In search of Chang

[katie23]

@mendy - a lot of ppl think that Feng Shui is indeed bollocks, so you're not alone. I don't follow all FS rules but see the value of some of them, i.e. the bed or desk being in the "command position" so that you can see who enters the room. As for your good self, I think your work desk in your home isn't in the command position & you've been caught by the gardener in an indelicate situation.

FS is used by many businesses/ storeowners here in PH so that they'll have luck/ good fortune in their stores.

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I hope you were able to see some elephants on the loose!

[Mendip]

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Thanks, Katie!

[Bogon]

To be honest I think that we'll stay somewhere else next time as I'd like a view of the mountains.

I only stayed because I needed one of the big bungalows by the river. I usually stay down the road, but thought I would give it a go as it was wallet friendly when I booked.

Nice thread. Out of greens as usual.

[Stumpy]

Nice thread. Out of greens as usual.

Yeah. Nice thread. I was a TD member when I lived in Korat but never posted much on things I was doing. I really like that area in Pak Chong.

I remember one moto ride as I zipped through the mountains, some home estates built a "Leaning tower of Pisa". It gave me a good laugh. Most homeowners were wealthy Bangkokonians that came up on weekends.

[malmomike77]

Mendip, the chances of seeing them are not great unless you stay a while of speak to the rangers. I was trying to find a vid from about 7-8 years ago where elephants were crossing the road and the traffic was backed up. Some idiot decided to try to speed things up by using the car horn which didn't go down well and i think it was the matriarch decide the vehicle required some bodywork modification, the side were dented in and she stamped on and sat on the bonnet trashing it and the suspension.

If i want to see elephants i'd go to Ayutthaya, go the elephant camp near the Kraal and stop off at the markets and buy 40 Kgs of cucumber etc and go and feed then. There are always babies there running around loose and they are cheeky, try to bump you over and creep up on you. I know its not seeing them in the wild and i'm no fan of keeping them in captivity and cruelty associated with "breaking" them but they'll appreciate the food and kids love feeding them. Just speak to the camp people, they'll let you do it and tell you which ones to avoid if they are in musth or cranky. After pop down to the riverside and have a few evening beers and a few thai dishes.

[Edmond]

I'd like to sell up in Korat and buy a couple of rai with a small house... although the new high speed rail link will put Pak Chong within a commute of Bangkok and sadly I think that could spoil the area, but it could never get as bad as Korat. There's even an international school there as well.

There were a lot of real-estate signs up, so maybe the rot has started already. Maybe even people like Edmond will turn up for a villa upgrade?

Funny you should say that. It was one option I looked at retiring to maybe 5-6 years ago. The kid was about to start Year 1 and I didn't want her to grow up in Bkk.

I went up to the Int School there, as well as Rayong, Sattahip and CM, and chose CM before reneging 5 years later.

Nice place, but felt it would get old and boring quite fast compared to living in the other places.

The cycling looks good, though he should be out farther to the right.

[Edmond]

a lot of ppl think that Feng Shui is indeed bollocks

Billy Connolly has a good piece on it.

The guy comes round, looks and says The sofa and bookcase need to be turned this way to accompany the flow of energy.*hand out* 200 quid.

[katie23]

^I can give anyone on TD free Feng Shui advice. Just post the pic or draw a layout of the room or house.

I've already listed some FS tips on the build thread of @mikenot. His wife also wanted to follow some Buddhist/FS principles in their house build.

[bsnub]

Another great thread Mendy!

[Stumpy]

If i want to see elephants i'd go to Ayutthaya

Actually Katie, about 20 mins from our place is the Thailand Elephant reserve. It's a huge place. They not only care for refugees but let them run wild. You can also take short or long Elephant treks for a minimal cost.

[Edmond]

Actually Katie, about 20 mins from our place is the Thailand Elephant reserve. It's a huge place. They not only care for refugees but let them run wild. You can also take short or long Elephant treks for a minimal cost.

Used to take the kid up to Ayuthaya most weekends to see the river, temples, nellies etc. All very touristy obviously. No comparison to the north.

Was just looking at one lil morning motorbike ride from 2021, from a mate's place in Mae Rim to our CM house in .... Nev will tell you the name of the private village from the top left of the map.









I like the contrast between old and new in this shot.

