Responsible Animal Tourism

In high school my sister and I were both mildly obsessed with America's Next Top Model, and there's one season that always stuck out to me. In Cycle 6 the top contestants travel to Thailand where they go trekking into the forest on top of an elephant and do a photo shoot along side/on top of the elephant. So obviously, I immediately added "ride an elephant" to my bucket list and started my day dreaming of romping with elephants in Thailand.

Examiner.com

Fast forward nine years and I'm sitting in my Intro to Tourism class at Ohio University and the teacher shows a film about the tourism industry in Thailand. It was there that I learned the alarming reality of riding elephants.
As large as elephants are, their spines are not built to support the weight of humans. A lifetime of holding people while trekking causes irreversible damage to the backs of elephants. In elephant tourism, riders often sit in a chair, known as a howdah, that is strapped on top of the elephant, which adds extra weight onto their spine and often causes blisters that go untreated. Many companies claim to provide "responsible elephant treks" where you ride the animal bareback, as opposed to in the chairs. Although this might be healthier for the spine of the elephant, many people don't realize what the elephants went through to be trained to carry people in this fashion.

The Crush

In order for an elephant to be 'good' at their job in elephant tourism they are often taken away from their families at an extremely young age so they can be trained right away. Elephants are social and loving creatures, they stick with their family and travel in packs. Taking a baby elephant away from it's family is psychologically damaging, and it's an experience that impacts them for the rest of their lives because an elephant never forgets. After the babies are taken away from their family they go through the training process known as 'the crush'. It's here that the elephants are put under extreme conditions that involve sharp hooks and starvation. They are trapped in tiny cages where they spend their days held down by chains while being beaten. They go through both psychological and physical trauma that stays with them for the rest of their lives. Even after an elephant finishes their time being crushed, these habits are still used throughout their entire lives. Mahouts (elephant trainers) often use sharp sticks or bull hooks to keep the elephants in line, jabbing them anytime they're doing something wrong. On top of that, elephants that are used for tourism purposes are often kept in chains when they're not trekking. Elephants are extremely personal and social animals, when they're left alone in the wild with their family they are almost always in contact with another elephant, choosing to stand right next to each other and often checking in on each other by rubbing their trunks over the other's body. Elephants in captivity are usually kept in close proximity to other elephants but aren't actually able to physically touch each other, causing distress and isolation.

nature.org

But don't fret! There is a responsible and guilt free way to experience these cuties up close and personal: Elephant Sanctuaries! When it became common knowledge that elephants were being mistreated, people stepped in to create better lives for these well deserving animals. Throughout Thailand (and the world) there are many elephant sanctuaries that use their resources to take in abused and neglected animals and give them a healthier and happier life. Elephant sanctuaries offer stays ranging in length, anything from an afternoon to a week on their property. While at the sanctuary you learn what it takes to healthily care for an elephant. You get to feed them fresh fruit, walk them to the river and swim with them while they take a mud bath.

Mud baths at Elephant Jungle Sanctuary

One of the first questions that people ask when I tell them that I'm moving to Thailand is "are you going to ride an elephant?" and I energetically reply "No!" I'm looking forward to spending a period of time romping with these awesome creatures in the near future, and doing so in an ethical and kind way.

for a more detailed and informative post on elephant cruelty visit this great article by Matthew Karsten

A few reviewed and ethical Elephant Sanctuaries include:
Elephant Jungle Sanctuary
BLES
Elephant Nature Park

mai pen rye

If you read any blog written by expats in Thailand, one of the first things you'll stumble upon are remarks about Thai's relaxed approach towards life. They're known as the land of smiles, and they do things on their own time table. Thais have an expression for this thought process: 'mai pen rye' or ไม่ เป็น ไร. This phrase has a multitude of translations ranging from hakuna matata, it's all good, don't worry about it and whatever will be, will be.
Before even landing in Thailand it appears that I've gotten my first glimpse of this relaxed lifestyle. After signing our contracts in April we were given our orientation dates and Emily and I both bought one way tickets to Thailand. That was five months ago, and me being the planner that I am came up with a rather detailed itinerary of some travels along the way including a concert in London and some adventure tours around Croatia. A few days ago, less than two weeks before our departure, we got an email saying that they've changed the dates of our orientation, and now we don't need to be in Bangkok until a week after we were originally told. Now obviously it's a lot better that they pushed the orientation a week further away as opposed to a week closer, but I was still blown away that such a drastic change could happen so close to our departure.
We talked it over for a few minutes but came to the obvious conclusion that the best thing to do with this extra week is to extend our trip to Croatia. While planning that stay we realized that there are so many things to do in Croatia and we wouldn't have time for it all, but now that we have seven more days we'll be able to pack in quite a few more adventures into our stay. There's a definite silver lining to this orientation change, but it also has ensued some panic for me. During our week at orientation we'll be staying with about 20 other teachers to go over teaching tips along with cultural lessons, and it's also where we will be assigned our teaching assignments and learn where we will be living for the next five months. We were originally scheduled a week of orientation in Bangkok, followed by a full week to move to our new city and get acclimated and then school would start the next week. However, now we only have a week in Bangkok for orientation with just the weekend to find/move to a new apartment in our new city, with school starting that Monday. I was really looking forward to having a full week and weekend to get to know my new city and get unpacked and settled into life there. But hey, mai pen rye, right?

