…and you already thought this blog is dead! No, it isn’t although I agree that 3.5 weeks since the last post are definitely too long. I will not waste time with excuses but start right away:

Elephant Nature Park (10.11.2013): It happened about five weeks ago, that Sakeenah and I visited the Elephant Nature Park, a 250-acre sanctuary for Elephants, approximately 60 km outside of Chiang Mai City. Since the big flooding in Bangkok in 2011 – which was not only a catastrophe for the citizens but also for thousands of street animals – the park became home for more than 250 dogs, too.  The dogs get very well along with the elephants. Also lots of cats, some buffaloes and a few other farm animals have found shelter in the sanctuary.

There are several parks offering bareback elephant riding and circus-like attractions to entertain the thousands of tourists. Sadly, the elephants in these parks are not treated as they should. They get stabbed, punched and tortured in order to train them tricks or to make them accept people riding on their back. Normally, the mahouts, the trainer and carer for the elephants, have to break the will of the elephants when the they are still young. This procedure is cruel and severely violating animal rights. – Reason enough for me not to visit such a park. Of course, the organisations and companies running these parks try to appear in a good light but I am sure there are things going on behind closed doors, not meant for the tourist’s eye. The Elephant Nature Park instead has a different concept: no riding, no show, but education and giving animals in need a chance to live an unthreatened life. Except from a few young elephants, already born in the sanctuary, most of the gentle giants were rescued from other parks. Many of them have injuries and health issues. It is horrible to hear that humans were the cause for most of the injuries. Trainer who blinded them by shooting with slingshots in their eyes, used hooks for punishing, etc., etc. … not to forget exploded land mines which for example tore elephant feet to shreds! The list of horror stories which happened to these poor creatures is long. The entrance fee of 2,500 Thai Baht (around 56,00 €, AUS $85,00) is partially a donation. I can assure you, it is really worth spending that money and to go there.

We started at 7:00am. A minivan picked us up at our hotel. During the one hour drive, we watched a 30 minutes documentary about the park, the founding by a brave Thai women, the early beginnings of the park and the process of growing over the years. Currently, 35 elephants are living in the sanctuary. Plans to buy additional land to accommodate more elephants are closely related to the financial situation of the organisation. To run the park for a year sums easily up to US $250.000 – according to our tour guide. 2.5 tons of fruits have to be bought and fed to the elephants on a daily basis!

After our arrival we got a short introduction how to interact with the elephants and more important: how not to interact. For instance, approaching an elephant from the back or from the very front (the elephant’s eyes on the side of their heads can’t see straight forward) is a no go. Every of the big guys has a mahout, who is like a permanent companion, standing or sitting in close distance. Especially the blind elephants depend on their mahouts and have a trustful bond with them.   What all elephants like, is to get fed from the elevated platform of the main building. Compared to African elephants which have kind of fingers at the end of their trunk, Indian/Asian elephants grab food by entangling it. (as shown in a gallery photo below)

After the elephants had their breakfast we had a walk on the site. It was a strange feeling that we were not separated from the animals by a fence or trench as common in zoos. At first I was a bit concerned what would happen, if an elephant decided to smack down one of the annoying tourists they had to bear everyday. There is not much the mahouts could do to stop a jumbo with a weight of three tons. In reality all animals were peaceful and didn’t show any sign of aggression…apart from one elephant protecting a baby against an unimpressed buffalo grazing close by and a few young males called “trouble makers” for obvious reasons.

I learned a lot about elephants that day. To experience these animals live and to have somebody teaching you on the spot, made a huge difference compared to reading articles in magazines or on the internet. I am sure the knowledge I gained will stick in my head for ages.

Around lunch time I was prepared to snack my own supplies, although we were promised a vegetarian meal. It usually doesn’t live up to my expectations – but when I saw the buffet in the Elephant Nature Park with more than 20 dishes, about 90% of them vegan, I was super-happy and ate as much as a constrictor, ready to “stockpile” its body for the upcoming six months.

In the early afternoon we watched a herd bathing in the river. Later on, we were allowed to participate in the washing of an elephant who did not bother at all that we splashed buckets of water over her body. She was busy snacking fruits out of an even bigger bucket and stood solid as a rock. This washing of course was not a proper cleaning session but a set up for us. However, nobody was harmed and we got nice shots on camera. We fed the elephants another time before it was time to leave. The park offers voluntary work and wooden huts as accommodation for people wanting a more extensive and intense elephant experience. If I had more time and no other plans, I certainly would love to stay in the sanctuary for more than just a half day. The pictures in the gallery hopefully reflect the prevailing serene atmosphere of that memorable day.