With so many elephant camps around the outskirts of CM you often see them out along the roads. Not wild though.


For getting chased by a wild elephant that poster people always talk about went south.

Phra Khiri Khan, and being chased by a wild elephant.








Hard not to love living in Thailand.

[Mendip]

Mendip, the chances of seeing them are not great unless you stay a while of speak to the rangers.

I think that you underestimate me, Mike...

(But tip about Ayutthaya duly noted. Thanks.)

We reached the top of some hill/mountain and this is what it's all about.



I even persuaded the daughter to pose for a selfie... begrudgingly.



There was a coffee shop at this particular viewing point so we partook... and then I discovered that there was no toilet. I was pretty much in need of a leak before the coffee but things suddenly became critical.

I mean, how can you have a coffee shop with no toilet.



I planned to wander off for five minutes to find a suitable tree but the daughter went into one. I don't know where she got all these sensibilities from but it certainly wasn't from me. Her fancy school, maybe? She made me promise I wouldn't take an al fresco slash or she would film me and put it on Youtube... I was pretty stunned at how serious she was.

Luckily a Western girl on a nearby table had been eavesdropping on us and informed me that there was a Visitor's Centre a few kilometres along the road with unlimited toilets... so off we went.



At the Visitor's Centre I discovered maybe only the third roundabout that I've ever seen in Thailand. I think maybe it is a training roundabout as it only had one entrance and one exit, so pretty much foolproof, you would have thought.



And the Holy Grail!

The toilet had a sliding mesh door to stop monkeys going in. I would have thought that monkeys would just use trees, as I had first planned?



And then I had my first encounter with an elephant... OK, so it wasn't quite real but it gave me a good idea of what to expect.



And a few more animals that we could be lucky to see.



The one that really interested me was the dhole... a wild dog. Somehow I had never heard of this animal before and had no idea that a wild dog existed in Thailand. These I would love to see, one day. Just as an uneducated thought, in a place like Thailand it's amazing that they still exist and haven't crossbred themselves out of existence with domesticated dogs.



Anyway, after failing to find myself a souvenir T-shirt that fit, we departed to continue our search for the elusive wild elephants.

Hey up, what's this?



A troop of monkeys cavorted on the road and luckily everyone was driving respectfully and I saw no accidents. I pulled over a while to watch.



There's always one...



After the initial excitement of seeing monkeys, we kept seeing them everywhere. The first time is always special though.

To be honest, after another hour or so, by 2pm the chances of seeing an elephant started to seem pretty remote. We were just driving along roads with jungle on either side and could have been anywhere. We were also getting a bit peckish as I'd forgotten to pick up any snacks from the 7-Eleven. All we had was water (be prepared!). I saw some signs for this waterfall and said to Jess that we'd take a look and then head back to the hotel, via a 7-Eleven for a late lunch. I also fancied a Leo by this point.



It was a nice waterfall which I guess would be a lot more impressive in the wet season. I resisted the urge to get down there and perch meself on the edge for that ultimate selfie and settled for this shot.



And then we went back to the car to head for the hotel.

And off we headed...




But after a few kilometres, hang on...



What was this on the side of the road?



One thing that people say about me, is that I know my shit. Sadly my expertise is mainly in dog and chicken shit, but I knew enough to know that this was neither.

Dare we hope?

[misskit]

^There’s a ranch/steak restaurant in Doi Saket which has a new dole skin draped over a rail in the dining room. I wondered if they killed it near here. Didn’t bother to ask as it make me a bit sick to think someone would still be hunting wild dogs at all.

[Edmond]

Great trip and report Mendo.

[helge]

Nice place

Nawty had a weekend getaway up there, I think

Did some thread, but might have been deleted when he fell out with the ..Admin

[DrWilly]

There's even an international school there as well.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but that school's to be avoided.

[Mendip]

^ Yeah, so I've heard from elsewhere. This could soon be an issue as the daughter's school in Korat doesn't currently offer A levels and I think 16 is a bit young for her to leave home for Bangkok.


Anyway, a couple of kilometres after setting off from the waterfall we joined the back of a queue of slow moving traffic. Nine times out of ten in Thailand the cause of this will be a motorbike accident up ahead... but there's always that one in ten chance the cause could be something else, of course...



And there we have it... a genuine wild male elephant!!!

