Anantara

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Noodle soup for breakfast

Thursday, September 12, 2013 in Chiang Rai, Thailand

Breakfast at Anantara Resort, Thailand

Breakfast of champions at Anantara Resort in Thailand’s Golden Triangle. Photo by David Lansing.

At home I seldom eat breakfast and when I do it’s usually to pick at some of the leftovers from last night’s dinner. I love cold pizza and a strong cup of coffee. Or cold chicken and orange juice.

So Thailand is perfect for me because they serve dinner for breakfast: fried rice, steamed fish, pork-stuffed buns, and my favorite, noodle soup.

Noodle soup is the best breakfast in the world. It’s got everything in it: a fragrant broth, some veggies, rice or egg noodles, and usually a little bit of protein.

At the Anantara resort, they actually have a noodle soup station for breakfast where you can tell the guy exactly what you want in your noodle soup. I was standing there this morning looking at all my options (so many noodles! So many veggies!) and, having no idea what to ask for, told the chef to just go ahead and make me up a noodle soup like he’d make for himself. Which pleased him.

I went back and sat down at my table, ordered a fresh squeezed mango and orange juice and a Thai coffee, and before my beverages had even arrived the chef was back with a fabulous-looking noodle soup. Which tasted even better than it looked.

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Elephant adventures at Anantara

Wednesday, September 11, 2013 in Chiang Rai, Thailand | 2 comments

Tramping off through the mud at the elephant camp at Anantara. Photos by David Lansing.

Americans have so many consumer protection laws that, I think, we are more susceptible to disaster than other nationalities. We ride roller-coasters that travel upside down at 80 mph because we assume the ride has been tested and deemed safe. We go white water river rafting on Class III rapids, smiling and taking pictures, sure that our river guide has been thoroughly trained to make sure our craft doesn’t flip. And we climb on the backs of wild elephants because someone says we can.

Early in our elephant adventure, Linda got hurt. She probably shouldn’t have even been participating (she’s of a certain age and certain body type that would suggest climbing atop an elephant was crazy) but what the hell, right? The mahout told her it was okay. He told her to try and lift her leg high enough to use the elephant’s bent knee as a step. And when she couldn’t pull herself up and over the elephant’s neck, three mahouts got behind her and pushed and shoved her from behind until she had enough momentum that she was able to get a leg up. And that’s when she screamed.

“Get me off…Get me off now!”

The mahouts smiled and nodded.

“I’m hurt! I’ve done something to my leg! Get me off!”

She was white. She was obviously in a lot of pain. But nobody seemed to know what to do about it. Once you’re on top of an elephant, it’s not like you can just hop off. Particularly if you’ve pulled a hamstring or something, which is what I suspected she had done.

Eventually it was decided to force the elephant to first kneel, and then when it became apparent that it would still be impossible for Linda to get off her pachyderm, the mahouts forced her elephant to lay down on its side. Watching this I kept thinking, the elephant is going to roll over her. Linda was panicking a bit at this point, yelling at everyone, gripping tight to the elephant’s ears, thrashing about (Rule 11 of the Golden Safety Rules for a New Mahout: Avoid sudden movements and loud noises close to your elephant). But the elephant did well. The elephant slowly lay on its side and the mahouts were able to pluck Linda off its back. Linda was immediately taken back off to a local clinic while the rest of us stood around looking at each other, as one does in these circumstances, as if we weren’t sure what, exactly, had just happened.

Nonetheless, the show went on. The others, still on their elephants, paraded down the muddy road towards a large, latte-colored pond in the forest, where the mahouts directed the elephants in to the water. Liz, surprised, said, “Wait…where are we going?”

The elephants continued in to the water. At first Liz was smiling. Then she gasped as her elie dipped his large head under the water and she began to slide off the front (I was wondering at the time if she remembered Rule 10: In the water, stay away from the legs and the trunk—if you fall off into deep water, swim away from your elephant).

“Okay, I want off now!” Liz yelled. The mahout, who spoke no English, smiled and nodded. The elephant completely submerged himself. Liz screamed and threw her hands up. I waited for her to go under the water as well. But she didn’t. Somehow she managed to hold on. Or at least stay on. Probably the worst thing would have been if she’d panicked and tried to jump off (Rule 6: Never jump off your elephant while they are moving).

