When you’re learning to be alone, you should watch Jerry McGuire and Beauty and The Beast. You should source a steady playlist of empowering songs(Beyonce) intermittent with weep-worthy ballads(Adele).
You should be listened to, really listened to. You don’t need advice or judgment: you just need to be heard. When you’ve let it all out, take time to inquire about others. Derive hope from their bliss, borrow joy from their blessings.
Sea of Solitude.
You should ask your ex for 30 days of silence: Do not contact me unless I contact you. If you love me, you’ll let me go. It’s good they’re oceans away on nights alone when you return to an empty home. It’s better they started going to the same therapist you had. Take the tiny rainbows.
You should get tested for an STD and be relieved you don’t have one. When your ex says they “only kissed”, you should trust science.
You should make a list of what you want to accomplish this year. Cross out “girlfriend” and replace it with GOALS.
Write them down: silly to serious, ridiculous to realistic, right now to retirement. Mix ’em up with links. Go!
Grow as a teacher (Feel terrible when parents complain you’ve fallen behind with homework. Work your ass off to make it up. Communicate too much homework kills creativity. Feel ecstatic when your bosses decide to lighten the workload)
Repeat “I can handle it” to yourself when the noonsday demon claws against your chest. Louis Hay affirmations. Sleep to this night meditation. Wake up with Jennifer Aniston’s yogi.
Be abstinent for 6 months, exactly ½ the length of your last relationship. Detachment from desire can lead to enlightenment. Sexual liberation is onyx, but true intimacy is gold.
From traveling to picking your nose, learn how to be happy alone.
A Flexible Future
Teach adults in Thailand (need a break from the kiddies)
Volunteer with elephant sanctuaries all over SE Asia
Exploring Master’s Programs: TESOL/Education/Photojournalism. Must be affordable. NYC Teaching Fellows, MIIS, or Europe might be the way to go. Refuse to go into debt. Beware of cash cows.
Visit the Galapagos (your friend teaches there woohoo!)
Invent a vibrator that transforms into a Justin Trudeau body pillow.
Walk alone. Wonder. Haedong Temple.
Remember: gratitude is the key to happiness.
Dear reader, whomever you are, wherever you are, I am grateful to you. I wish you love. I wish you purpose. I wish you the courage to never stop fighting for good.
I never thought I’d like traveling alone. Who am I going to be loud with? When I think This looks like an edgy spot Lonely Planet hasn’t discovered, who’s going stop me? Dark alley. Not cool.
To anyone who’s nervous about a solo trip, just think: a machine levitates you into Smore-worthy clouds. By the time you’ve finished Mindy Kaling’s book, fully reclined your seat, and drooled all over your neck pillow…you’re in another world. MAGIC
2.The Elephant Nature Park Experience
Brave One: Seal!
What You’ll Do
Schedule:
6 am Breakfast
8 am Work 1-2 hours
11:30 am Lunch
1:00 pm Work 1-2 Hours
3:10 pm Elephant bathing/Free Time
6 pm Dinner
7 pm Ceremonies/Performances/Workshops/Free Time
Feed Elephants (They LOVE pumpkin and will reject not-so-juicy watermelon)
Bathe Elephants (Throw water on them from a safe distance, not into their eyes)
Scoop Poop
Cut Corn/Wash Watermelons
Shovel and sweep mountain to clear way for fire tracks
Group meetings to watch short elephant documentaries. Bring tissues.
Visit a local school: get your hair braided, drink iced cocoa lattes, jump rope
Free Time:
Walking handi-capped dogs
Assisting the vets
Listening to Lek, the founder, teach with love, not hate. Animal rights activists, please choose to educate instead of attack.
Waiting for Lek at her dinner table to profess admiration. Realize you’re sitting in her seat, next to her husband. Awkwardly leap to the other side. Turtle.
Tell Lek she needs a TED Talk. She’s already been approached. “Who’s Ted, anyways?” she asks. Laugh with the queen. #LekTalks.
Eat small donuts with huge bday candles.
Pick songs for Group C’s last night hurrah. Everyone loves Pony, especially Germans.
Pray for your family with new friends. Moment of silence cut short by trumpeting.
What To Bring:
Sunscreen
Sunglasses/Hat
Mosquito repellant( Miraculously, I didn’t get a single bite. Could be February. Or god)
Clothes you don’t mind getting dirty (they have a laundry service)
Long sleeves/pants/socks (cold at night!)
1 pair of closed toe shoes
1 pair of sandals/flip flops
Bathing suit to wear UNDER your clothes. Respect Thai traditions. Do not distract the mahouts(elephant guides). A Jumanji stampede is not worth your side boob.
$100-$200 spending cash for soda, alcohol, snacks, thai massages, souvenirs (Friendship bracelets, carved wooden elephants, tip generously)
What You’ll Eat
Buffet Style AMAZING Vegan Food
So FAHCKIN’ good they need an NYC lunch spot
So good they’re releasing a cookbook next year
So good I’m becoming a vegetarian. Live consciously. More clean, less death. Shoutouts CHolls&Stace&Steph.
Accommodations
2-3 people per room
Single beds with mosquito nets
Clean and spacious
Shared bathrooms and showers
Ours had a balcony overlooking the river
Optional: chubby cat/stealth door opener
Golden Rules Of Safety
You are NOT an elephant whisperer. Maintain a respectful distance.
