dreamingoutloud.

This year has been amazing for me and we’re not even two months in yet. The biggest experience so far was my trip to Thailand to participate in the Surin Project and to chill with my good vet friends that I made last year in University. I don’t think I have blogged about it yet so here will be my short recount on one of the most life-changing two weeks I’ve had.

The first few days spent in Thailand were filled with non-stop action and travel (even the flights over here were fun!) and that’s what you expect when you’re travelling to a foreign country with 8 other people. We jam-packed so many activities into everyday that it’s all a blur to me now and I only remember a few bits and pieces of the entire 1st week. We got Thai oil massages, swam in the clear blue waters of Pattaya Beach, dressed up and ate at the fancy Mandarin Oriental Hotel, went shopping at MBK & Chatuchak Weekend Markets in Bangkok (by far the best street market I have been to – It made me fall in love with art), watch a Thai Film in a Thai Cinema with my best friend Tien, eat delicious food at a variety of Thai places, Khaosan Rd endeavours and of course being our age we did get drunk in a hotel suite from playing drinking games late at night and then waking up the next day hung over. So memorable that you think nothing could beat such an experience – But the next week really smashed it out of the ballpark.

The Surin Project is a must do before you die – I highly recommend it for people who love animals (in this case elephants) and want to put a hand in helping 3rd world country villages to build a better future for not only their people but for the animals in the area. For a week we spend every waking day surrounded by these wonderful creatures who are so perfect in form, shape and personality. In my course we learn about ‘breed standards’ for domestic animals such as dogs and how to recognise specific flaws in each breed but when it comes to elephants, everywhere I looked, each creature had its own beauty and perfection. You couldn’t pick out any elephant and say that there was something wrong with this or that like we have to do over here, each animal was a blessing and seriously, beautiful. I woke up every morning and looked outside my window to see a giant elephant just eating sugarcane and swaying back and forth and when he saw me standing their staring at him on the balcony, he’d lift up his trunk and attempt to reach my outstretched hand but was held back by the chain around his hindleg that kept him from going astray at night.

This trip really opened my eyes and made me appreciate the beauty of the world in a way I have never seen before. I learnt a new form of happiness that is not like my previous ideals, by watching other people be happy with their lives no matter how different it may be to my life over here in Australia it just made me feel like everything I’ve ever done and had didn’t compare to this moment, for right here in front of me was the REAL DEAL. One of the things that I have been missing out on for my entire life. This is my lifestyle right here, I could do this all day. Which leads me to telling you a bit of what exactly I did on this Project:

• We would walk the elephants (without their chains) everyday to a water reserve and back
• We would jump into the rivers and bathe with them and clean them
• Get splashed with water by the cheeky younger elephants who just loved to play with new toys (the new toys being us)
• Cut sugarcane and ride on top of it in a moving truck with the wind blowing in your face (and a few bugs at that too)
• Transferring elephant poo into a fertiliser system to assist in growing more plants for the village and the elephants (there’s a great story about this below!)
• Feeding baby Teng Mo (6 month old baby elephant) . Simply Adorable!
• I fed a pregnant elephant (Faa Sai) bamboo and sugarcane whenever I was around her. She’d grab my hand (really tightly) and drag me towards sight of the sugarcane that was out of reach. She’d lift up her trunk and swerve it in the direction of the sugarcane where I’d then bring some to her. 
• Hand feed elephants cucumbers and other good foods =)
• Camp on a beach with a giant bonfire with friends and the mahouts (and get drunk once again , only this time on the beach) (This activity actually meant a lot to me because I could finally cross out #Camp out on a beach on my Bucketlist.)

OH right, did I mention I got stung by a scorpion while on the project? Well, YES I DID. And IT WAS PAINFUL. I was just casually scooping poo for fertiliser (you know, what the cool kids do) and suddenly I felt a sharp stabbing pain at my lower back and I automatically response with “I think something bit me…Ahh, ok something bit me!!” and I start jerking around trying to get whatever it is off my back as my friend shook my shirt and out fell a scorpion. I then heard a “Oh, it’s a scorpion!” and that’s when I just reacted like a maniac (ish). Got driven to the first aid hospital nearby, injected with antibiotics and painkillers and sent back (but for however long it was, it was so painful) – I remember saying that it felt like someone was branding me with a really sharp metal stick and just holding it there on my back continuously. In hindsight of course it doesn’t seem like it felt that bad but I know how much it hurt when it did haha, the upside? Now I know what to do with anyone I know gets stung by a scorpion in my presence (LOTS OF ICE AND A RUN TO THE FIRST AID CLINIC!). And apparently I had the weirdest pain-reaction to it as well because when I got back, the main chef/awesome cool thai dude on the project (Ocha) kept mocking my pain reaction and I was so embarassed! HAHA but yeah, good to know I can have a laugh about this now. Like Tien said before the trip “Unless you get seriously injured or die, everything on this trip is an experience!” and I couldn’t agree more!

Needless to say that when I got back home into my Sydney house, I was already missing the Surin Elephant village. I will definiely come back there in the next few years! Guaranteed! I’m missing everyone and the elephants right now as I type!

And from now on, for every step I take into a new world and every first new thing I decide to do, I will always remember the potential of what it could do for me like the Surin Project did. Why?

Because ‘every new day is another chance to change your life’.

Photo: Me with Faa Sai =)