Opportunity knocks, Karma hunts you down.
Barbary Lion, now extinct in the wild.
Karma…
Category Archives: Ravings – random wafflings
Holding on to Anger…
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.
– The Buddha
Garden monks, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Elephants in High Heels and Angle Grinders with Wings. Day 2 at Elephant Nature Park.
Carvings done by the mahouts while out in the field with the elephants.
Bathroom critter report –
- 1 snail
- 1 worm. Sadly, the worm got stood on before being noticed, so make that
- 1 snail. Sob.
Types of work the volunteers are asked to do here:
- Wash and prepare food for the elephants
- Unload the trucks of fruit and vegetables as they arrive
- Pick up elephant pooh in and around their night shelter and put it on the compost pile (pitchforks and trolleys provided)
- Cut corn or other greenery for elephant fodder
- Mend fences
- Plant young trees
- Help out over at the dog shelter
- Whatever other random jobs come up that need doing – no shortage of them!
There’s a wee orphaned goat here, Noah, who is about four days old. He’s being carried around by his human nanny and being shown how to pluck leaves from bushes for a chew and generally be a goat. He has a special pen in front of the gift shop where he is practicing his cuteness and collecting human admirers. Continue reading
Do not seek…
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise.
Rather, seek what they sought.
– Matsuo Basho
The picture below is one of the postcards I have made. I am selling them to raise money to return as a volunteer at Elephant Nature Park, Thailand. If you are interested in buy some, send me an email. Thanks.
Postcard – Do Not Seek
Tiny House and ‘Normal House’ Living – Pros and Cons (May Contain Llamas)
Your potential new lawn mower.
There’s a lot to be said about living in a ‘real house’. As I’ve mentioned before, the divine presence of an automatic washing machine is number one in my book. Here are some other great things about it: Continue reading
Breathe..
Breathe in, breathe out.
Breathe in, breathe out.
Forget this and enlightenment will be the least of your problems.
Private life of a lotus flower.
Elephants Here I Come, or Scrat, Vegetarian Banquets and Killer Elephant Pooh. Day 1 at Elephant Nature Park.
Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai, Thailand. The view over my coffee cup.
I’m not one to swan about on deck chairs, sipping cocktails while watching the sunset at a luxurious beach resort. Oh no – I have to go out and punish myself in some strange and unusual manner for being a Westerner whose life is easy compared to many the world over, and who can scrounge up enough spare dollars to jump on a large airplane and fly to foreign climes. Far be it from me to wallow in comfort in pleasant surroundings while locals scurry to and fro with platters of gorgeous food and glasses with wee umbrellas poking out of them. That will not do at all! Far better that I throw myself into yet another deep end, fray my nerves with unfamiliar situations and learn to swim like hell until I’m at the other side of God-knows-what pool I’ve dunked myself into this time. Continue reading
The Experience…
‘Perhaps the experience you are looking for is the experience of not looking for it.’
Clever! I must marinate on that…
Please Don’t Ride the Elephants – this post is actually serious.
Please Don’t Ride The Elephants – A Serious Note.
Planning on going to Thailand for a holiday soon? Thinking you’d like to have a ride on an elephant or maybe watch elephants paint pictures while you’re there? Consider this first – the elephant you have a ride on may well be living a harsh and lonely life.
I’m writing this from the Elephant Nature Park, an hour or so from Chiang Mai in the North of Thailand. My friend Ursula and I have come here for seven days to help out as volunteers. The elephant park was started in 1995 by Lek Chailert who, whenever she can, rescues elephants from unhappy situations and gifts to them freedom from what is more often than not, a life of slavery. Continue reading
And Home Again…
Up and packing was I at 8am on our last morning in Bangkok – due to the fact I had gotten carried away with chatting with others the night before and other forms of indulgent procrastination measures, rather than get it done then. I finally had to face the chore head on, as it obviously wasn’t going to do itself, no matter how many chances I gave it. So morning found me throwing out things that were replaceable in New Zealand and squeezing things into places they shouldn’t have been able to fit. Several things got donated to the Imm Fusion Hotel Staff Benevolent Fund along the way – I hope what I left behind was of use to them. Continue reading 
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