I'm a big fan of figure skating, and Yuna Kim is one of my favorite skaters right now. On my trip back from Thailand, I happened to have a layover in Seoul, so I went to the airport bookstore to pick up a copy of her memoir, Yuna's Seven Minute Drama.
Most of the book is about her figure skating career, leading up to the Olympics, where she won the gold medal with two stunning performances. (The book was published in January, so it doesn't actually talk about her Olympic experience.) But she also had a few thoughts on motivation, and out of those, “the final one degree” really stuck with me.
Yuna said that no matter what you're trying to do, you eventually reach a point where you feel like, “Hey, this is enough”. It's normally because you've been working very hard on something for a while, and you feel sick and tired of it and lose all motivation and enthusiasm. But this is when you really have to push forward.
The situation, she wrote, is like boiling water. If you're trying to boil water, you have to make sure the temperature reaches 100 degrees Celsius. No matter how long and hard you've been working on it, if you stop before your water hits 100 degrees, it will never boil. You can have very hot water, of course. Maybe even 99-degree hot water, which is pretty damn hot. But it's not boiling, and you won't achieve your objective, not because you're lazy or untalented, but merely because you stopped one degree short.
Writing is much the same. If you're working on writing the 1st draft, but stop before you type “the end”, you don't have a finished first draft. If you're revising but stop before your story is completely polished from the first page to the last, you don't have a revised project ready to send out to the world, even if you've spent months on revision.
It's easy to lose focus and enthusiasm for a project after spending so much time and energy on it. But don't stop when you're at ninety-nine degrees. Go for that final degree. Recognize that it's going to be the hardest and most grueling degree you'll have to work on, but get through it. And celebrate your accomplishment when your own water is finally boiling.
Manop thought we ought to go to Tiger Kingdom after Maesa Elephant Camp. We weren't sure at first, but since it was on the way back to the city, we decided to stop by. Besides we were getting hungry, and Tiger Kingdom has a restaurant.
It's a bit pricey to get inside Tiger Kingdom. I think it's because it costs so much to keep the tigers well-fed. None of the tourists want to end up as tiger meat, you know…
The first cage you see is that of some tropical birds. I was confused at first because I was expecting TIGERS!
But you see…they were around…just hidden…
We went to the younger tigers' cage first. That's me rubbing a seven month-old tiger. He was in bliss. (Stay that way…good kitty!)
Hero Material sorta fell asleep…
Then the tigers fell asleep… It was just, you know, too exciting for words.
We decided to leave them alone and moved to a cage with older tigers. They were almost two years old IIRC.
This one didn't like it that Hero Material kept touching its ass, but I think he gave up on humans leaving him alone.
Satisfied tiger after he ate my hand….
(Just kidding! LOL. No tiger has ever bitten me. Just that darned shark a few years back…!)
And now, preeeeeeesenting….Spicy Sausage! (I kid you not. That's really his name…)
This is Hero Material and me with Meatball. (Yeah…this poor thing got named Meatball…)
And here's one of the cubs from Tiger Kingdom. Isn't he adorable? :wub:
Afterward, we decided to get lunch. This is the view from our table.
Manop asked us if we wanted to do anything else, but after tigers and elephants we were too tired. So we returned to the hotel instead to rest. Ahh….air conditioned room…I miss you so.
At around dinner time we decided to roam the streets around our hotel. We found a guy who made cool decorative hangings with metal.
Then we went to a cashmere store. Everything there was hand-made. Check this beautiful scarf out! I'm not holding two scarves in the picture. It's just one — but folded so you can see how it looks different on each side.
Hero Material bought me a pink one. :wub:
(It's creased in the picture, and that's my fault because I left it folded for too long…)
We also found a hilarious T-shirt shop.
Finally…a seafood restaurant! Look how huge this prawn is! And the lobster too!
That's our dinner. Grilled fresh king prawns. Only $6 for the plate.
Finally our dessert…! We had pineapple & mango smoothies. They were super sweet and delish! I've never had a smoothie this nice before. The largest one was only $2, but I didn't want something that large, so I got a small one, while Hero Material indulged in the super sized version. It's a good thing we don't live in Thailand, because we'd probably become diabetic.
