Whats the capital of Thailand?

So,
i know, its been a long time. Also, i have probably told a lot of you whats been going on since leaving Cambodia- but here's the latest..

Got to Bangkok, it was loud, busy, dirty and EXPENSIVE! (i have gotten so used to bargaining, getting very good prices for anything and everything) - but it seems in bangkok, they don't like to barter, and everything is extremely overprices (i guess its because the place is just crawling with whities who will pay the high prices). Needless to say, i didn't buy anything in bangkok. We spent 2 days there before heading north (13 hour overnight bus) to Chiang Mai, Thailand.

We spent a couple of days in Chiang Mai (wonderful market-- much cheaper than bangkok). Did some shopping, and mostly took it easy. On the Monday morning we were packed up to head to the Elephant Nature Park.

The ENP was extraordinary. Such amazing people doing wonderful things for these animals. All of the elephants (i think there are about 30 living there now), have all been saved from lives of torture or abuse. Many of the elephants were trekking elephants (with serious injuries), some of the elephants were street begging elephants (where the owners got money by having tourists donate to 'feed the elephant' on the streets of bangkok). Little did the tourists know that the elephant barely eats anything, not nearly enough, and the many of the elephants were drugged (amphetamines) so they could work all day (trekking) and be on the downtown streets (begging) at night. Terrible. Also, they saved injured elephants (one for example, with most of her back foot blown off by a land mine.)

One sad story is Max- the largest known elephant in Thailand. He's so tall!! He was a trekking and begging elephant. His owner took his tusks, and left him with a massive infection that now (years later) is a giant abscess that needs to be treated everyday. But i get ahead of myself.. Max was begging on the streets of bangkok one day when he was hit with a 18-wheeler truck and both of his front legs were broken. They cannot operate on an elephant because the amount of anesthetic needed is unsafe and could potentially stop their heart. So, they didn't operate, and his legs eventually 'healed'. But, now he is at the park, and can barely walk, and needs treatments for his abscess everyday. But, he's fed and he's loved.

All of the elephants have this kind of story.

I fell in love with ALL of them. It was an incredible, life changing week. The people working and volunteering there really love all the elephants, and all have their best interests at heart. It is beautiful to see some of the mahouts with their elephants- they just seem to understand each other.

Every week, they take a 'family' of elephants (they have formed families with other elephants at the park even though they're not actually related) up the road (about a 2 hour walk) to a place called heaven. This is a large area of land, trees, hills and valleys, and tons of vegetation. The elephants, their mahouts and a handful of volunteers make the trek to stay overnight. The elephants wander free, and can eat and roam to their hearts content. There is a small area for the mahouts and us to sleep. It was a great night. So cool to see the elephants as close to being wild as they will be. In the morning one of the elephants came right back to the shelter (he knew it was time to go back). And, we went up into the hills to find a few of the wandering elephants. Apparently, they are always found in the same area- the mahouts know where their elephant likes to sleep or eat.

Also, while we were at the park, there was the full moon festival called kretong. This festival is to thank mother nature for food, land and water mostly. The people make little boats made out of banana tree, and decorated with banana leaves and flowers. The boats each get 3 incense sticks and a small candle. After the sun has gone down, each person grabs their kretong (we made our own) and a large lantern (like a hot air balloon). We went down to the beach and released our kretongs down the river, and light our lanterns and let them go into the sky. It was a beautiful celebration.

Such a fabulous week. I recommend the ENP to anyone going to Thailand.

After our week at the park, we headed back to Bangkok (15 hour train ride), Where we met up with our last tour group for our last guided leg of the journey. Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore!

Signing off for now...i will post the next leg shortly!