Arriving in Japan was like stepping 100 years into the future… especially coming straight from Thailand. The buildings were tall and clean. The people no longer had on baggy pants and old t-shirts… only crisp suits and shined shoes. It took me a minute or two to get use to it.

Tokyo is the largest city in the world, and I will admit, we were a little overwhelmed. There is never a moment where you aren’t surrounded by thousands of people. And also, Japan is not designed for tourists. You will not find a single thing in English ANYWHERE. Don’t expect anyone at the hotel to translate for you either. We didn’t mind, we like to travel to the land of unknown. We were just surprised when we stepped into a restaurant and we had to order from a machine that only had symbols… no photographs, no way of telling what we were eating.

Luckily, we only spent a few days alone exploring. We had a host of friends there spending time with us and showing us their beloved country. And hospitality is something that the Japanese do well…. even the best southern belle can take a lesson or two from any Japanese person.

Here is our journey through this country.
At temples, you can make a wish and hang it for it to come true. Most were in Japanese, but here were the English ones. I truly loved reading these. And I promise, I didn’t make the baby son one ;)  My Aunt Judy, who I hold close to my heart, and my awesome friend neighbor, Laura, collect rocks from around the world. These are my favorite gifts to bring back. It is always fun finding the perfect rock in the coolest location. Your rocks came from Mount Fuji, buried in the snow.  We arrived the week after most of the cherry blossoms had lost their leaves and turned green, but I did get lucky that the local park still had them in abundance… I love these beautiful trees.  Before you enter a temple or shrine, you wash your hands and sometimes your mouth. This ritual is something that I didn’t mind, unless the water was 20 degrees!  Our friends Aki and Aya, who you will meet in the next blog, arranged for Wes and I to wear kimonos! It was so much fun! I gained a lot of respect for the women who have to wear these all the time, I had 13 items wrapped around my waist somewhere… it was the tightest thing I have ever worn, but it was such a memorable experience! We saw a real geisha… this is actually kind of rare. You can only see them in Kyoto and in one area of the city! It was so cool! Little did I know what a craze Wes and I would stir… people went crazy over seeing us! Here are a few photos that we took with local “fans” I truly felt like a celebrity all day. People constantly asking to take a photo. If only they knew us in real life… haha… we kept laughing at how they would think we were such losers! But it was nice for a day ;) 

Our next blog we have a couple in love! Aren’t you excited!! A Japanese wedding and true happiness! It will be our last blog from the adventure, so stay tuned!

Be Happy and Love each other!

T

We arrived in Phuket, Thailand the day after we left the Elephant Nature Park. We immediately checked into our fabulous hotel. When we travel, we always try to keep things as cheap as possible… so we booked the cheapest room in nice hotel. This was the one place I wanted to splurge on something other than a hostel. When we walked into the hotel, the hostest immediately looked at Wes and said… “You need a big bed” she then upgraded us to the best room in the whole place! Wow! We were so excited.

We walked into the room and our phone immediately rang… My first thought was… dang it, they changed their mind. But instead it was a much different phone call… When we walked to the lobby we immediately heard, RUN! Tsunami Warning! Earthquake!

What? Where are we suppose to go?

So we just ran, and followed, and ran some more, and looked towards the hill and didn’t stop until we got there. I have literally never sweat that much in my life. We hiked up a hill that wasn’t meant for easy hiking. We walked until we no longer saw Thai people and stopped and waited.

By the time you do all that work, you start to wish something would happen, something small, just so you didn’t do it all in vain. But I guess I can luckily say that our efforts were not needed because the sea remained calm, and after about an hour of being eaten by mosquitos the size of my fist, we made our way down the mountain.

From that point on, everywhere we walked through the rest of our trip, I made an exit plan. I looked for the tallest building or the nearest hill. It was stressful for sure, but I guess even paradise has to have a flaw.

After two days, we took a boat to Krabi. This is where the magic of Thai beaches lays. Beautiful.  When I was 11 year old, my dad took me and my siblings to a cave in St. Louis, Missouri. It is one of my favorite childhood memories. Ever since, I have had a fascination with caves, and caverns. So when given the chance to kayak through some, I couldn’t say no…  I will leave you with a photo of us. This is us during a normal moment of travel. Looking at a map, talking, living. This is typical us. The next blog (Monday!) we will head to Japan and start the end of our journey. I hope you are still enjoying!