Each elephant is different. Some are NOT OK around humans or other animals.
Ask the mahout before feeding/touching/engaging
Do NOT stand directly in front of them.
Do NOT stand directly behind them.
Their trunks are extremely powerful. A small flip can send you flying.
Stay behind the red line
Listen to the staff. Watch Out means “Move away before you get popped like a prune”.
3. The Tale Of Lucky
Lucky loves his mom and his nanny. They tower over him, tickling his face with their trunks. Under the shade of a disappearing forest, they search for food. When vegetation ran out, they eat garbage left behind by humans. When garbage runs out, hunger drives them to stumble upon a farm. When night falls, they feast on sweet corn. Lucky, lulled by his family’s happy chewing sounds, drifts to sleep.
The darkness erupts. A piercing crack rings out. Human yells. Lucky’s mom screams. His nanny pushes him hard.RUN, little one, RUN! Lucky listens. He doesn’t see his nanny fall to the ground, nor his mom.
Days later, the locals find him. Lucky is caught between two trees. He’s starving, dehydrated, lost. He’s an orphan now.
The locals call Lek. She and her team bring food, medicine, transport but Lucky won’t let anyone near him. He refuses to eat. He cries for his family. Did you know elephants can die from heartbreak?
No one knows if Lucky will make it. Lek coaxes him with pumpkin, piece by piece. She sings him to sleep. Some days she passes out from exhaustion. One day, she wakes to the warmness of his trunk. Wake up. I’m hungry. Lucky is healing.
What happens now?
The locals let Lucky go. Either they cannot afford to keep him, or they understand the ethics involved. Lucky lives out the rest of his 60+ years in peace with the support of philanthropists like us.
The locals ask for Lucky to be returned. They’ve lost time, labor, money due to destroyed crops. Their families need to eat. Debts must be repaid. Time to put Lucky to work.
Navaan’s mom stepped on a landmine. Thank god for vet volunteers like Paige.
4.The Phajaan: The Crushing
When we see Lucky next, he’s all grown up. He carries us on his back. He paints for us. He performs tricks for our amusement. He walks down a crowded street, waving his trunk for bananas. What we see calm, obedient elephant. What you might miss is that the mahout still carries a bullhook.
None of these activities are natural or normal. How does one get a wild animal to obey?
***DISCLAIMER: This is graphic. I humbly ask you to read on.
There is an age-old tradition in Thailand called the Pajaan. Men tie ropes around Lucky’s neck, legs, trunk. They shove him into a tiny corral. Imagine cramming a brick into a pencil case. From all sides, he is beaten with hooks. Blue-violet blood oozes out of his cuts. Lucky cries for his mom and his nanny. He defecates from fear and anger. His eyes glaze over till you only see white.
This process will be repeated until the spirit is broken and an obedient elephant remains. Some don’t survive. 85% of the elephants arrive to ENP with mental health problems.
Missing an ear. Cruelty is real.
5. How You Can Help: Do’s and Don’ts
Animal tourism puts food on the table for many locals. For change to happen, we need to 1. educate ourselves on better practices and 2. support a sustainable alternative. If we’re only willing to support ethical tourism, businesses will follow. Think SeaWorld’s stocks dropping post-Blackfish.
Education must come first. Laws are only half the battle. For example, once logging became illegal, elephants were either abandoned or put to work in tourism. When there’s no sustainable alternative, all animals suffer.
Do
Do your research. Find a reputable, ethical, sanctuary to visit and see for yourself
Do educate with love, not hate. Try “Hey did you know that…” rather than “What’s wrong with you…”
Do support conservation. Our time and money goes to buying food and medicine. ENP is also home to thousands of dogs and cats, a bunch of water buffalo and horses, and one crazy-ass goat.
Don’t support festivals/parades with live elephants
Don’t visit the circus or zoos
Don’t attack others. Like Lek says, it’s very difficult to educate someone if you make them an enemy.
Don’t assume people know what’s going on behind closed doors. It took me 30 years.
6. Goodbye Grandpa
While at the park, I got a voicemail from my sister. My grandpa passed the day after my 30th birthday. Before therapy, how would I have felt? Guilty. Overwhelmed. Out of control. How did I handle it last week? Terribly sad, but not guilty. I trusted my decision to be in a haven of healing. I recognized who could support me. I allowed myself to feel a spectrum of emotions. I laughed while shoveling elephant poop. I cried doing the same. I journaled, an exercise recommended by many therapists.
I channeled my grief into curiosity. I asked Lek about her grandpa, a shaman in a village of Northern Thailand. When she was 7, he gave her a gibbon to care for. Let’s call it Love.
“Do not name it. Do not hug it. Do not take it to your room,” he said. She did the exact opposite. When it was time to release Love, Lek begged her grandpa to keep it. He ignored her. “Love!” Lek cried out. The gibbon returned to her arms.
“You broke the rules,” her grandpa sighed. He sent her back to the village and freed Love alone. Lek refused to talk to him for months, believing him to be cruel. “I was wrong,” her voice now softens, “I’ve seen gibbons after too much human contact. They chew off their own legs.”
Remember: Love cannot grow in a cage. Release to nurture.
What To Bring:
Dear Asian Auntie 