Friday after school got out Amanda and I hopped on a Sawng Tao to the city to meet up with the other WT volunteers and begin our Adventure to Surin to see the Elephant Round-up. The Round-up is an annual show hosting over 300 elephants performing a number of different acts held in Surin Province nicknamed "Land of the Elephants". Anyways we made our way into NakonPhanom around 5pm and our van ride didn't leave till Midnight so we had about 7 hours to kill in the city. We did what most people do in the city wonder the night market picking up some Kanoms (snacks), sit at the river and say hello to Lao, watch Takraw which is "an explosive mix of football, volleyball and Kung Fu, where two teams battle over a net with a rattan cane ball", wander around more and pick up street food. 12 rolled around soon enough and we began our 6 hour van ride through the night to surin. Arriving around 6:30am, I got a few restless hours of sleep and was ready for a jammed pack day of elephant watching.
The show was amazing to watch and consisted of several different acts displaying cultural and religious beliefs, talents of the asian elephant, and the epic battle between Thailand and Burma.
This is an elephant dressed in the traditional war garments heading off to "battle". In this act they had cannons shooting real explosives and bow n arrows lit of fire. I was surprised that the sound and action didn't scare the elephants!
The Beginning of the show where they filtered in all the elephants to the arena at once. Lots of elephants!
Elephants doing tricks. They had them hula hooping, standing on their back legs walking, painting, shooting darts, playing tug-o-war against 50 adults and easily winning, and having a soccer match at the end of the show. It was pretty incredible to watch. However during this time I couldn't help to think about how the elephants where being treated and being forced to perform in ways very unnatural for them.
Soccer match! They played a game of soccer ending in a shoot out. The elephants were able to kick the ball with their front and backs legs and even drop kick it using their trunk!
After the show we had some time to explore the city of Surin. However most of us were completely exhausted from teaching the whole week and getting no sleep on the van during the night. This was the first time that I went out of our city of Nakhonphanom and I was expecting it to be simpler. Due to this festival, there were so many farangs in town which surprisingly caught me off guard, so many white people! I am now use to the whispers, stares, and people trying to sneak pictures of me as I walk down the street but it Surin we completely blended in. The culture of the city was also very different with many people being able to speak fairly decent english and showing far more skin than our more traditional town.
Bright and early at 6am we were in the vans again ready to make our 6 hour journey back to our home city. My van however had a little more adventure in store than what was planned. About an hour outside of Nakhon Phanom the van starts to break down and the transmission failing to shift out of first gear. I knew this was not a quick fix problem as smoke began to spew out and the car quickly came to a stop. We jumped out and helped roll the car off of the road and took the next hour sitting under a tree waiting for a bus heading toward NKP or a friend to pick us up. The driver's sister ended up coming in her pickup truck to transport all 8 people back. 4 of us ended up sitting in the back of the truck which was actually a refreshing but windy trip back. I grabbed a quick lunch of Pad-Thai and headed towards the sawng tao station for another hour ride back into Pla Pak. Around 4:30 we made it back and completely exhausted.
The trip was a great first experience outside our home city and gave us a small glimpse of what Thailand has still waiting for us. Here other volunteer, Rita, and I take a ride on an elephant around the arena (which we got ripped off for...oh well) The most amazing part of the trip for me was how the elephants wandered the streets after the show walking right beside us and traffic weaving in and out around them!
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