Then the elephant came back up. Liz screamed again. No doubt she was thinking, The mahouts allowed the elephants to go in to the water with us on their backs—it has to be okay, right?

And it was. Nobody was injured (we’ll have to wait and see about Linda) though some were certainly shaken up. A good learning experience for all. Rule 14: Always trust your instincts. This isn’t one of the mahout rules on the board at the elephant camp—it’s mine.

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Anantara’s Elephant Camp

Tuesday, September 10, 2013 in Chiang Rai, Thailand | 2 comments

Steve and Liz aboard their elies under the watchful eyes of the mahouts. Photos by David Lansing.

As part of our stay at Anantara we get our choice of activities each day which include: a spa treatment, Thai cooking school, a private excursion of the Golden Triangle, or an elephant experience.

Of course, everyone wants the elephant experience the first day. Which is what we did as well.

The elephant experience consists of going to the elephant camp that’s a part of the resort and learning from the mahouts—their care givers—how to instruct the animals to bend down and let you climb up on their back. Then you’re told how to make them stop and go, turn left or right, and bow down to allow you to slip off their forehead and down their trunk.

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about this sort of thing. Dolphins were not put on this planet so we could swim with them, killer whales should not be smoozing with little kids holding frozen mackerel in their hands, and elephants probably should not be carrying tourists on their backs. But here’s the deal: These are “rescued” elephants. Rescued from what, I don’t know. As you might imagine, it costs a lot of money to house and feed and provide medical care for an elephant. The money to do all that comes from the fees of tourists who come to the resort. In exchange for the fees tourists pay, they want to ride the elephants. And when they get to learn how to train an elephant and ride it, they’re more likely to make an additional donation to the elephant camp.

So it’s a conundrum. And I’m just enough of a hypocrite to say, No, I won’t ride an elephant because I don’t think it’s right but I’ll go along so I can get some good photos of those of you who want to do it.

I know, right? Sleazy.

So off to elephant camp we went. We were told the elephant safety rules by a young volunteer from Minnesota who had been working at the elephant camp for all of two weeks. The 13 elephant safety rules were printed on a large wooden sign and were read aloud. I won’t go over all of them with you, but I would like to point out just a couple.

Rule 5: Be careful when an elephant stand up, it swings its legs and rolls its body a lot.

Rule 10: In the water, stay away from the legs and trunk—if you fall off in deep water, swim away from your elephant.

Rule 6: Never climb on or jump off your elephant while they are moving.

And with that, the elephants were released from their tethers by the mahouts and one by one our little group climbed aboard.

Elephant camp, Anantara

The group after having successfully passed mahout training. Photo by David Lansing.

 

Do as I say, not as I do: A mahout crouched at the feet of two elephants. Photo by David Lansing.

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The Golden Triangle

Monday, September 9, 2013 in Chiang Rai, Thailand

Anantara Resort in Chiang Rai, Thailand

The Anantara resort in Chiang Rai looks out over the Mekong River to Laos and Burma. Photo by David Lansing.

Early yesterday we flew to Thailand’s northernmost region, the Golden Triangle where it is lush and green, full of bamboo forests and rice paddies. Everything about it feels exotic, from my room’s view of Laos and Burma, to the elephants who roam the property. Officially, opium barons no longer control the remote hill-tribe villages nearby; unofficially, poppies are still being planted and harvested (opium production was outlawed in Thailand in 1959 but flourished nonetheless during the Vietnam War). In fact, there’s a museum, the House of Opium, in nearby Sop Ruak that I’m quite looking forward to visiting.

Last night after dinner at our hotel, Anantara, I sat on my deck sipping a shot of rather warm whisky, swatting at the mosquitoes, and looking out over the Mekong River below to the purple hills of Laos and Burma, thinking of all the Joseph Conrad-like intrigues that have played out in this area since the late 19th century when hill tribes like the Akha and Mien grew thousands of acres of colorful poppies in the high altitude. Such a different world. I’m happy to experience it.

An elephant camp is located on the grounds of the Anantara resort. Photo by David Lansing.

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