Krung Thep Restaurant Ubon Ratchathani Thailand.

Last night being Monday, Miss Noot decided we needed to go out and celebrate my belated birthday and also that she had finally received her degree. I asked where she was thinking of going and I had hardly finished getting this out of my mouth as “Krung Thep” (some spell Krung Tep) came blurting out of her mouth.

This restaurant has become Noot’s favourite, an ex Ubon expat would take his family here and introduced me to the place. I am so glad he did as it is the best food. The owner used to run or own a restaurant in Japan from my terrible memory was what my friend had mentioned.

The restaurant was very busy for a Monday night; there were only two tables available and we quickly made our way to the one in the corner, this was lucky as we had Nong Ja along for the ride and she can be a little bit adventurous at times.

The menu was quickly produced and Noot and her younger sister Benjawan (Ben) started gibbering away in excited Thai on what to order. I ordered some water to drink while the two girls oblivious to Ja and me kept on throwing dish choices across the table to each other. Ja insisted on flicking through the menu but kept saying as she always does "Kow Phat" or fried rice.

The girls decided to ask me what I would like to order and I told them I would go with the flow, as long as they ordered my favourite dish from Krung Thep, I was told that this had already been ordered; so I had missed that!

So the order was taken and the ice and water arrived, often I would have a very cool beer but tonight I didn’t feel like one. Two and a bit year olds, well young kids in general like to be hands on, and Ja is always like this. After watching the waiter fill the glasses with ice and then water, Ja was off her seat and copying him.

Ja returned to her seat and managed to drink some water but also tipping over her face, onto her top and also the table.

Ja is multitalented and quickly cleaned up her spill with one of the cloths I always keep handy when we take Ja out.

The food started to arrive and this was a salmon dish, I have had this many times now and is so delicious.

And some wasabi mixed with soy sauce to dip the salmon in, I am not a big wasabi fan so I just dipped into the soy or not at all as the salmon is so fresh and tasty.

Then came the spicy squid salad, it wasn’t so spicy but actually a little mild. But very delicious, all the food I have eaten here is.

The some sushi arrived, another dish that is so yummy and these rolls disappeared pretty quickly.

Then my favourite arrived, well it is on top of the other dishes I call my favourites as well. It is a prawn bread and comes with a sweet chilli dipping sauce, a real mouth waterer.

In this coconut is a seafood curry, and probably the best I have had anywhere else I can think of. We nearly order this every time, we cannot help ourselves as we like it so much.

I am so hungry looking at this and thinking of the other dishes and going across and buying a 25 baht dish of food for dinner tonight is just not going to cut it.

Ja was really hungry, so she started on her prawn bread which she likes while waiting for her fried rice. I had mentioned and asked it be brought out first as she was hungry and it also keeps her busy.

Finally Ja had her rice and she tucked in.

I think this means bellissimo.

And this I have no idea!

As you can see by the table, we had pretty well polished everything off, Noot was just finishing the last of the curry off, scraping the coconut flesh from off the inside and devouring it happily.

Why is Ja praying?

She saw this image on the wall and thought it was an image of Buddha so she wanted to pay respect. It is funny as she does this in any place and at times in shopping centres, or the market can make people smile widely.

Finally it was time to go home, my three girls walked with full tummies to the car, well not too full as we did stop at Swensens for ice cream. No photos allowed there but it was good ice cream.

Brunty

Oh the cost, cheap as chips. Only 605 Thai baht or about $20 Australian dollars.

Malcolm and Ciejay Burgess, Retired in Thailand and Loving It. Thailand

On a very important note, I ask any person who prays, that they take their time to add into their prayers this very special lady. If you read this blog then more than likely you read Retired in Thailand and Loving It. Malcolm Burgess and Ciejay are a lovely couple, Malcolm started blogging about being retired in Thailand in his small village Wang Pho near Kanchanaburi.

Malcolm is the kindest person, and he needs prayer for his partner and best friend Ciejay as she had a heart attack the other morning and is currently in ICU in the local hospital.

I ask if you pray that you add her into your prayers and ask for a speedy and full recovery.

Malcolm on a personal note, from myself, Jason and Miss Noot, Nong Ja our thoughts are with you. I wish I could do more.

Brunty

Another Year Older and Excellent Italian Food, Isaan THailand.

Well another birthday has come, and a year older I become. Today was a very quiet birthday as Miss Noot had travelled away to receive her degree from the prince of Thailand and won’t be back until the early hours of Monday morning.