3.5 Day Bamboo Workshop (12.11.-15.11.2013): John, the Bamboo and landscape architect already mentioned in my last posts, wanted to use the opportunity of his workshop to create a prototype of a special space frame construction in preparation for the resort project in Pai.  A befriended Scandinavian architect, who also participated in the workshop, had come up with an innovative low budget procedure how to create the joints between the bamboo poles. Now it was time to see how practical his idea really was. Our group consisted of 8-10 members from countries all over the world: Luxembourg, Ecuador, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Australia… , some of the guys had an architectural background, some others where simply interested to know more about the material bamboo. The age distribution appeared to be quite diverse – from students in their mid-twenties up to guys in their sixties. The workshop took place in John’s bamboo factory (basically an open storage depot for bamboo poles with a main facility building including a kitchen, a bathroom, a bedroom and an office space) in Mae Rim, about 25-30km north of Chiang Mai.

After a short introduction about the material bamboo in general, the different species and the treatment against termites and fungus, we received the instructions how to build the space frame. It came in handy that I had created a small model made of wood sticks, so everybody knew how the result should look like. We made great progress on day one. We cut off tops of water bottles, cut bamboo poles to length as well as reinforcing bars. The latter ones should guarantee a strong connection between the bamboo and the concrete, filled in the end sections of every pole. The water bottle caps prevented the liquid concrete to flow out of the poles. The process of filling was tedious and consumed pretty much all the time we had on day two. We discovered various difficulties like dealing with nasty air bubbles in the water bottle caps, stopping the concrete to completely fill them up. John explained now and then how things should be done. Still, we often had to guess and some methods used were hit and miss. Most of us had no experience with techniques like welding or concrete mixing but this was the whole point of the workshop – learning by doing. The project was great team work. Everybody tried to help if someone struggled with a task and we had lots of good conversations sharing our knowledge and a bunch of stories.

Sakeenah had joined me on day one. She was still zealous to learn Thai cooking and Daow, not only a good massage teacher, but also a respectable cook, didn’t mind that she gave her a hand in the kitchen. In the evening all participants relocated to a 5-star resort in Mae Rim, a 15 minutes drive from the factory. The accommodation was included in the workshop package and we were astonished by the high quality because we had expected a much lower standard. The Scandinavian architect (I am bad with recalling names) held a lecture in a conference room and it was getting later and later. Sakeenah had to catch a flight to Bangkok the next morning. Her luggage was still stored in my hotel room in Chiang Mai. A taxi at night-time would have been rather expensive but with a little negotiation I talked the restaurant manager of the resort into offering us a lift in his pick-up truck for a fair price. To be honest, it was his idea, not mine but I gladly accepted.

After saying good-bye to Sakeenah on the next day around noon, I took a taxi back to Mae Rim, this time staying in the 5-star resort. It was a bit strange that I had to share the room with an old fellow from Australia – in fact we had to sleep in the same honeymoonish looking double bed. He neither liked the aircon running nor the windows open due to the mosquitoes which might have entered the room. Although the resort looked awesome and luxurious, the huts felt less comfy than expected. Other workshop attendants didn’t have this issue – but I was unable to get warm water out of the tab and the shower. Anyway – as a former backpacker, I am used to such conditions. 😉

On day three some major problems occurred, tracing back to incorrect handling and disregarding John’s instructions. We had nearly finished to assemble the upper part of the construction when too much stress caused a structural failure. A concrete tube had slipped out of the bamboo poles. We analysed what happened and found more poles affected by this problem. It was not the fault of the system but clearly ours for using too short rebars. They didn’t reach deep enough into the bamboo poles to form a plug behind the thickening of the bamboo section. It is hard to explain but basically the concrete had no sufficient grip inside the bamboo and would be pulled out when affected by stronger forces. Additionally, due to a lack of time, the concrete had not hardened enough and had not the desired consistency.

We had fabricated some replacements as a matter of prudence, but not as many as needed. We conferred how to deal with the situation. The use of steel cables might have been a viable solution…if we had had more time. Also the four big poles for the bottom part of the prototype had not been finished so far. Last but not least it had been too dangerous to put together a construction with a weight of several hundred kilograms in a height of three metres. A collapse during assembling… – no need to think about it! On a positive note we were blessed to spot these defects because to learn from mistake is much more powerful than to finish without any trouble and to remain unaware of the potential risks of the used techniques. Nevertheless, it was a bit disappointing that we were not rewarded with a gorgeous tree-like space frame construction after all the effort we had taken.

