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A Taste of
Story and Photography By Bart Card, Travel and Food Editor

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Looking into the eye of an elephant you can see the warmth and intelligence. That, says Ewa Narkiewicz, is because they are warm and intelligent. She should know. Along with partner and fellow Australian Michelle Reedy, she sees it daily in the 90-member herd at the Elephant Palace and Royal Kraal, a sort of old folks home for retired work elephants in Ayutthaya.

he enormous animals are bright, friendly examples after more than 4,000 years of cohabiting with mankind in Thailand for use in war, work, transportation and pleasure riding. The elephants here are former work elephants from the lumber trade, now retired and in the care of the two Aussies and their many mahouts (handlers). The elephant is a sacred animal in Thailand, one revered by all, including the king and queen, whose efforts to preserve them are world-renowned. The elephants importance is evident throughout the country, in everything from its conservation in rural settings to the use of its image in urban ones. One such example is the Blue Elephant Cooking School and Restaurant in Bangkok, just one of the stops for me and the group of journalists I travelled with during the Tourism Authority of Thailands promotion The Amazing Tastes of Thailand. More on the elephants later. Blue Elephant owner Noorer Somany Steppe gave us some insight into why Thai cuisine is becoming more popular around the world. There are more than 100 Thai restaurants in Canada, including 38 in Toronto alone. A lunch at the Blue Elephant (see Lunch at the Blue Elephant) underscores the essence of Thai cuisine in all of its plentiful, varied, delicate and spicy expressions. If youre accustomed to Chinese food, Thai is spicier, with variety and presentation high on the list. We would experience similar dining in the city and beyond while staying at the Chatrium Suites, the Rose Garden Riverside, the Centara Grand Hotel, the Iudia Hotel and, in a grand finale, the breathtakingly luxurious Sukhothai Bangkok (where guests are given the choice of six softnesses of pillow). The day after our traditional Thai dinner at the Rose Garden in Sampran, we had an early wake-up for almsgiving to an orange-clad monk paddling along the Tha Chin River.
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Lunch at the Blue Elephant
Heres the scrumptious menu that my fellow journalists and I enjoyed at the Blue Elephant Cooking School and Restaurant in Bangkok. I wont soon forget it.
STARTERS: Mieng Kham (betel leaves filled with roasted peanuts, pieces of lime, shallot and ginger) Mee Krob Boran (sweet-and-sour crispy vermicelli) Flying Pomelo Salad (a mlange of wing bean and Nakron Chaisri Pomelo with organic prawns and tamarind sauce sprinkled with roasted coconut and peanuts) Spring Roll (black chicken and vegetable stuffing with red sweet-and-sour sauce) SOUP: Tom Yam Koong Doi Kham (spicy prawn soup with Royal Project mushroom) Tom Kha Black Chicken (coconut flavoured with organic young galangal) MAIN COURSE (in family sharing style): Forgotten Beef Curry (thick grilled Kho Khun beef in curry) Laab Ped (spicy salad of minced duck breast with a hint of mint leaves and organic young galangal and lime dressing) Bamboo Fish (fillet of sea bass marinated with herbs grilled in a bamboo case) Phad Yod Boub (crisp Boub stem and leaves stir-fried in a low-fat soya bean oil and aromatic sauce) Steamed jasmine rice and wild rice

Unforgettable dining experience on the floating Rim Klong Market. (Right) The kraal was founded to create a sustainable future for the elephants.

Breakfasts at all hotels are Westernstyle buffet affairs, unlike the one served on board a rice barge we took to the Donwai Riverside Market in Tambon Bang Kratuek. (If youre looking for silk scarves, spectacular carvings and other handicrafts, the markets are the place to go.) As does the food, life in Thailand comes in hundreds of flavours. Bangkok still has incredible traffic, but a new expressway and elevated rail have left more room elsewhere for the famous putt-putt three-wheel taxis. For the camera-toting tourist in search of tradition, a visit to the city wouldnt be complete without stops at the Grand Palace and Royal Monastery of the Emerald Buddha. Thousands of Westerners now flock for medical treatment at the relatively inexpensive private and very modern

hospitals (an MRI scan costs $300; hospital room and nursing, $90 to $180 a day). In a new twist, many people combine tourism and medical care in one visit. Theres so much to see and do, I intend to return shortly for a look at the northern part of the country around the fabled Chiang Mai region. But before leaving this time, my thoughts turned again to the elephant kraal. When Oliver Stone was making his movie Alexander (2004), he needed war elephants for a scene. He went to zoologist Laithongrien Meepan, who founded the kraal to help create a sustainable future for elephants through his successful breeding and training programs. Elephants havent been used in war for centuries, but Meepan and his mahouts marshalled them into fighting trim in short order. They spent two months training for five minutes on film. They communicate, Narkiewicz told us. There was a mother who couldnt give milk because of the conditions she was in, and the baby was sick. We got her here, and the other elephants gathered as though telling her this is a great place, youre safe here. The next day, she began producing milk. This place once known as Siam is nothing short of fascinating.

If You Go
Chatrium Suites Bangkok chatrium.com Blue Elephant Bangkok blueelephant.com/bangkok/index.html Iudia Hotel iudia.com Sukhothai Bangkok sukhothai.com Tourism Authority of Thailand tourismthailand.org
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