I ventured over to Spago Italian restaurant, run by my friend Franko. I was joined by an Australian mate and we spent a few hours eating, chatting and enjoying some drinks. I really enjoyed the time. A very good birthday lunch.

Now I am running late for a dinner date, well a football date. My Premier League team Newcastle United are taking on Chelsea tonight and I am the only Toon supporter in Ubon, maybe Thailand. My friends are Chelsea so we will watch the game together and have a few drinks as well. I should be arriving as I am typing this. Need to get my ass into gear.

Below are some pictures from Spago.

It was quiet early as Spago had just opened.

There are plenty of good wines on offer at Spago to suit many tastes. I shared a litre of the house wine which was good.

I cannot describe how good the bruschetta was, I actually had two servings.

The Spago calzone pizza, really good.

This is Spago's four seasons pizza and I was told excellent. I believe this as it was gobbled down quickly.

This cake was nothing like I have had in Thailand. Only the best ingredients.

And I cannot leave my amazing Thai niece out, Nong Ja. She is now fully recovered from her sickness and is eating more than ever and driving me crazy like before, so I am very happy.

Brunty

Thailand's Reputation Take Another Battering, Isaan Thailand.

The other day I touched on the finding of a few hundred foetuses found at a temple in Bangkok. At the time that was the number but that has now exploded to over 2,000.

There is finger pointing and a lot of this and that is going to happen. Of course there is corruption as people were paid to turn a blind eye for sure. What about the temple? The abbot must have known that these foetuses were being stored there? Is it possible that he had somehow missed these small packages containing the remains of a human life being put into storage?

They couldn’t be burnt apparently as the incinerator had broken down! In an article I read today these were figures quoted on abortion in Thailand.

Each year about 11,000 legal abortions take place, but the number of an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 illegal abortions taking place in backyard brothels or hovels hidden away in little shanty towns.

The two undertakers, who I must say are pretty worthless pieces of shit, have come out asking for forgiveness. They are claiming that the clinics (who they were paid by to take the foetuses) and the mothers and their families should take the blame (gutless cowards aren’t they).

A woman Ms. Lanchakorn Jantomnut was also arrested; she had been performing abortions for apparently 30,000 Thai baht, sounds too expensive for most Thais for me but what was stated. She then paid the undertakers 500 baht to get rid of the foetuses. She has now said she will tell the names of Thai celebrities she has given abortions to, this will cause uproar in itself if this happens.

I would expect a high number of abortions in Thailand. One being it is a sex tourism haven for many travellers; I would like to see a survey done and see the number of pregnancies from sex workers and also the numbers from the general public.

The stigma of having a baby out of wedlock in Thailand doesn’t help. The horrible shame a pregnancy can bring on a family. A girl’s family could lose face and any standing they have if such a thing was to happen.

In Thailand the supposed, no sex until marriage is a thing of the past as young new generation Thais, party like any other nationality. They drink, have a one night stand or a short relationship and end up pregnant.

In Thailand if you become pregnant when you are still at high school or university, your studies are over. You cannot study and be pregnant, this is not allowed and they are expelled.

But there could be light at the end of the tunnel, in September Thailand’s health officials are proposing a bill to change this rule.

It is estimated that 160,000 teenage pregnancies happen each year in Thailand and 10,000 are girls under the age of 15, many are aborted as this means an end to their education, so usual the girl will disappear for a week, have an abortion and return home with some excuse for the week absence.

There is already opposition to the proposed bill change, with frail old dinosaurs still living from the Stone Age, saying that the bill could encourage underage pregnancies. Of course this was scoffed at by health officials and I too agree.

If a girl knows that she could carry the baby to term and continue studying then the chances of abortion should lessen, but Thais being Thais the stigma attached would be very hard for any teenage girl pregnant to face.

The issue of face, something that really intrigues me but also pisses me off will always be the biggest hurdle to leap for any girl. I could only imagine the names she would be called and the looks and shakes of the head that would be encountered, as so called Buddhists judge her and for the wrong she has done.

How can abortion numbers be reduced in Thailland? I mean if the numbers are correct and in the 200,000 plus, then something needs to be done.

Go back to the condom and safe sex campaigns, absolute flog these to death (no pun intended), use TV adds during the Thai dramas that are watched by about every female in Thailand and consist of alcohol, fighting, rape, more rape, men beating women, women beating women, HiSo Thais suppressing LoSo Thais and so on. Also flood the sex workers and schools with safe sex promotion. Start with 14 year olds and up.