The next morning Hero Material and I got up early for our taxi. We were a little worried that the driver might show up late, but he came on time. And to make it even better, he spoke great English and knew a lot about tourist attractions, etc. The best thing about it was that his rate was very reasonable, and Hero Material and I could do the tour leisurely, on our own schedule.
(FYI — if you want to hire him for a private tour in Chiang Mai, his name is Manop, he works for Chiang Mai Airport Taxi, his car number is 11, and his work contact is 08-1885-1563 [Don't forget to punch in the country code for Thailand first if you're calling from overseas!] or if you prefer, you can email him at nopcm02 at hotmail dot com.)
Our biggest concern — now that the taxi thing was squared away — was that we didn't want to go to an elephant camp that had abused animals. I heard some horror stories from a British couple in Phuket. The wife said the elephants she saw were so abused that they tried to beat their own trainers! Ack.
There are the pictures from the entrance. The portraits you see below are the king and queen of Thailand from way back when they were still young.
As we walked in, we saw elephants bathing. That's how the show begins, BTW. They looked so happy in the water.
Here, you see people collecting elephant poo. Per Manop, elephant poo is very fibrous, so the camp recycles that into paper. (So the next time you think you're a shitty writer, now you can have the perfect paper! Perfect for shitty first drafts!)
Along the way, you can see an art gallery. It displays paintings by elephants at the camp.
We went to the main arena for the show and waited. It takes a while for all the elephants to show up because they move in a leisurely fashion. They were very quiet though. You don't hear any thuds or anything like that, which was kind of surprising.
The people you see on the elephants are called mahouts. They're trainers and caretakers. Elephants do not like to deal with people they don't know or like, so it takes a while to earn the animals' trust and become a mahout.
Finally the show got started. You see how they march in with a welcome banner and all the elephants are linked, trunk to tail.
This baby was also part of the show.
Here's a very short video clip I made with my digital camera. This is a kind of elephant musical, featuring hoops and harmonicas.
Many elephants were very playful. They sometimes stole their mahouts' hats.
Elephants are also excellent soccer players. Look at this goalie posing!
Here are short video clips of elephant soccer!
And the super goalie!
As you can hear, the Europeans in the audience got REALLY excited during the soccer portion of the show. :D
Afterward the elephants painted some pictures for us.
Then to thank some of their hard-working mahouts, elephants gave a Thai massage…
(No, he wasn't mortally wounded…just bowing LOL)
The dart throwing competition: Who will prevail? An elephant or human children?
(Actually they tied…)
Finally the elephants built a wall of sorts. You can see how strong they are! (FYI — they were all fully grown elephants…no babies.)
And look how triumphant they look after they're finished. :wub:
After the show, the elephants came closer to say hello to the audience.
You can see me and Hero Material with the elephants.
This elephant liked us a lot because he got tons of bananas from Hero Material. HM bought a bunch of bananas to give to the elephants, but he held them too close to one, so the closest one got all of them. Oy…
We were a little thirsty and tired, so we had some coconut juice then went off into the jungle on an elephant.
Look at the caravan!
Elephants don't move very fast, so it wasn't unstable or anything, but it can get a little scary if you don't like the height.
As your elephant carries you around, it wants to eat. Well, the problem is that sometimes the grass it wants is on the downhill slope…! Ours actually tried to go down the slope instead of following the trail. So the mahout had to scold him some. (But he never hit the elephant!)
Another pic of us on the trail…
The view of the elephant camp:
The final stop was a stream. That's where elephants can drink water; because it's so hot and humid, they need to cool off, rehydrate…and bathe. But you gotta be careful because they tend not to think about the fact that the humans on their back don't want to get wet!
After we got done with our ride, the elephant lunch time started. Some of them also got a nice cool shower.
We went to the nursery to feed the elephants there.
You can see the mother and the baby. He was so young that he couldn't eat any regular food, so we didn't get to feed him, though his mom ate a lot of bananas.
Afterward, we went to several huts with exhibits. Here you can see the tool that mahouts use to control elephants. It's basically used to tug at the elephants, but some jerks apparently use it to hit them in the head…! Grr.
