreds of people off the roof just ahead of the Viet Cong – they’ve changed nothing in the building, it was interesting to see it as it was. Of the hundreds of tourists, all most all were old white guys — I skewed young.

 

 

 

The "Can Tho" -- my cabin is on the lower port side

I spent three days on the Mekong Delta. This was really the highlight of my trip. I got a really nice room on a French barge called a Bassac. It has twelve cabins, a dining area and several nice decks to lounge on. I’m the only English speaking person there so I get my own guide. The food is fantastic, seven courses three times a day (they are French after all).

 

I’ve never been on a “working” river before. Thousands of canals connecting thousands of villages. Everyone is working all day, every day. Some villages grow rice, some of the rice and husks are carried by barge to a village that makes rice paper. Here, rice milk is cooked over a flame fed by the husks. The burnt husks are picked up by a trader who transports them to a village that makes bricks. Other barge owners bring sand dredged from the bottom of the river and hundreds of thousands of bricks are made in each of the dozen kilns a village will have. There are no grocery stores. Instead barges meet in the River’s center and traded goods.

Barges on the Mekong

A pole is erected on each barge with the product they sell attached to it. Pineapple, mangos, apples, even fish flew from poles like the “Special” signs at Safeway. A palm branch attached to the barge signifies that the barge is for sale.

Mellons sold from a barge

Baths and dishes were done in the river. Water plants were grown along the shore with nets on the down-river end – twice a day someone would go down to the net and pull out the fish that had sought refuge among the plants.

Graves were evident everywhere. Alters really. Ancestors are buried as close as possible to the home or fields so that they could watch over the family.

Fishing

We stopped several times to visit villages. There were no other tourists, no one tried to sell us anything, we just walked through the village and into people’s homes. I saw weaver’s at work, brick makers, rice paper cooks, and farmers all going about their business. Most houses had electricity but there was no running water. Large cisterns sat next to the house where rain water was collected off of the roof in the rainy season and used all year long for cooking.

 

Weaving matts, they sell for $3

Making Rice Cakes

At_dusk I would sit alone at the bow listening to songs on my iPod and watching the Delta slowly fall to sleep.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

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Drawing Old People

Northern Thai Old Lady

I’ve been drawing old people – they’re harder than they look. Lots of interpretation. When I work, tourists will come by and watch. Some take photos. They like the old people the best because their faces tell so many stories.

  

 

Old Man

 

They want to buy the drawings but I tell them they are already sold —  

My style is heavy-handed – see the difference between my last old lady and Toom’s, my teacher? It’s interesting how differently two artists can see the same picture. Click on the drawing to see the detail.

My Interpretation of an old lady

Toom's rendition of the same old lady

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many of the merchants are used to me now – they give me discounts and know what kind of chicken I like from their carts. I arrive before most and put on music — Bob Marley followed by Eric Clapton followed by Neil Young – that’s all I have on the thumb drive so the set is always the same. Toom always turns the music way up. Sometimes the studio looks like a scene from Blade Runner – I’m in the basement, no windows, low ceilings, every stall is surrounded by roll-up steel doors, lots of live wires and bare bulbs hanging down. Crowds move around me speaking many languages, kids are yelling, a motorcycle drives down the hall, TV’s are blaring; sometimes I hear Julie Andrews, a Thai game show and Neil Young all mixed together, then the old lady with the food cart rolls by yelling prices, followed by the old man selling lottery tickets – everyone is yelling, laughing, bartering and drawing – somehow Bob Marley always breaks through the din with “don’t worry, be happy” many of the stall workers sing along.

New Year's eve at the studio

On new year’s eve we closed shop early. The artists broke out the whiskey and pulled out stoves. Lizard, raccoon, cat and dog were all on the menu. I liked the raccoon the best.