Also the sentences and fines covering illegal abortions are weak, with small fines up to a maximum of 14,000 Thai Baht (under $500 Australian) and up to a 5 year jail term could be given.

It is saddening to think that these many abortions are taking place, very sad indeed. I just hope that they Thais somehow pull their fingers out and make changes to decrease these numbers.

Brunty

Nong Ja in Hospital, Isaan Thailand.

My little girl, Nong Ja has been sick for a few days. We thought she was picking up as she had stopped vomiting and was taking fluids. But she just didn’t want to eat anything. And she was so quiet, Ja is usually chatting non stop but she hardly said a thing the last few days.

Today we had to take her back to the hospital, and thankfully the paediatrician was there. After we told him what the last few days had been like he glanced over her and admitted her for tonight.

It was then I had to go through the most horrible thing. They needed to put an intravenous (IV) line in to her small hand. We you can only imagine the commotion, screaming blue murder and Jason and Noot save me echoed out again and again.

She did settle down pretty quickly after the IV was in and the bandage on. Then there was a dose of medicine to settle her stomach and she nodded off to sleep for a quick nap.

It is amazing how much she has perked up in the last 6 hours, she is more active, talkative and just looking so much better. She still doesn’t want to eat, when her dinner came in and we tried to feed her, she kept spitting it out. She keeps asking for all the food she cannot have.

She is pretty happy as she has all her favourite cartons, Tom and Jerry Kids, Scooby Doo, Casper, Pluto to just name a few. I hope that she continues to make leaps and bounds and is home tomorrow and back to herself again.

I am home as I have a little bit to do, there has been things going on at school that involves me, some unhappy hierarchy who don’t seem to like people standing up for their rights. Asian culture expect people to be “yes” people and just conform no matter it being right or wrong, and being a foreigner it is virtually impossible to do this. Especially when you used to fight for the right of others for a union. I will go into this a lot more on a day soon to come, but now is not the time. To me it is a lot of smoke and some people seem to have a bee in their bonnet.

Anyway, life goes on and the most important thing now is my little girl. So I will be off as I am going back to the hospital to relieve Noot and she is coming home to get ready for 3 days of practice. She has to practice for 3 days on how to take her degree of a very important person. Why 3 days I have no idea as the ceremony is so impersonal and just like an assembly line but it is the way it is done here.

So until another day..

Brunty

P.S – Thanks to all the kind words from the people who dropped by, it is really appreciated.

My Little Girl is Off Colour, Isaan Thailand.

It is hard being a parent or a guardian of a young child. At times it is because of tantrums in public and so many other reasons but the hardest for me is when they fall sick.

My amazing Thai niece, who Noot and I look after 24/7 has been under the weather today. I received a call from Noot today at school, I put my phone on vibrate only and not just for the pleasure.

So I had just walked into my 11.05am class of year 12 students when my phone stared vibrating. A quick glance at the name and I answered as Noot never calls unless it is something important.

The day had started as normal, like everyday over the last two years plus. I get up and get ready for school, make a small bottle for Ja and then Noot gives it to her. They will both rise anywhere between 7.30am till 11am, depending on how lazy they are feeling, a good life I know.

But today they were out of bed about half past eight, had a shower and then Noot got breakfast ready. This was when Ja first vomited. Noot just shook it off and then Ja wouldn’t eat breakfast, she drank some water and was sick again.

After about 4 times she rang me worried, I asked if she had a temperature, “No”. What had she eaten? “Nothing” Drank? “Milk and water” but nothing out of the ordinary.

So I told Noot to just give her a little water when she wants and monitor and ring me if anything happens and I would come home at the end of the class. I finished the class and was in the office and she rang again telling me that Ja had been sick a few times and she was panicking a little.

So I went home and she was not the usual Ja, she was very sombre and tired looking. Straight away she was into my arms and tears streamed from her eyes amongst cries pleading for an orange ice smoothie.

Noot wanted to take her to hospital but I said to just hang off for a bit, it could be just a bug and she could come well, quickly (I hoped). So I sat on the roll out mattress on the floor and we watched cartoons while she laid in my arms with her head on my chest.

She vomited a few more times, little bits of water. She kept asking for water and getting upset when I would give her little amounts at a time. She finally drifted off about 1pm and slept well for a good 40 minutes before waking and vomiting a little again. She then drifted off again about two and I snuck back to work. Noot said she slept until at least 4pm without being sick. I thought things were looking up.

I arrived home just before 5pm and Noot said she had vomited a few times again. So we were off to see the doctor. The doctor pretty well said what I thought, “She has an upset stomach.”

