The Jungle Twins

This is a typical house, and so if you come stay it’s a good idea to bring a sleeping pad and bag.· Bring a pocket knife because they can make just about anything out of bamboo and it’s a good chance to learn.

You can’t be afraid of dogs, cows, chickens or cobras. Mr. Maearhae said an elephant was killed by a cobra.· There are some giant snakes in Thailand.

We picked up Mr. Kupor in this village and headed even “deeper” into the jungle.· Possibly deeper than Major Payne has ever been.

Misters Kupor and Maearhae said that the elephants don’t work anymore but they just live in the jungle as pets.· I asked how long they’ve had the elephants and the men said they had their mother’s mother’s mother just passed down through time in their own family line.· And so the elephant families and the village families are all twined up together, and when the elephants stopped working, the men said, they kept them sort of like giant dogs.· Just pets.· Can you imagine?·· (If there is more to this story, I didn’t work it out in three hours.)

As we bumped down the rough road, elephant signs were everywhere.· Dung in the path – elephant prints in the mud, trees knocked down.· Elephants are like tornadoes.

Kupor and Maearhae kept asking my guide to stop so they could look.· Finally, they got out, telling us to stay in the truck.

Mr. Maearhae could hear them and so Mr. Kupor went straight into the jungle followed by Maearhae.· A few minutes later, Mr. Maearhae came out of the jungle saying they found the elephants, and that we should drive downhill and they would bring the twins and mom.

So we waited about 15 minutes by a hut, which happened to be where two guards lived who protect the elephants.· “From what?” I asked.· Apparently there are elephant rustlers in Thailand.· While we waited, I found some rat traps and asked how they work, which is a different little story that I explained on Facebook.

This old gun was hanging on a wall.· Years ago, I went hunting with a Thai villager who had a gun like this.· When he shot a frog, the frog didn’t even die!· Very weak gun.· I ate the frog for breakfast.