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Elephants in Chiang Mai

 

Elephant Couple and People Couple

Over the last couple of weeks, Russ and I have seen an elephant with his Mahout (owner/trainer) walking down the highway just outside our neighborhood. With a flashing “rear view tail light” tied to his tail. I’m not sure we would have the significance of that if we hadn’t spent some time in the jungles of Northern Thailand at the Elephant Nature Park. For here the elephants find sanctuary, away from the treatment of simple livestock like our cows, sheep and horses or from the life of begging on the streets of Chiang Mai. We believe that this is where this beautiful creature was heading, towards the tourist crowds during the busy night life of the city we call home. Tourists pay a pretty penny, and then some, to get up close and personal with an elephant…wouldn’t you.? Yet we learned that this is one of the gross abuses against these beings, the Asian Elephant, who are very near close to extinction. A century ago there where 100,00 elephants in Thailand and now a mere 5,000. The elephants were used in the logging industry of Thailand and Burma, logging was outlawed in 1989 in Thailand when they discovered that it dramatically increased flood damage. What were people to do with these animals? I cannot bear to repeat all that we learned of the horrific life and death these creatures endured. Safe to say, however, at the Elephant Nature Park, thanks to the love and commitment of one woman, Lek, 36 elephants lead a beautiful life in the northern jungles.

 

On the way to the river

Lek has created a haven for these amazing creatures, some who are crippled from stepping on landmines, some who were blinded by the atrocities against them by their owners as they “break” these animals into submission. Others she rescued from families on the borders of Burma who just didn’t know what to do with them nor had the resources to provide for them. Some she paid for, $2,000 US dollars for one, while others she convinced the villagers to just give to her. Here at the park, though, these animals are loved, fed, bathed and medically cared for by a team and staff of mahouts and volunteers.

Bathing an Elephant

Baby Elephant Playing in the Water

 

Feeding the Baby Elephant

During our overnight visit we were able to observe this blessed life as well as feed them copious amounts of bananas, watermelons, papayas and pumpkins…elephants eat 18 – 20 hours a day while they sleep only 4 -5 hours. A group of about 10 were penned within feet of our cabin and we could hear them munch away through most of the night. We also got to bathe them in the river running through the park, a really fun and wet experience. Elephants are very family oriented animals. At the reserve there was a family group of adults, teenagers and 2 babies, a girl (22 mos) and a boy (18 mos). The volunteers were very cautious around this family group as the behavior of the youngest two was unpredictable. We were able to watch, however, their daily activity as they roamed the preserve.

We spent a half an hour down at a trench with Lek observing the love affair between she and several of her “babies”…sitting under their trunks, she would sing to them, feed them bread and banana’s, kiss their trunks and get full lipped kisses back. It was very calm even amidst the hustle and bustle of visitors and mahouts. I, myself, felt very relaxed and incredibly grounded watching this amazing relationship between woman and “beast”. We were very well fed, traditional northern Thai cuisine, spending the first day out in the sun with the elephants and the second day under cover due to a very unusual December rain. Still quite relaxing as we read, sipped tea, watch the documentary of Lek’s journey in creating this haven and just hung out with the elephants. Throughout the day they would visit us, coming up to within 5 feet of our reading chair, reaching their trunks out for food, scratching their butts on the trees and playing games with a big truck tire. We would often look up and see the two babies running through the field chasing their mahouts…part of their training we later learned as they need to learn to recognize the voice and commands, to come when called and follow behind their trainer. Whether we were with our assigned guide or with one of the workers there was no shortness of knowledge and answers no matter who we spoke to. Surreal on the one hand, incredibly grounding on the other, this is an experience I will never forget.

Lek Feeding a baby Elephant

Lek Getting an Elephant Kiss

Hang'n with the Dogs and the Pachyderms

 

Elephants are amazing creatures and each one of them deserves to live their full 70+ years on this earth. I will do my part in spreading the word. Learn what you can for they are truly supreme beings.

A Freindly Elephant

Russ – Terei relayed most  of my experience very well, one sad understanding I had was the cultural transition taking place in Thailand. As Terei said, elephants here are legally no different than cattle in America. We expect these animals to generate a return-on-investment or we sell them to the glue factory. That’s how it is here for elephants. The elephant’s place in Thai society has changed remarkably since 1989 – ironically the only place they can live is in the forests that they worked so hard to destroy. And there aren’t enough forests left. I don’t know if it’s because of the economy, or elephants are more spiritual, or human-like or, if it’s just the Western mind-set but the people of Thailand are being forced to change a 1,000 year old tradition in a generation. The elephants are caught in the middle. Lek is doing amazing work and the reserve is worth a visit if you get to Thailand. In the end though, I don’t think there is any future for elephants in Thailand – there will be hundreds on reservations and a few in the wild reserves but the vast majority are gone forever.

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