So after the amazing diagnosis and some medicine we stopped at the market for some food and then home. We bought rice soup, what the doctor recommended and then gave her the anti-nausea medicine 20 minutes before eating. Ja wanted to eat so much and cried when the little amount we had given her ran out.

It stayed down for 20 minutes and then came up again. Again she slept in patches, and then laying very quietly watching TV, which is just not Ja. And the night has continued like this. No temperature, she is just off colour. We have been giving her small amounts of water with a mix that contains nutrients to try and stop her dehydrating.

It will be a long night as I am so protective and will not be able to sleep as I will be so conscious of her. Tomorrow we will reassess and if it looks like no improvement it will be back to the hospital and some much more stern words to the doctor there to make a more careful diagnosis and fix.

It breaks my heart, looking at her and not seeing her being herself but looking forlorn. And it hurts much worse not being able to make her better other than holding her in my arms when she wants. I wish I could take her sickness as any parent would.

It is half past eleven and she is awake, lying next to Noot watching a singing show, her sleep pattern is out the window as she has been napping here and there all day. Tomorrow could be a day off work for me, my first priority if my family and work comes well down the rung on my ladder.

So I hope tomorrow brings a breath of fresh air for Ja, and the diamond of my eye is back to her normal self and driving me crazy like she always does.

Here are a few pictures of Ja as she has grown up with us.





Brunty

Thai Newspapers, Vocational Students at War, Isaan Thailand.

I like to keep up with the news, not just here in Thailand but back home as well an abroad. I read two newspapers everyday from Australia, The Herald Sun from Melbourne and the Gold Coast Bulletin based on the Gold Coast, and I read the Sydney Morning Herald a few times a week.

Then I read the footy wrap up for the Premier League on Mondays from all the action on the weekend. And of course I read the two major Thai newspapers in English that are mostly rubbish but there are some very good articles featured here and there that I can use at school with my classes.

The Bangkok Post and The Nation, reporting the news leaves a lot to be desired at times and most articles they both cover but the information is hardly ever the same.

The stories are usually the same, corruption, bribery, murder, more political shenanigans and so on.

I have written about “Technical or Vocational Students”, I don’t like to pigeon hole these kids but they are drop outs from schools, usually the low of the low (There are decent kids amongst them, plenty as I have met them).

In Bangkok these idiots are at war with each other, Vocational colleges and schools against each other, using knives, guns, and even bombs now.

Not so long ago, a 9 year old boy was the innocent victim of these feuding fools. Master Thian was riding the bus to school with his elder brother when he was shot twice in the neck, once in the face and shoulder. The shooter a 16 year old was shooting into the bus trying to hit rival students.

Then today, the 17th of November 2010 another innocent victim of these students. A bomb, what police think may have been a ping-pong bomb was thrown threw the window of the moving bus and landed in the lap of the victim, not a student but a young mechanic at Nissan, he was on the way to the market with his girlfriend, his wife soon to be wife to buy food.

The bomb exploded with such force that his intestines were exposed from his stomach it was reported. Also a 15 year old boy, a Minburi Technical School student, one of the intended victims had suffered bleeding from both ears.

In the Bangkok Post the victim died on the scene because of the terrible wounds, but in The Nation they print a picture of the victim lying on the floor of the bus under a sheet and then say that he succumbed to his injuries on the way to hospital. (This sort of reporting between the papers happens all the time).

I have said before and will again. These vocational and technical schools need to be held responsible, for too long they have just washed the blood from their hands, time and time again as innocent people become victims in this senseless war these schools are waging.

Start with huge fines for these institutions, loss of their certification so that their institutions are closed and I could go on.

Make these places have their own bus lines, only for the vocational students, then if they start killing each other, who would really care, as long as innocent people aren’t harmed. Make the schools have students only wear their uniforms at the school; they cannot be worn off campus. If a student is caught of campus they are arrested and so forth.

Make these schools pay for a special operational force, be it police, army or a private force. Their sole job is to keep these students in line, unrestricted search powers of these students and also engagement of force.

The courts have special sentencing laws for these students, say double of normal terms, if a person was arrested for fighting with rivals and the sentence would normally be a monetary fine, and make it a month’s jail and so forth.

The Thai government has to get real with this, they, the ministers in this country seem to forget about their constituents, they are only worried about their next graft payment, or job for their brother, cousin or distant relative, or illegal shares they hold will being minister of a portfolio. The safety of innocent people, for a long standing problem, that seems too hard to fix.