Be Happy and love each other,

T

We walked into the entrance and it took my breath away. My brother-in-law, Chris, has had his far share of travels (he will have visited every country in the World by next April) and he knew the exact hotel we would need leaving the park. We entered Rachamankha Hotel and I definitely felt like royalty immediately. I had forgotten what air conditioning felt like… 7 days in 100 degree weather with no air conditioning anywhere… walking into our hotel room I couldn’t believe the cool air hitting my face.

Wes immediately jumped in the shower… I think he was in it for at least 30 minutes. During that time, I found a chair in the corner of the room & I sat on the very edge. I knew that I wasn’t worthy to sit anywhere else in the room… not with the dirt and sweat of the week still kaked to my body.

He got out of the shower and refused to let me relax until I had one… but I wasn’t ready. I didn’t want to wash the sweat off. I enjoyed the air conditioning, but the sweat, the sticky feeling had become something that I grew accustom to.

When I finally got into the shower, it was truly heavenly. Best shower of my life. I was wiping away dirt that had literally been stuck to my legs for the week and I couldn’t help but think about the experience and where that dirt came from.

Then I realized about what time it was, and I knew that at exactly this time Lek (the founder of the park) was back at the sanctuary singing Pha Mai to sleep. This was one of the best times of the entire day at the park.

As Lek sang, Pha Mai would start blinking longer and longer… rubbing her eyes with her trunk… sticking her trunk in her mouth like she was sucking her thumb… swaying back and forth trying to keep herself awake. She was just like a baby. The moment Lek stopped, her eyes would open wide looking for where Lek went. She is her mom. And Pha Mai loves her just as a baby does her mom. I loved this.

Pha Mai is the first baby that was conceived and born at the park. She will never know the pain of abuse, or have the scares from being over worked. She will never know what it means to go hungry. Instead she walks around the park like she owns it, refusing to get in the river at bath time… she wants her bananas first and the water hose in her mouth then on her back. She represents the freedom that Lek has been dreaming about.

I LOVED that when we all got into the pen, the mom, aunt, and nanny surrounded the baby on all sides to make sure she was protected. I know that elephants love their babies as much (and maybe more) than humans. They raise them together and protect them together. I loved seeing it happen in person. They didn’t move from Pha Mai until Lek let them know it was ok, we had to earn their trust.

Our last meal at the park, it was a traditional meal of the village. This experience changed my life. In several ways, I learned that I can go several days in the heat & hard work & do something that is better than anyone imagined. I saw in how one person can decide to make a difference and MAKE.IT.HAPPEN. Lek wanted change, she wanted animals to be free and she has done so much. She sees love in the world and wants others to see it too.

We can do that. We can see love and give love and soon it will come back to receive. It doesn’t have to be an entire community changing, it just takes one person. We change and then it will rub off. I want to be love. I want to be love to humans, to animals, to the earth. God gave us so much, I don’t want to take it for granted.

I hope these blogs have encouraged you

1. to find a passion and go for it… even if it is as strange as carrying for elephants…. or as far away as Thailand.

2. to realize that animals are creatures, they have personalities, brains, the capacity to love. They should be respected and not used for our entertainment.

3. Be a better person. It really doesn’t take much. Just wake up and decide it isn’t worth it to be angry & hate. Love each other and change the world through it.

T

Can you imagine walking out your front door and immediately being hosed down with water… buckets dumped on your head, or a truck driving by squirting you with water guns. Before you even make it to your mail box you are completely soaked.

Well, for a week in Chiang Mai, Thailand, that is exactly what happens. The Songkran Festival is the celebration of the new year. It happens all over Thailand, but the people and neighboring villages of Chiang Mai drag it out for as long as they can.

The festival symbolizes washing away the old year, cleaning for the year to come. I kind of love the meaning behind it. And I must say, it was a total blast.

Obviously we couldn’t have our “real” camera out to capture the event… they really don’t play and will get you no matter what. So this blog is iphone and gopro. Not very professional, but I couldn’t pass up sharing this with you.

The photo on top… the green barrels in the truck are full of water. Some trucks even put ice in their water… that is always shocking. haha. This is definitely a festival I will remember for the rest of my life…
And once you are already soaked… why not take a cruise down the river. 

Maybe we can bring this tradition back home…. I have some buckets and a water hose, anyone want to join?

Be Happy and love each other.

T