Why teaching? Why Thailand?

Three years ago I was planning on studying abroad in Thailand, so I signed myself up for a semester of Thai classes and read every blog, book and website I could find about the country. Unfortunately life got in the way and I wasn't able to study abroad at the time, but Thailand always lingered in the back of my head.
As college graduation grew closer with each passing day I realized that I still very much wanted to go to Thailand, but studying abroad was no longer an option so I had to settle on the thought that I would at least one day get to vacation in Thailand. However, that realization upset me more than I cared to admit at the time. As much as I love traveling, I've realized that the only way to truly experience a new country and culture is to fully immerse yourself in it; and the best way to do that is to live there. I want to do more than just spend a few weeks in Thailand, sitting on the beaches or wandering the streets of Bangkok. I want to know this country inside and out. I want to learn the Thai language and experience Buddhism up close and personal. So with that in mind, I, along with my girlfriend and travel companion Emily, signed a contract with Teach English:ESL, securing ourselves positions to teach English at a Thai school.
I've tried out a multitude of majors and minors during my four years at Ohio University, but none of those majors included English or Education. I'm not going to lie, when I first started researching teaching English abroad I was not doing so for my love of children or teaching, I was doing it because I knew it would give me a valid reason to live abroad. It was a simple solution to my wishes. However, my senior year I tacked on a Linguistics minor to my schooling, and it was there that I started to fall in love with the concept of teaching English. I learned the psychology behind understanding a language and studied the benefits of having a bilingual mind. I don't have a knack for learning languages, my grammar and spelling could definitely use some work, and the idea of being in charge of an entire classroom of kids is slightly terrifying to me, but I'm still extremely excited for this opportunity. English is a highly regarded language throughout the world and I've been lucky enough to speak it my entire life. Thailand is still considered a developing country and it's citizens don't have the same opportunities that I've been born with, but by helping them learn English I'll be giving them a step up in this world.

Cash vs Plastic around the world

 One thing that I always try to research before traveling to a new country is if I'll be able to use debit/credit cards without any issue. The use of cards in the country determine how much foreign currency I'll take out before traveling abroad. I also find myself observing others while I'm abroad, seeing what the locals use; if everyone is using cards I find myself pulling out my own card before using cash.


I prefer to take out cash before leaving the country, mainly because it's free and Chase bank has always been able to get me whatever currency I need within 2-3 days. On rare occasions I've used ATMs
within the country, but I've found that the fee for using an American card really adds up. I've also had my fair share of card troubles while abroad. For example, ATMs in Turkey will suck your card into the machine if you leave it in for too long, and you'll get weird looks in Russia if you even move towards your credit card, because no one trusts using plastic in their country.
Below is my ranking, which doesn't have much of a system to it, but it's my interpretation of the best and worst countries for cash vs cards.

By far the two countries with the least amount of cash use are Iceland and Sweden. They both are consistently ranked for all transactions being 90% or higher in plastic. While in both countries I didn't touch a single bill, instead I paid for everything from car tolls to meals with a credit/debit card. I traveled to both countries with extreme confidence that I would survive with just my cards and wouldn't need to track down an ATM along the way.


Australia has a currency that is both water proof and rip proof, which made me want to take out some bills before venturing down under, just to see what they looked like. If it hadn't been for my curiosity I probably wouldn't have needed to take out any cash, because I used my card for almost every purchase including ferry tickets and souvenir shopping.

Next I found that Switzerland and Liechtenstein almost always have an option to pay with a card, however, the locals seem to use more cash than plastic. The smallest bill in the Swiss Franc is a ten franc bill, meaning that the coins really add up, which is heavy and annoying. I usually take out a decent amount in Swiss Francs, but attempt to make larger purchases with my card.

Countries on the euro seem to have an even mix of cash vs cards. I've stumbled upon small hotels in Italy that would only accept cash, but could easily point me in the right direction of an ATM. Train stations usually have ticket machines that accept cards, but when in the European Union I usually carry a decent amount of euros so I'm not stuck in an awkward situation.

Balkan countries have given me mixed opinions on cash vs cards. I found in Croatia that most restaurants were completely fine with using cards, but I realized that locals around me were usually paying with cash. The problem came when it was time to buy bus tickets. Even when paying for a ride half way across the country they would still only accept cash, which completely drained my wallet. Afterwards I went to the post office to mail some postcards and found they wouldn't accept my card there either, so I had to hit up an ATM before mailing anything.  I tried to keep at least the currency equivalent of $50 USD on me while wandering around Croatia. Bosnia & Herzegovina and Montenegro showed similar results as Croatia; restaurants were fine with cards but smaller tourist shops and bus stops would only accept cash.