Also the reporting of one story, The Bangkok Post reported “Dozens of Bagged Baby Bodies at Wat (Temple) and The Nation reported “Undertaker Arrested for Hiding some 200 Foetuses in Temple”.

Now these are two totally different headings for the one story. How the reporters report two such different stories is hard to understand unless one went and gathered facts and the other just used a telephone and took whatever was told to them.

The Bangkok Post article said that police had been called after the bodies had been found in the morgue area of the temple and they were investigating.

The Nation printed that the Undertaker had been arrested for the 200 odd foetuses as he had admitted guilt. He had been working for 5 abortion clinics to dispose of the bodies. This is better than them throwing them into the canals in Bangkok as has happened before.

Abortion is illegal in Thailand but there are clinics everywhere, here in Ubon I know of two prominent and permanent ones, they aren’t hidden in some dark alley, in a filthy dirty backwater house with crude materials that get around in Bangkok, I am sure that these are available also here in Ubon for sure.

I think there should be clinics, and it should be legalised, I cannot believe that in some states of Australia abortion is illegal, governed by strict laws on why abortions can take place.

I also don’t like the idea of a life being terminated, but in some cases people are not ready for the step of parenting. And the arguments of them using protection and so on and so on can be argued until all are blue in the face, it won’t help.

If a person or couple do not want to have a baby, they should not be forced. And making a mother carry it to term and then putting up for adoption also seems very wrong to me.

But again these are my views, and maybe your views are completely different.

Brunty

Teacher Qualifications, Cheering, Paperwork, Casino and Holiday, Isaan Thailand.

Well it has been a while since updating, not a lot has been happening really. I have been spending plenty of time with my niece and Miss Noot as well.

We are coming into what I call the “silly season” as we have so many things happening at the school that we hardly seem to teach this last semester.

Starting next week we start cheering practice, which I can only describe as absolutely mind numbing. For a week our periods are cut 10 minutes shorter, break times are reduced and then for the last hour of each day, from 3.00pm to 3.50pm it is cheering time.

In this time the students will sit in their team colour and go over various chants for sports day. The thing that kills me is, it is the same chants every year. They never seem to change. And you look at the students faces and 90% of them just do not want to be there.

We had our staff meeting on Wednesday; this is meant to be a weekly event but sometimes turns monthly when we are really lucky. There was the usual tripe about us doing a great job and so on and so on and then we were hit with more paperwork.

At school teachers will have between 15 – 20 contact hours, actually in the classroom face to face teaching. I teach 20 contact hours. We start work at 7.45am and clock out at 4pm making it an 8hr and 15 minute day. We have 1hr for lunch and two 15 minute breaks, so in all we are required to work 6hrs and 45 minutes. But in reality no teacher is near this as we all arrive early and work most of our lunch hour and break times trying to keep up with paperwork.

Planning lessons, making worksheets, correcting, photocopying, browsing the internet researching and so on takes up so much time but on top of this we have to do so much paperwork.

The powers who be, who sit in their office and don’t have to teach keep hitting us teachers with more and more paperwork. Most of it to me is unnecessary. It is usually to show committees that come to the school, to show them how wonderful our department is.

What it means now, that I cannot make extra worksheets for my classes to cover topics in more depth. It means I have less time to research topics I am teaching. It means I teach less in the classroom and use some of my 50 minute period to correct work.

What it comes down to is the students are missing out. They are suffering as some blue collar tits want paperwork. There was a day I used to give so much of my own time but not anymore, now I do my job 100% in the time available.

Also many teachers are pissed about all the rules brought on by the Teacher’s Council Thailand (TCT) and the Ministry of Education (MOE). They introduced a Thai Culture Course that every teacher at kindergarten, primary and high school level, they must take to get their visa to work. It costs anywhere between 2,500 – 5,000 Thai baht depending on where you take the course.

Then you have to add in travel expenses, accommodation, food and so forth for the two days away (No courses in most parts of Thailand, only Bangkok and some of the other major cities). It becomes an expensive weekend on a certificate that is useless anywhere but Thailand.

Most people have said it is a money making scheme and this seems to be the case, as when you look at the course structure it is absolutely tripe. If you were new to Thailand, just off a plane then maybe you might learn something small, but for most it is just frustrating bullshit.

And once you have this qualification you are still required to sit 4 more exams to get a teacher’s licence. These exams cost 2,000 baht per test, fail or pass, and reading what has been written and the pass and failure rates they are near impossible to take. Every two years you have to show the TCT that you are trying to become qualified. That means sitting one exam every two years.

