Asia’s gentle giants

Swimming with elephants

At Kuala Gandah conservationists and friends of the elephants are dedicated to locating, subduing and translocating elephants from areas where their habitats were encroached by plantations or other human development, to other suitable habitats throughout the Peninsular such as Taman Negara.  These guys have a difficult job, and have to do the job with limited resources and funding.  Capturing wild elephants are a difficult and dangerous procedure and ensuring that the animal suffers from the minimum amount of stress during such a capture aren’t always ensured. 

Currently, the Asian elephant is listed as a critically endangered species, with less than 40 thousand wild elephants in Asia and a maximum of  1200 wild elephants in Peninsular Malaysia.  Kuala Gandah houses a number of elephants which were brought in from Thailand and Myanmar.  The elephants were trained and used in translocation exercise of wild elephants in problem areas throughout Malaysia.  The centre also looks after orphaned elephants to ensure their continued survival, but it doesn’t mean that all the elephants at the centre will be released back into the wild (and that’s the sad part).

Visitors are allowed to feed the elephants and a limited amount of visitors then also get the opportunity to ride on an elephant and then go for a swim with them in the river.  I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to swim with one of these majestic animals.  And they seem to enjoy the attention.  The babies are too adorable, splashing and squirting everyone with water. 

Eyes are the window to our souls, and that’s also true in the animal kingdom. You can see the sadness in the orphaned baby elephants’ eyes.  And then you wonder, did this poor guy see his mother get shot by poachers or angry farmers?  This poor animal have experienced more sadness and trauma than I can ever imagine, and it makes me want to give him a hug….and so I did.  I hugged an elephant!!!

Tears were welling up in my eyes as I drove home.  Even though this is not the elephant’s natural way of living, at least they have a safe haven.  This whole day was awe-inspiring.  I will always thing of an elephant as a gentle giant.

You know that…

…you are proudly South African when:

• You call a bathing suit a swimming costume
• You call a traffic light a robot
• You call an elevator a lift
• You call a hood a bonnet
• You call a trunk a boot
• You call a pickup truck a bakkie
• You call a barbeque a braai
• The employees dance infront of the building to show how unhappy they are
• You get cold easily.  Anything below 16 degrees Celcius is Arctic weather
• The drinking age is 18 but everyone starts at 14
• You can sing our national anthem in four languages, and you have no idea what it means in any of them
• You produce a R100 note instead of your licence when stopped by a traffic officer
• The fuel in your tank can be worth more than your car
• Traveling at 120km/h makes you the slowest moving vehicle on the highway
• You know a taxi can move twice it’s certified number of people in one trip
• More people vote in a local reality TV show than in a local election
• You are genuinly and pleasantly surprised to find your car parked exactly where you left it
• A bullet train is being introduced, but we can’t fix potholes
• You don’t stop at a red traffic light, in case somebody highjacks your car

…only to name a few.

Searching for sanity

It’s been weeks of sleepless nights, tossing and turning into the wee hours of the morning.  Waking up feeling even more tired than when I eventually fell asleep.  And all of this just because I can’t seem to get my brain to shut down when it’s suppose to.  I feel disoriented, completely lost….oh, and frustrated.

I’ve been sending out CV’s like some crazy hopeless person;  I even went to the most extreme and applied for a job in Antarctica…… WHAT?!?  Seriously, I can’t even stand cold weather and now I want to work in a place covered in snow.  You can call me crazy, loco, nuts or completely bananas, but I call it DESPERATE! 

I’m taking a leap into the unknown.  As I’m writing this post, my one-way ticket to South Africa is being booked.  I’m terrified of the idea.  I don’t have a job, I don’t have a home, but at least I have a car which can double over as temporary accommodation (if necessary).  Did I mention that I’m completely terrified of the idea?? 

I need to spread my wings, I need to trust and believe that everything will work out for the best, and I need to find some sanity…..soon!

Going home

After six weeks in Malaysia, the time has unfortunately come for Gram to head back home to South Africa.  She’s been packing all morning and at lunch I could see that she doesn’t want to leave.  I’ve made her a little gift — a photo album with all the memories made on her visit here.  Every night when she closed her door, I would sit with over 200 pictures.  Scrap-booking is loads of fun, but it just takes so much time and creativity.  Last night I knew I would have to finish and by 3am I was done. 

I gave it to her this morning and I could just see how much she loved it. 

I’m not looking forward to saying goodbye tonight at the airport.  We got so used to having her around all the time. 

Love you Grams!!