Elephas maximus indicus, the Indian elephant, a subspecies of the Asian elephant.



Not bad for our first expedition. I drove slowly past, wary of his lethal tusks.



My photographer daughter was in charge of the camera. Most were out of focus, maybe due to her excitement, but then she took this remarkable picture in the wing mirror. Try as I might, I just cannot get my head around this pic. I can just about understand the way 'selfies' flip the image, but this picture was taken from the passenger seat, yes, the nearside seat on the left side of the car, you can even see the fuel cap, and look at it? For me this is a real head fukk.



I stopped a little way up the road and got out of the car in the hopes of getting a couple more pictures... but the view was blocked by all these clueless, rubbernecking grockles. Then this ranger guy told everyone to get back in their cars so I gave up on getting the ultimate close-up elephant pic and had to make do with this...



Incidentally, PJG is quite into her pachyderms so I sent her a couple of pics to boast about our success... and she replied straight away, telling me that this elephant is called 'Being Lek' and that she has seen him many times. Talk about deflating my ego... I asked her how she knew which one elephant he is as they all look the same, and she told me that he had a fight with another male elephant a couple of years ago over a female, and that the other male bit off his tail. The story seemed a bit far fetched to me, but then I checked the daughter's photos...

And he was indeed missing a tail. So, I present 'Being Lek', our first genuine, wild Thai elephant. The first of many hopefully because we'll be doing this again.

[Edmond]

Very cool pics, story and backstory.

This could soon be an issue as the daughter's school in Korat doesn't currently offer A levels and I think 16 is a bit young for her to leave home for Bangkok.

Being said without any self-righteousness, get yerself and the kid down to the international schools and international life along the Eastern seaboard for a few years, would do the 2 of ye the world of good.

[Mendip]

After the excitement of seeing our first wild Thai elephant the rest of the day was a bit of a blur, to be honest.

But even in my distraction I managed to do the right thing by the wife, and picked up a couple of Pak Chong pumpkins for her to make some dessert she'd been going on about.



I also picked up a few Pak Chong avocados as I'm planning on making up some real guacamole to go with chicken fajitas soon. I can't find the jarred stuff anywhere in Korat.



I spent the evening back at the hotel with my new friend.



And that was the end of our first elephant expedition weekend. On Sunday morning I shared the last of my milk before we left for home.



I initially planned on a scenic run back to Korat, and there really is some lovely scenery down in the Pak Chong area.



But bollocks to that, once the expedition was over I just wanted to get home so I made for Highway 2 and floored it. Our aging Vigo has done nearly 144,000 km and has so far given 17 years of pretty well trouble-free motoring. It'll cruise at 120/130 km/h no problem and long may it last.



Home sweet home!

[DrWilly]

Yeah, so I've heard from elsewhere. This could soon be an issue as the daughter's school in Korat doesn't currently offer A levels and I think 16 is a bit young for her to leave home for Bangkok.

She needs two years in secondary schooling in the UK to qualify for residency university rates.

[Mendip]

^ Yeah I know, these issues are becoming very real.

A scenario I am thinking of is boarding in Bangkok for A levels (which may not be so bad if boarding Mon to Fri and if the fast rail link connecting Korat is up and running), followed by university in Perth. There's a lot of research to do.

[DrWilly]

A scenario I am thinking of is boarding in Bangkok for A levels (which may not be so bad if boarding Mon to Fri and if the fast rail link connecting Korat is up and running), followed by university in Perth. There's a lot of research to do.

Of course, the Aussie connection. And that negates the need to live two years in UK... for home rates. She's darn lucky she's an Aussie. Better start educating her on cricket, footy and rugby so she fits in when she gets there.

I know you like the idea of Perth due to proximity to Thailand, but surely, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and even Canberra have a wider variety of quality universities to choose from.

[Mendip]

^ Her Aussie education has already started... you try getting her to pay for anything!

Perth's by no means definite but I have friends there and also still have an apartment in the city... so free accomodation.

And this has reminded me... I need to keep her Aussie passport up to date. I'd better get busy.

[Topper]

^ Also the east coast cities have a significant Thai community, I don't know about Perth.

[ootai]

^ Also the east coast cities have a significant Thai community, I don't know about Perth.

Mendip's daughter needs a big expat community of Americans not Thai's.