Saturday, December 06, 2003
December 6, 2003
Elephants and Christmas
I have this immense need for this blog to be in order, nice and neat, easily accessible and chronological. It bothers me that the most recent is at the top, for fear that something I have said might *gasp* be missed by starting to read from there. So I've been blogging away under one post, the plan was until I'd caught up to present time...until now. I want to talk about today, though I haven't finished catching up. What to do, what to do?
I recommend a drive-by reading. Just zoom the sidebar down to somewhere, anywhere, and start from there. It'll give you a taste, a little flavor. And that way it's haphazard enough that you WILL miss something and knowing that, I'll feel better. I hope.
So, today I went to the Elephant Conservation Centre in Pahang. It's about a two hour drive from KL; I went with Dr. McCloud (head of Fulbright office here), his wife, Chris (another Fulbrighter), his mom who is here visiting, and Joan (a Fulbrighter professor).
Because of urbanization and also the growth of palm oil plantations, the natural rainforest habitat for Asian elephants has been shrinking. The elephants cause problems, like "raiding" a plantation. To protect the elephants from revengeful, gun-toting farmers or else starvation, the center was established to help with the relocation of the elephants into the national parks. The elephants at the center are trained (in numerous languages) so that they can be used in locating, subduing, and relocating the wild elephants. They have a calming effect on the wild animal--we saw video footage of how the elephants use their trunks to essentially caress the wild elephant and soothe it (and they can use grass to swat flies away--not only primates can make use of tools!). The center also looks after orphaned elephants. Asian elephants are endanged, with at most 1200 elephants in the wild in Peninsular Malaysia.
We were able to ride the elephants around (SEE PHOTOS! use the link in the sidebar) and even better--into the river! On a certain command, the elephant sort of rolls, throwing everyone (up to 4 people besides the 'driver') into the water. It was so much fun! And the elephant uses it's trunk to spray water sometimes too, so it's like a sprinkler! Later, I got back on the elephant's back for another go by sitting on her trunk and then shimmying over her head. I don't think I looked too graceful, but it was fun anyway! The only bad thing that happened was that a man lost his wedding ring in the river when he was getting onto the elephant and, of course, it was gone for good ("Holy Saint Anthony" didn't even work!).
Tonight I went to the mall (have I mentioned that there are SO MANY malls here?!) and they were playing Christmas music! There was even a great, big, 6-story high Christmas tree in the middle of the mall! It was nice at first, but then realized that this would mean I would be reminded that it was Christmas time and that I was far away, without family, friends, or snow! I'd been planning on just trying to forget the fact--which, considering the weather, might not have been that difficult. How can it be Christmas when it's so hot and humid?! But, that pesky music might just be the downfall of that attempt! I had been planning to just stay in KL for the holidays, but just found out my roommates (an Australian man and his Malay girlfriend) will be gone from mid-Dec till mid-Jan! I might get very lonely if I stay here...better to try to plan a trip I think...Or else have guests--any takers!?
Elephants and Christmas
I have this immense need for this blog to be in order, nice and neat, easily accessible and chronological. It bothers me that the most recent is at the top, for fear that something I have said might *gasp* be missed by starting to read from there. So I've been blogging away under one post, the plan was until I'd caught up to present time...until now. I want to talk about today, though I haven't finished catching up. What to do, what to do?
I recommend a drive-by reading. Just zoom the sidebar down to somewhere, anywhere, and start from there. It'll give you a taste, a little flavor. And that way it's haphazard enough that you WILL miss something and knowing that, I'll feel better. I hope.
So, today I went to the Elephant Conservation Centre in Pahang. It's about a two hour drive from KL; I went with Dr. McCloud (head of Fulbright office here), his wife, Chris (another Fulbrighter), his mom who is here visiting, and Joan (a Fulbrighter professor).
Because of urbanization and also the growth of palm oil plantations, the natural rainforest habitat for Asian elephants has been shrinking. The elephants cause problems, like "raiding" a plantation. To protect the elephants from revengeful, gun-toting farmers or else starvation, the center was established to help with the relocation of the elephants into the national parks. The elephants at the center are trained (in numerous languages) so that they can be used in locating, subduing, and relocating the wild elephants. They have a calming effect on the wild animal--we saw video footage of how the elephants use their trunks to essentially caress the wild elephant and soothe it (and they can use grass to swat flies away--not only primates can make use of tools!). The center also looks after orphaned elephants. Asian elephants are endanged, with at most 1200 elephants in the wild in Peninsular Malaysia.
We were able to ride the elephants around (SEE PHOTOS! use the link in the sidebar) and even better--into the river! On a certain command, the elephant sort of rolls, throwing everyone (up to 4 people besides the 'driver') into the water. It was so much fun! And the elephant uses it's trunk to spray water sometimes too, so it's like a sprinkler! Later, I got back on the elephant's back for another go by sitting on her trunk and then shimmying over her head. I don't think I looked too graceful, but it was fun anyway! The only bad thing that happened was that a man lost his wedding ring in the river when he was getting onto the elephant and, of course, it was gone for good ("Holy Saint Anthony" didn't even work!).
Tonight I went to the mall (have I mentioned that there are SO MANY malls here?!) and they were playing Christmas music! There was even a great, big, 6-story high Christmas tree in the middle of the mall! It was nice at first, but then realized that this would mean I would be reminded that it was Christmas time and that I was far away, without family, friends, or snow! I'd been planning on just trying to forget the fact--which, considering the weather, might not have been that difficult. How can it be Christmas when it's so hot and humid?! But, that pesky music might just be the downfall of that attempt! I had been planning to just stay in KL for the holidays, but just found out my roommates (an Australian man and his Malay girlfriend) will be gone from mid-Dec till mid-Jan! I might get very lonely if I stay here...better to try to plan a trip I think...Or else have guests--any takers!?
