Goodbye WFFT and Hello Bangkok

 Tommy the volunteer coordinator and Lucy the medical chief

A couple nights ago, we went out to dinner with Tommy, the volunteer coordinator who was actually a volunteer himself the first time that Rony was at the WFFT, and Lucy, the animal nurse who was also there before, and had the best time. They were tons of fun, we learned a lot about their lives and what it's like living so far away from everyone, and it's so awesome to see that they love those animals and the center so much, that it really doesn't phase them.

The highlight of the evening for me, I must say, was that I road on a motorbike for the first time in my life. It would have probably scared me more but 1) There weren't any other people on the the road and 2) I was in between Rony and Tommy (a Talia sandwich, if you will), and couldn't actually fall off.

Today was a bitter-sweet day. On the one hand, our traveling officially started and we are in Bangkok. On the other hand, we had to say goodbye to our friends, human and otherwise.

You wouldn't think that you can get attached to a bunch of random people (and animals) in one week, but indeed you can. Seeing as I (Talia) am overly sensitive, I already had tears in my eyes when I said goodbye to the elephants. I'm not sure I can correctly convey how connected you get to those animals, but you do.

June was like "whatever" when I said goodbye, Bua grabbed me a usual, and Pai Lin wrapped her trunk around my arm when I hugged her, and then pushed me away. She was all, "Fine, go!" And I'm like, "Are you a Polish elephant? Cause I was under the impression that you were an Asian elephant. Just sayin'."

We woke up "late" this morning, around 8 am (two hours later than usual, just to remind you) and cleaned the room, picked up our laundry, packed, and went around taking some last pictures. Then lunch time came, and it was time to say goodbye.

After a very teary goodbye (on my part), we set off for Bangkok. And next time we definitely should come back for a longer term.

As we arrived in Bangkok, we thought that we will finally have a quiet day/evening, but no such thing: Our friend, E.P., introduced us to a Thai friend of hers, Som, who had plans for us tonight and we barely had time to shower and book our flight to Chiang Mai before going out on a surprising evening.

But that's a whole other story that we'll tell you tomorrow :)

You can see the last photos from the center here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=566721&id=906005363&l=82d6005d4a (direct link as usual). We are still adding more, so give it like half an hour before you click :-)

Talk to you soon!