i love asia, but i miss america. a lot.

anne and i were walking in town today, trying to find a travel agent who would get us bus and boat reservations to koh tao. map in hand, trying to find out where the heck we were, we came across a man who offered some help. he actually didn't help at all. he just wanted to flirt with us. he said he loved americans. and he invited us to his beach bar and said if we went, we'd get free drinks. yeah right. i bet he says that to all americans. 100 americans a day.

i really want to go to elephant village. but, since i'm bored, i went to peta.com and looked up "thailand elephant cruelty". apparently, for tourism purposes, baby elephants are dragged from their mothers and tortured in order to satisfy tourists who want to ride the elephants and whatnot. i don't want to be one of those tourists. i think peta, at times, has the tendancy to overreact. and sometimes what they say is completely legitimate. they have done so much good for the sake of animals and i hate to say anything bad about them. but damnit, i really wanted to go to elephant village. and now, after reading their article on elephant cruely, i probably will not go.

this supposed elephant cruelty really surprises me. and i shouldn't say supposed cruelty because i actually saw pictures of it. from what i've learned so far about buddhism (and most of the people in thailand are buddhist), it is anti-animal cruelty. anti killing. some monks are vegetarian for this purpose. but many aren't as well because if someone gives them an offering of meat, they are kind of obligated to eat it and not waste it. but the meat cannot be killed with the intention of giving it to the monk. because then the monk is held responsible for the killing. but animal cruelty happens anywhere you go. can't really escape it.

maybe when i visit africa i'll be able to see elephants in their natural habitat and not in some trendy tourist locale.

(not that i'm going to africa anytime soon)