Lowest on the list of cash friendly countries are Thailand, Turkey and Russia. As I stated above, Russia isn't considered a safe place to use cards, because systems are easily hacked, leaving your bank account at risk. I don't know anything on the security of cards in Turkey, but I found that almost everywhere I looked people were using cash instead of cards. However, I haven't been to Turkey in 5 years, so this might not be accurate anymore. Thailand, and many other Asian countries (Laos, Vietnam, and Malaysia) don't seem to be up to date on the technology that allows credit cards. In Thailand the only place I used my card during my six months there was at Tesco, which is a large department and grocery store. In many Asian countries, larger and more expensive restaurants often accept cards, but even so I still try to carry around enough cash just incase.

I prefer to be over prepared when traveling, and I also enjoy seeing new currencies, so when in doubt I take out at least a small amount of foreign currency before leaving the country. However, in this day and age the use of cards is becoming more widespread and it seems that cash flow is slowing down, especially in Europe.

6 hours in Vienna

During my most recent trip to Europe I traveled with three friends through five different countries. We spent the majority of our time in Budapest and had plans to get to Venice after the new year. After a lot of research it appeared that the majority of night trains from said locations stopped in Vienna for a train switch; so we decided that if we were going to be stopping in Vienna anyways, we mind as well make a day out of it. We booked the two legs of the trip separately, allowing for an afternoon/evening spent in Vienna.

We arrived at Wien Hauptbahnhof (Vienna Main Station) and were blown away with how nice the train station was. Because we were just having a short romp into the city we looked into luggage storage for the afternoon, and were delighted to find that they offered FREE luggage storage inside the train station. Although we all travel with backpacks and are used to lugging them around cities, it was such a relief to be without luggage for an afternoon.





Our one travel companion was staying in Vienna after we moved on to Venice, so our first stop was to get her settled into her hostel. After studying the tram map for quite some time, we purchased our tickets from a ticket machine and headed towards the hostel. She stayed at Hostel Ruthensteiner which is part of Europe Famous Hostels, their tag line is "sleep with someone famous" which I found to be quite amusing. Because most of my trips are usually at least 3 weeks, I try to save money on accommodations, meaning that I have a tendency to go for the party hostels or hostels a little further away. That being said, I fell in love with Hostel Ruthensteiner as soon as we walked in, and was actually pretty bummed that we weren't spending the night there. For starters, it was by far the cleanest hostel I've ever stepped foot in. On top of that they had free tea and coffee in the lobby, instruments laying around that anyone was welcome to play, and a very helpful staff. I definitely have Famous Hostels saved in the back of my mind for my next trip to Europe.

                                                                             

This trip was my second time being in Europe for New Year's Eve, and although it's not always easy leaving my family around the holidays, Europe sure does know how to do it right. Even though we landed in Vienna on January 1st, there was still plenty of Christmas celebration happening. We spent the majority of the evening wandering around the main streets of Vienna in the Historic Center( a UNESCO World Heritage Site), sipping on hot wine (a must when visiting Europe in the winter) and admiring the holiday decorations that filled the streets.

Couldn't resist paying an extra 3 euro for hot wine in these adorable mugs

St. Stephen's Cathedral, in the Historic Center of Vienna

Our evening was quickly running out of time, so we didn't get to do as much as we had planned. The majority of our time was spent eating street food and sipping on hot wine until it was time to catch our night train to Venice. 

On my next trip to Vienna I'll definitely hit up some of the museums such as the Kunsthistorisches and visit the Schonbrunner Gardens.

TESOL Certification

Anyone who was born or raised in an English speaking country has a huge advantage when it comes to getting a job abroad. By having a university diploma (regardless of my degree) and the native ability of speaking English I am qualified to teach English in a handful of countries around the world. While on my job hunt I found that China and South Korea took those two factors into consideration and with a few more questions, they deemed me capable of teaching English to children in their country. However, my dreams were a little more tropical than China and South Korea, so I headed my research in the direction of Thailand. Upon speaking to some programs in Thailand I found that it wasn't enough to be an American born with a university degree, I also needed a TESOL certification.

TESOL stands for Teaching English to Students of Other Languages (or some variation of that) and it's a simple way of saying that you've taken classes about the English language which qualify you to teach said language. There are numerous ways to gain this certification, all of which are expensive and time consuming, but extremely worth it in the end. Ohio University and many other schools offer a TESOL certification through their linguistics department, which seems to be the easiest way to gain the certification. You take the right mixture of linguistics classes and not only do you gain a degree in linguistics, but you also get a TESOL certificate. I was already pushing it to graduate college on time, so this wasn't a plausible answer for me. Instead I chose to complete my TESOL course online which was beneficial and informative, but definitely wouldn't have compared to having an actual hands-on lesson in person. Regardless, it resulted in my name on a TESOL certificate which is what I needed!

The whole program took me about 6 months to complete online, but I was also juggling a full class schedule at school and working 25 hours a week, so it wasn't high on my list of things to do each week. The online version prevented me from having any actual teaching experience but it did go over a multitude of topics about the English language including spelling, grammar and pronunciation. Now the question is, how much of that information did I actually retain?