In the afternoon of day three, we did a trip to a bamboo plantation in the mountains of Mae Rim where John showed us how to recognize and distinguish different bamboo species. I was surprised that the plantation was more a native rainforest with some bamboo here and there than a monocultural growing. We finished the day off with a yummy BBQ at hot springs. Fortunately I had my bicycle lights with me, because after sunset it was so dark that preparing the food was nearly impossible without any artificial light source. That night I had the hut at the resort for myself. My roommate had quit the workshop already on day three, as well as other guys with a tight time schedule.

Only the morning of day four was dedicated to the bamboo workshop. John demonstrated how to create a so called “fish mouth” connection between bamboo poles and answered questions. At the end we all got a certificate and went back to Chiang Mai. I stayed another two nights at the Noble House and eventually headed to Kuala Lumpur for my work visa. The unsuccessful story about that has already been told in my last post… 😉

Everything Changed: I will try to recapitulate the last 3.5 weeks in a shorthand report! It won’t be easy to neglect all the little details – let’s see what’s the best I can do:

After my return from Kuala Lumpur, Marc picked me up from the airport and we drove back to his factory in Mae Rim. This should become my temporary accommodation for the next six days and nights. I tested the couch for sleep comfort and noticed that it was way too soft for me. I put the thick couch cushions on the floor, covered them with a linen et voilà – an improvised bed much firmer than the couch in its original set up.  John and I started to work on the master plan for the resort project in Pai that evening. He surprised me by announcing that he had to meet up with his client in Bangkok the next day. While he was gone, I remained in the factory. I felt a bit stranded. No warm water (unless using the stove or kettle) and no internet access, except for the fluctuating weak signal I got from the coffee shop next door – but only when I sat in a corner of the kitchen. At night-time lots of cockroaches crawled around on the floor and the kitchen top. On my second day I got a lift from John’s workers to Mae Rim’s market – approximately six kilometres away. Mae Rim is not a real town – more a conglomeration of houses along a freeway with a little village on each side. Nearly nobody speaks English in Mae Rim and as a Farang you are a real oddity. Anyway – no problem for me to get at the market what I wanted and needed. I walked some kilometres back on the freeway until I stopped a white cab (the colour of the cabs define the routes and area they are operating in) for the last part. That saved me from another twenty minutes of walking.

After five days I had backache from sleeping on my improvised bed and was really yearning to return to civilisation. The factory is really to far abroad if you depend on public transportation. The only thing better than ever was the possibility to connect my 10“ netbook with the huge Sony LCD TV screen in the office. What a relief for my eyes!

When John came back from Bangkok, we cruised around with his car to find a place for me to settle down in Mae Rim. I inspected a garage and a very run down house, both equipped with my much detested toilets. They are embedded in the floor, you can’t sit on them and you have to flush with a scoop of water, taken out of a bucket nearby. (Take a look at the gallery of my post about Phuket)

There are some beautiful spots in that little village tucked away from the freeway but hands down I prefer to live in Chiang Mai on every day. In the afternoon Daow, John and I headed to a beautiful waterfall which stretched down in cascades for about one kilometre, so you can rest on different height levels and enjoy the scenery. In the evening we relocated to Chiang Mai and I booked another night in the Noble House. It was like coming home. This hotel has its issues (especially when it comes to internet connection) but in general I feel comfortable there and it fits my requirements in terms of cleanliness and luxury.

John brought the LCD screen, his Mac and a big printer to my room and we set up a temporary office in the hotel. Two days later I moved from the second floor to the fifth floor and all that office stuff moved with me. We worked during the coming week on the master plan for the resort in Pai. Daow and John were looking for a real office to rent in the vicinity of Chiang Mai. John found an old haunted house four kilometres outside of the walled city, surrounded by lush vegetation and a waterfall. The owner of the house agreed on the deal that we would do some architectural planning and renovation substitutional for paying no rent. I photo- and video-documented the premise. At home I started to draw floor plans and to build a 3-D model on my computer. Everything seemed to go well. I already considered to relocate soon to a flat in the middle of the office and Chiang Mai town. To buy a fast bicycle was another priority on my to-do-list. The only thing bothering me was my work permit which had to be lodged from Kuala Lumpur or somewhere else outside of Thailand.