Fantasy island

oh, how i wish i was laying on the beach right now

Singapore

I’m back from my trip to Singapore and to my own disbelieve did I actually enjoy it.  We left early Monday morning with the bus which was a 5 hour drive.  The bus is very luxurious and it almost felt like we were in a plane — big comfy seats, a hostess that sees to your every need and a TV screen  

After checking into our hotel and booking some tours for the evening and next day, we set off for a wild shopping spree in Orchard road.  It’s literally shopping centre after shopping centre after shopping centre.  We were kind of nervous at first because everybody tells you that Singapore is a “fine” city.  You seriously get fined for almost everything.  So we stuck to the rules and only crossed the roads where you’re suppose to.  You aren’t even allowed to chew bubblegum.  If caught, you get a thousand singapore dollar fine.  The funniest thing was that almost every shopping centre has an adult shop facing the street.  How weird is that?

Our first tour was to the Night Safari.  Being such a huge animal lover, I just couldn’t get enough of the place.  After the tram ride I walked most of the route again.  Walking in total darkness in a zoo was huge fun.  You don’t know what you might see around the corner.  Most of the friendly animals roam freely, it’s only the predators that’s in an enclosure.  But it’s still wild to stand in front of a spotted hyena with only a water canal separating the two of you.  And you sure as hell know he’s wondering what a delicious snack I would be.

Our second day in Singapore was also good.  We explored the city, which if you measure it from north to south is only 23km long and from east to west 43km.  We went to Chinatown (I’m not that good with maps, so I got us lost a couple of times) which is a bargain hunter’s paradise.  You can buy almost any original fake item there.  At 3pm we met up with some more tourists and went to Sentosa which is a small island to the south of Singapore.  We went by cable car which was quite exciting.  There we visited the museum, went up a sky tower from where you could see Malaysia and Indonesia, watched a dolphin show, visited the aquarium, went on a sky ride, and ended the day by watching a brilliant lazer show on the beach. 

Little India was our last stop on our 3 day trip to Singapore.  There’s a big shopping centre which is open 24 hours and quite expensive.  By 2pm we headed to the bus terminal and did not look forward to another 5 hour bus trip.  But it was over before I knew it.  I watched 5 hours of Friends which made the journey much shorter.

Gran’s Birthday!

My dear Gran is now 78 years young.  She’s celebrating her birthday with us in Malaysia, but I can see that part of her would also have liked to be in South Africa.  We made it a day she would remember and cherish forever.

We took her to a cute little coffee shop for tea and cake.  And mmmm, was the cake delicious!  I guess that’s why they call themselves D.licious.  We invited a friend along and the two hours just flew by so quickly. 

Tea and cake in the morning

 

In the afternoon we showed them another suburb of KL, Sri Hartamas.  There’s a little plaza with cute shops and the two ladies sure did shop.  And then we had some more cake. 

Dinner must have been the highlight of the day.  We treated her to dinner at the Hilton Hotel.  It was a buffet dinner and there was a huge variety of food to choose from.  Strange Japanese food (I usually give those a skip, don’t like my food staring at me), scrumptious Chinese food, tasty Malay food (some just a little bit too spicy) and the old time favourite Western foods.  Oh, and I mustn’t forget the desserts.  From strange looking and odd coloured desserts, to traditional warm puddings and ice cream.  We just couldn’t enjoy a nice wine with dinner, because the hotel doesn’t serve alcohol in September out of respect for people celebrating Ramadan.

Happy Birthday Gran! 

Love you!

Life sucks

Last week this time I started stressing about an all important, possible life changing phone call.  In the meantime, I’ve recieved that phone call, got super excited because I got accepted into the programme, and then cried litres and litres of tears because I won’t be able to go. 

Life sucks!

I was really looking forward to the idea of living and studying in New Zealand.  Now it’s back to square one, sending out resumes, waiting and hoping for something life changing to cross my path.

Nervous

I’ve been feeling down in the dumps lately.  I’ve send out so many resumes and only received negative responses.  Today, while I was out playing golf with a friend someone from New Zealand phoned to the house.  Of course my mom had no idea who this person was looking for me and just gave them a time to phone again tomorrow. 

The first thought that came to my mind when my Gran gave me the message was a telephone interview for the oh so many applications to New Zealand.  I checked my emails to see if there’s any clue to who it might have been.  The mailbox opened, and there it was, one new message. 

Unfortunately it’s not a response to a job application.  A couple of months ago I enquired about a Basic Animal Care and Veterinary Nurse Course.  I had to forward them a couple of files, and after that I never heard from them again…..until today. 

Tomorrow morning 9am I have a telephone interview with the college.  I’m not sure what to expect and I’m quite nervous.  I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight.  I can almost here myself blabbering on the phone tomorrow ruining any chance of getting accepted.