Never been happier - Doilom elephant sanctuary in Chiang Mai

The previous post in this series is here..

After visiting the long neck tribe, our next stop was the Doilom elephant sanctuary. We had told Joy that we wanted less crowd. So he went to a place farther away. We were the first customers and after waiting 15 minutes for another group that never showed up, they decided to give us a private tour for the two of us. It was nice of them. I am sure Joy explained our time crunch to them.

There is only one thing that has made me happier than a 90 minute hot yoga class. That is spending 90 minutes with this amazing gentle elephant. Had an great time making medicine for her and feeding her and walking with her and taking a bath with her.

Had already walked in there with a cold and had taken tylenol. After getting in the cold water with the elephant and getting completely wet, not sure if I helped my own cause. The recovery was going to take longer. San was not happy with my move to jump into the water but I don’t get to do this every day! So there was no reasoning with me.

After the water, we got changed quickly and luckily they had really nice towels to keep us warm for a few minutes to dry.

They served us lunch but again I just settled for plain white rice with salt and pepper. Only the jeera was missing. After eating an energy bar and two more tylenols for desert and topping it off with a packet of emergen-C vitamins, was ready to move to our next stop..

A video highlights reel..

Our next stop was a place that I added to the tour list that is not in most folks list. Had heard about this place through a friend who visited Chiang Mai as a photographers delight. That in the next post..

Destiny..elephants.. memories..

San has successfully managed me for 20 years now! A milestone that I am extremely grateful to pass. The kids who always take my side, finally acknowledged "yeah. you are not an easy guy to deal with. you are very complicated. so amma did do well to handle you for 20 years". 

They are her toughest and biased critics and this came from them.. 

Was still under travel pressure, so we just kept it simple this time. Lunch at Chaat House as usual for our anniversary (this time with my in laws) and a visit to the local temple to say thanks. There was no ice cream at Ghirardelis.. 

We also ended up on a whirlwind India trip for 5 days. This time to do a Sadhabishegam function for my dad and mom. Have written a recent post on this..

My dad's 1000'th moon happens in early December and technically (the sankara sastri in me rears his ugly head again).. we should have celebrated this next February. Then there are astrologers, older people, fuzzy logic, health concerns etc.. and the quantum computing ended up with last week as the "last Revathy birth star of the first half of the year where the earth moves northwards (between Jan14th and July 14th)".. If your head is spinning faster than the earth after reading that, you are in good shape. Like they say in Yoga class "it is normal to feel dizzy after that!". 

It was hectic for us, as Jr. is going to Senior year in high school and we have a packed agenda. We did go as a family and celebrate the event. It went better than expected, given my dad was in diapers three months ago when I went for a 5 day visit. His parkinsons is under control, but he had a fall and was recovering from it. Looks like he is back to where he was before his fall. 

We literally entered the house at 5AM and the function started at 6:30AM.  Chennai was going through a water crisis. So there was the waiting for water truck on some days. It was also the first time we stayed in a hotel in Chennai. Hotels have water and star hotels definitely have water. That was a good decision to move to a hotel.

Two days for the function, two days for rest and we flew back on day 5!

In those two so called "rest days" we managed to

- go meet my grandma (who could not make it to the function)

- meet San's grandma

- eat out in three places

- visit Kabali temple and

- do a quick round of shopping in old Cupertino/ Old Fremont..

sorry.. Mylapore and Mambalam.. I have to write a separate post on why folks who are in Mylapore side end up in Cupertino and Mambalam side end up in Fremont.. the statistics are interesting.. think BART and Station road might have something to do with it..

where were we? Yes.. quick visits on two "rest" days.

We visited Kabali temple .. the place where San and me met for the first time..a place where "our fates changed" in San's words.

The kids went to the elephants and quickly realized that the elephants were sitting in the sun all morning and were at 41 C. One quickly jumped off and the other managed a smile knowing she had already done the damage..

Don't how many kids have sat on these elephants and had fun over the last centuries.. 

We also walked through one of my favorite places in the temple where they keep the cows and peacocks.. Didn't not spot any peacocks this time but this little calf came and was all over me.. kissing me and wanting to play with me. Brought back so many memories.. 

As usual I am now down with a cold virus from the flight.. so taking it easy and resting as much as I can for the long weekend.

My one achievement for the trip was to take a family group picture of my parents with all their kids and families. This group has never been together under one roof ever.. this was the first time. Hopefully it will be repeated many more times.. Have waited a long time to take this picture!

Will have more pictures to edit and share soon. This trip was only 5 days and 20k miles but felt like we went to the moon and back and over decades of time in memories..

Elephantography

It is no secret that I have a soft corner for elephants and monkeys.. especially elephants.

Here is one of the pictures of the elephants in San Diego Zoo..

Loved processing this one into a Black and White image and retain the color only on the leaves he was eating. Had done a similar picture years ago where only the eyes had color . . . 

More pictures tomorrow..