On the 4th of December, John wanted to go to Pai for taking another look at the site. The first big presentation with the client was scheduled in Pai as well, two days later. It was getting late and we were struggling with the printer and the scale of a drawing. We were tired and he was tensed. I had already packed my luggage and stored most of it at the reception. At around 10 pm we stopped working without achieving our goal to figure out in which scale the drawing was printed out.

John carried his Mac and the model making stuff to his car. I tidied up the room and put the furniture back on its original place. I had already given my room key back which has an built in electronic chip, necessary for the electricity in the room. In consequence the room was rather dark and I had to leave the door open to get some light from the aisle. John came back, waited some seconds and started talking to me.

He summed up that the last two weeks of our work relation were not successful and he had decided that it would be better that we separate. He took some money out of his wallet and said that he would cover my expenses of the last weeks. BAM! I was totally taken by surprise…to say the least. That was the most spontaneous and unexpected dump ever happened to me. He was not willing to discuss, pointing out that he was tired and needed some sleep. Down in the foyer we continued our short chat. He agreed to transfer some more money on my bank account, he said sorry, entered his car and left with Daow who had waited on the driver’s seat.

I was standing in front of my hotel and couldn’t believe that all this was real. It had happened so quickly that I was not able to realize completely the situation. I had booked a flight to KL earlier in the morning, I had ditched my flight to Germany some weeks ago under the assumption that I would get a work contract, and I nearly had paid a deposit for a 22,000 Thai Baht bicycle some hours ago. – Now I was facing an expiring visa in less than two weeks to go and no back up plan.  All my hopes and dreams for the near future had been crushed within seconds. I talked to the receptionist, got the key for my room back and unpacked my luggage again. What else could I have done?

The promised money did not show up on my bank account, and after three days I wrote an email to John. He told me, that he would transfer the cash as soon as I had provided him with a bill of quantities and some screenshots of the 3D model I had worked on. These requested tasks were not finished yet and it felt like being blackmailed. I spent another two full days – more than 20 hours of work – to prepare everything he had asked me for. I suggested to meet up in person somewhere in Chiang Mai and so we did.

I was prepared to keep it professional and short: exchange data for money – money which was only a reimbursement, barely covering the expenses of my accommodation and the costs of my two useless flights – and then forget about everything. But then we talked, it turned out that John was not aware of the trouble he had caused. Unbelievable but true. It was not his intention to blackmail me and he excused for his short temper. He was impressed with the work I had accomplished in the last two days and we chatted for about a half hour. He paid me more than I had demanded. He even suggested a new try for our business relationship. I left this option open. Of course I still think that his radical decision to get rid of me was ridiculously stupid and unfair but I am okay with him now and have forgiven him. There is no use of carrying around negative thoughts which only do harm.

Extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary reactions. – I made up my mind to enjoy my remaining days in Thailand and subsequently to go for a new challenge.

And that’ s what I did so far: I got my first shot of vaccine against hepatitis A+B in the RAM hospital in Chiang Mai, went three times to the embassy and picked up my visa a this morning. I bought an XL language course package, including an express course and booked two flights.

Folks, I am heading to CHINA! My flight to Shenzhen departures on the 19th. I have another flight from Hangzhou to Hong Kong in January 2014. It is mandatory to show that I have a flight out of the country, too. Otherwise they didn’t have granted the visa. Not sure if I will be on that airplane or not. Around Christmas I will probably stay in Beijing and meet up with Sakeenah. She already activated some of her contacts who will help me to find work as an architect or English teacher. Maybe I will have a job in China, maybe not. However, I am looking forward to a thrilling new adventure!

To leave you with some more exciting news: the AACA (Architecture Accreditation Council of Australia) has assessed my skills as “SUITABLE for the occupation Architect for the purposes of migration to Australia under the General Skilled Migration Categories”. They state that my submitted documents are “equivalent to a Bachelor degree/Bachelors degree with Honours, Bachelors + Masters degree“. With my ex-flatmate James as my online counselor, I managed to sent an “Expression of Interest” to the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship. It only took them ten days to reply. Last night I received an email: „Congratulations You have received an invitation to lodge a Skilled – Independent (Subclass 189) (Permanent) visa application“ –  Strike! Another big step on my way to settle down in Oz!

If you have made it that far, spending lots of time to read the entire post,  congrats…you deserve a medal and a certificate! I really have to rethink my way of blogging because I know that most of you will choose short and frequent posts over occasional epic essays…but hey – life isn’t always a bowl of cherries. I hope you enjoyed the stories anyway. 😉

Have a lovely day, everybody –

Chris