Then we went to see the record-setting painting by elephants. We weren't allowed to take pictures there (kind of a like an art museum…), but you can read about it here.
We also bought some souvenirs. We don't tend to buy them much, but since Maesa obviously treated its elephants nicely and we wanted them to continue to be cared for in the manner they deserve…
I'm breaking the log for this day into multiple sections because there are too many pictures, etc. After the camp, we went to the Tiger Kingdom, where Spicy Sausage awaits! Coming up next! :)
Hero Material and I made our way to the airport — this time Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort arranged for it — and got there in one piece and with plenty of time to spare. Phuket airport is one of the worst I've ever been to, alas. It's nowhere near as nice as Bangkok, Incheon or Narita.
One thing I suggest that people do is eat before boarding. This time we flew economy, and the food was horrid. I can't stand mayonnaise — I hate the smell of it, the color, the taste of it, the texture — and it was in all their food. So I couldn't eat anything. By the time we landed in Chiang Mai, I was extremely hungry and was getting a nasty headache from the low blood sugar.
Chiang Mai airport is much better than the one in Phuket. The Airport Taxi company was very good, and we were able to get to Le Meridien Chiang Mai for just 120 baht (less than $4).
I really liked the main entrance.
And the elephant fountain just looks awesome.
The hotel appeared very new and modern.
And of course, our room (the most important thing!):
Le Meridien Chiang Mai also gave us a nice platter of fruit with a memo from the general manager congratulating us on our marriage. I have no idea how they knew I love eating. LOL. Fruit in Thailand tastes awesome. Crisp and juicy and sweet. *bliss*
The hotel also has a lovely pool.
Since I was starving, we decided to go out and walk around and find a place to eat. This is what it looks like outside our hotel.
After we ate something — I think it was some kind of curry or whatever…I can't even remember to be honest because I was that hungry, and my head hurt too much. But afterward, I felt so much better, so Hero Material and I decided to walk around some. We found some interesting street shops.
And look what we found!
He's only four years old. We got to feed him some sugarcane. He wasn't chained, and his owners didn't use sticks or anything to make him move around, and it was obvious that he wasn't being abused. It cost me 20 baht to feed this little sweetie. :wub:
After that, we got a foot massage at a place called Let's Relax, on the second floor of the big McD building you saw above.
Around 9-ish or so, we returned to the hotel and asked our concierge about going to the elephant camp. We thought about doing a group tour, but decided against it because we didn't want to be at the mercy of whatever schedule the tour company decided on. The concierge recommended that we take a taxi out there. He made our reservation and everything. Yay!
On Day 3 Hero Material and I got up super early for our breakfast (again at the buffet) and went to the lobby to go to the dock. The shuttle was actually on time. Yay! And the weather was fantastic — sunny and beautiful albeit hot.
First we went to Ko Khai Nai for snorkeling. The island is beautiful.
And the big rock below looks like a Godzilla head:
The fish around the island don't seem afraid of people at all. The picture below was taken in the shallow water (shin-deep) with my digital camera. They come very close to the shore.
Afterward, we went to Tham Lod caves. They're sea caves, and you can see the beautiful view inside. They're almost like a room within a room or something.
Here's the same cave picture but I'm looking upward.
Another cave — this is accessible by kayak only. (Or maybe you can swim if you feel brave…)
And a beautiful cliff —
Ko Pannyi island's floating village — this is where we had lunch. It's a Muslim village, so we had to wear shorts and shirt, etc. to look modest. The waitresses on the island were in a full veil, etc. I have no idea how they do that in such heat and humidity. Oy…
And finally…the James Bond island!!!!!
Here's Hero Material bringing me a big rock. I mean, I asked him to get me a rock, but I guess he didn't get the note that I prefer the sparkly kind…
We were completely exhausted by the time we came back to the hotel. Besides, another storm hit us hard. So we decided to stay in and try their buffet. It was pricey — about $30 / person plus 10% service charge and 7% tax, beverage not included. But the food was very delish…!