You can take a course that all Thai teachers are required to take. The Thai teachers pay 20,000 Thai baht I think, but for a foreigner they pay 50,000 baht up, for exactly the same course. Why the difference, it fucks me.. The same as when you go to a national park and pay 10 times more or to a toilet and you pay 5 baht but a Thai pays 2 baht.

And even if you do this course you still have to pass the 4 tests to get your teaching licence. And when you do qualify it will be recognised across the world, okay I am just bullshitting you, after you have spent say in excess of 60,000 Thai baht or around $3,000 Australian dollars the qualifications you have will mean absolutely shit anywhere else in the world but The Land of Smiles. The people doing this must be insane.

What many teachers are doing now are getting waivers, each teacher new to a school gets a two year waiver to become qualified. But what the majority of them are doing is either; going to a new school every two years or taking a test and then retesting at the end of the two year time period. Some teachers are paying for the exam, showing up, signing their name and then leaving as they get their two year waiver.

The easiest thing to avoid all of this is work for a language school or tertiary level, so teach at a university as you are not required to have any of this. The universities didn’t agree with the TCT or MOE on teachers being required to have these qualifications.

There is a shortage of teachers in Thailand, many schools have vacancies and there will be more positions next year as more government schools will be teaching maths, science, English in English. This means more native speakers.

But schools will still take of foreigners without these requirements, I know of some who teach without the required work visa, but retirement or say a marriage visa, they get cash each month and they and the school are happy. This will just continue on.

Anyway, enough on that as even I am bored.

At home things are great, we are spending lots of time together, I don’t bring any work home anymore, haven’t for a while now. We get out as much as we can on weekends, even if it is just window shopping at one of the shopping centres or markets or out to a new restaurant for lunch.

This weekend is Loy Kratong but I am not going into that here. It is on Sunday night and Noot will be going out to see her grandfather, to pay respect to him and coming back mid week. I will hang around here and go and watch my daughter (Noot’s younger sister) Benjawan dancing at Rajabhat University. Taking a few pictures of the night as there is always something interesting to photograph.

At Christmas we are lucky as we get a holiday from the 25th till the 4th of January, so 10 days off. We are thinking of going across to Laos, Savannakhet to the Sawan Vegas Hotel and Casino. I only become aware of it as I saw the VIP bus driving around here in Ubon Ratchathani. Googled it and wow, what a place to get away for a few days. When mentioned to a few people, there was a couple who have been there and stayed and said it is very nice.

I am looking forward to a small punt, a game of golf and just getting away from Thailand for a few days. Just have to wait and see if this all pans out as things change so quickly in Thailand and we could end up going anywhere or staying home, depending on my better half.

Well that is it, enough for now.

Brunty

Khao Yai National Park Thailand.

A few weeks ago I went to Khao Yai National Park for an English camp, which was 95% in Thai. Khao Yai is a beautiful place and we were arriving when it could absolutely piss down but were very lucky as it only rained once during our stay.

We made our way to the Visitor’s Centre, it was a short walk of maybe 2klms from our accommodation. It did mean walking up some small hills and some of the kids really suffered. So many Thai kids do no exercise at all. You see kids who look healthy and fit but when they need to actually exert energy they are heavy breathing, red faced looking like they are about to croak it.

One teacher, who drove his pick-up truck to Khao Yai, started to walk but after a few hundred metres went back and drove his truck to the visitor’s centre. He filled the back with students who were struggling and did a few trips. I was pretty well gobsmacked and couldn’t believe people were so lazy.

The visitor’s centre was really good, had plenty of information to read and if the people organising the camp were more organised, had half an idea what Khao Yai was about they could have booked a video presentation to watch.

On show were just a few rifles confiscated from poachers. I think all poachers and smugglers of things like ivory and endangered species should simply be put to death. The buyers need to be caught and also be given the same fate.

Seeing skeletons of the huge Gaur, a bit like a water buffalo and when I was told stories how they have trampled and killed villagers encroaching on land, it made me smile. I never knew these animals existed in Khao Yai.

These two tigers were shot at Khao Yai as they had killed people living in the park. It tells you about how tigers return to the spot of their attack and this is what each tiger did, meaning they had to be euthanized to save people’s lives.

There are snakes and many other animals on display, lots of information about the park and surrounding parks. There is accommodation available at the park at very good prices, trials to walk and rangers can be hired to guide you.

I am definitely going to head back there at some point to just photograph the animals and enjoy the scenery.

Brunty