And the buffet came with entertainment. We had dancers…
…and an Elvis Impersonator… (It took me a while to realize that he was supposed to be Elvis…)
And a man/woman singing thingie…
I spent the next day (Day 4) reading in bed because I felt exhausted. I think I was dehydrated from the tour and all. It doesn't feel that hot because we were on a speed boat, but the Thai climate really sucks all the moisture out of you. I should've had more water. Oy…
But I got to finish Kresley Cole's If You Deceive. Which was excellent.
Day 5 — Chiang Mai…! With elephants! Tigers! Pandas! Coming soon!
After a good night's sleep, Hero Material and I decided to get some grub and check out the pools and the private beach.
This is the view from our breakfast buffet table.
And our superb breakfast food.
The breakfast buffet was very good. It's pricey — about 600 baht / person (1 USD = 30 baht) plus 10% service charge and 7% tax, but worth it. The resort is completely enclosed, and Hero Material and I didn't want to trek out for cheaper places to eat.
Also restaurants around the pools were not open for breakfast except for a cafe. So if you didn't want the poolside buffet, you were stuck with the cafe.
After we gorged ourselves on omelets, sausages, bacon, pancakes, fruit and so on, we decided to walk around the compound. The landscapes were impeccable and well-maintained.
The private beach was gorgeous. Pristine with beautiful white sand and crystal clear water. It was actually fairly warm. Well, compared to the frigid water of the North Atlantic anyway, which is where we went swimming this past summer. :)
By the beach was a giant chess board. The below is Hero Material posing victoriously as he check-mated his (imaginary) opponent in just two moves.
Hero Material and I chilled out at the beach for about four hours. He went for a swim; I just dozed off and enjoyed my cold coconut. Afterward we decided to make an appointment for a night-time massage because the resort spa offered 30% off if you come after 9 p.m. We chose Le Stone (the spa's hot stone massage course) for that night at 9:15 p.m. then went to the concierge for two things:
to charter a boat for a tour of Phang Nga Bay for snorkeling and checking out the “James Bond island” (Ko Tapu)
to make a dinner appointment at Acqua, which is supposed to be one of the best Italian restaurants in Patong beach, so we wanted to try it
The concierge told us that the chartered tour was sold out because their private boat was unavailable until April 1, which was when we were scheduled to leave Phuket. The concierge recommended that we try a travel office (on the premises) for a third-party tour. So Hero Material went there to arrange for it, leaving me to deal with the second item.
The reservation was super easy. The concierge also arranged for our transportation to the restaurant.
Alas, the taxi never came.
Around 5:00 p.m. a killer storm hit the area.
Obviously this meant the taxi couldn't come on time. We waited twenty minutes past our appointed time then canceled. Seriously, dude…! It's so hard to go from Japan where everyone's super punctual — nothing short of a typhoon or massive earthquake can make anybody late for anything — to Phuket where obviously it's okay to be late. I was looking around to hear the PA announce, “Dear honorable customers, we have no words to describe how sorry we are to cause you this unimaginable and intolerable inconvenience.” *sigh*
Since we refused to go hungry on our honeymoon, we decided to eat at the resort and went to its Thai restaurant Wang Warin.
We ordered their recommended Thai course. It was superb, not too spicy and with ample portions. We were totally stuffed.
One of the head honchos came by to ask us about our dining experience. We told him it was excellent. The service was good, and the food was just right. I have no idea how authentic it was — hey, I'm not Thai and don't know much about its cuisine — but I liked it. :)
But another disappointment awaited us when we returned to our room. The spa called us and said it couldn't do Le Stone for two because one of the masseuses was unavailable. The receptionist offered us another package, but we were set on Le Stone, so she rescheduled us for the next night at 9:00 p.m.
Though Hero Material and I were unhappy at first, we decided that maybe it was for the best. Since we would be snorkeling and so on the next day, maybe it'd be nice to have an eighty-minute massage at the end of the day. :)
Our third day in Thailand coming soon — James Bond island and snorkeling…!
I'm a big fan of figure skating, and Yuna Kim is one of my favorite skaters right now. On my trip back from Thailand, I happened to have a layover in Seoul, so I went to the airport bookstore to pick up a copy of her memoir, Yuna's Seven Minute Drama.
