Riding elephants, hugging tigers and all that

This elephant participated in a cultural show

I fell in love with Thailand years ago, when in the mid sixties,  I saw the movie "The King and I" (1956)starring   Yul Brynner.  When that movie was made, they used the old name for the country, Siam.

It wasn't until 2018 that I got the opportunity to visit that fascinating country and my first surprise was seeing how many big companies still retained the old name Siam. 

My greatest anticipation as I prepared for the trip, was to ride an elephant, something I had often seen in movies and which looked so sexy.

Well I am on cloud nine, as not only did I ride an elephant, as  uncomfortable as it turned out to be, but also I fed one and even hugged the trunk of another after seeing the very enjoyable and  professional (must see) cultural show "Siam Niramit."  It was to the delight of all of us that as we left the theater, we were met by and engaged with the entire cast, including the elephants which had performed.

Riding elephants  through the bushes and  through a river

 However, I was able to do something else in Thailand which I would never have dreamed of in my craziest moments, that was was to interact with real live beautiful big cats........ five tigers no less.

This was so absolutely enthralling that I dedicated an entire blog to the experience at; https://joanmyviews.blogspot.com/2018/10/beyond-my-wildest-dreams.html

However, I still  have to share some photos below!


Many of the other things I saw and experienced in Thailand were certainly exciting and educational, but clearly, in only a week, I saw too little.

My first outing was to take a tour on the majestic Chao Phraya River, which runs along a large section of the banks of the extremely well developed and modern city of Bangkok.

What immediately struck me on that trip, was the great efforts made by the authorities to promote the idea that the King, Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodinradebayavarangkun is held in high esteem, by flooding the city with his portraits.

However those of us who follow international news, cannot be fooled, for it is really the army which runs that country and this even caused the present king's retroactive ascension to the throne in 2016, to provide much amusement worldwide! 

This present king is the only son of King Bhumibol Adulyadej who was highly beloved and revered. He ruled that beautiful country for 70 years. 

However, by the time he died, his son and heir was twice divorced and had already become a notorious playboy, living mostly in Germany. Thus, the generals did not think he had the type of  character acceptable to become king.  He was therefore not allowed to be sworn in for months as he had to be rehabilitated! 

The royal palace can be seen from the harbor

Also, as he no longer has a wife, the photos of the  young, beautiful royal matriarch that you see all over  the place, are actually those of his mother, who is now 87 years old! 

Despite the fabulous palace,  and the opulence I saw at his country home plus all the trappings of wealth  and power of the monarch, the real power remains firmly controlled by the army, something I was reminded of on reading an English version of the "Bangkok Post." In an article in that publication in early October, it was reported  that demonstrators were detained by the military for "Attitude Adjustment."  This when opposition activists tried to petition the king to move the National Council for Peace and Order!

The politics of that country therefore belies its liberal appearance but since I was a mere tourist, I will move on!

As we toured the harbor, I was struck by how much sections of some buildings along the banks seem to be suffering a similar fate as many in Venice, where rising waters are creating a real danger.

A week  is much too short to determine how religious the Thai people really are,
but the proliferation of beautiful personal shrines which adorn almost every street and the exotically adorned, gold plated gates you see at many entrances of many communities and buildings, gives the city such an attractive look.

And the food you know is out of this world. I did get one shock though when I bought what I thought was a boiled egg in the street, only to find a baby chicken inside. I hear it is a popular food there but it turned me off of eggs for two whole weeks!

Private shrines similar to this are all over 

Apart from the food, fauna animals, as one who revels in history, my other real thrill was visiting the former kingdom of Ayutthaya, a UNESCO heritage site which lies less than 100 kms from Bangkok.

To get there, we traveled in a minibus organized by a tour company, so shared space with other tourists from South East Asia, mainly the Philippines, China and Korea. That is when I was fascinated to learn that the lingua franca in the region is really English. I had previously assumed that persons in the region knew and communicated in each other's language as happens in Europe. For, after all, their written word looks very similar to my untrained eye!

Ayutthaya has a proud and fascinating history and it is amazing how so many of the "ruins" remain in such sturdy condition, considering that kingdom was established from the mid-1300's.

This had been one of the main kingdoms in ancient Thailand and it remained powerful, influential and wealthy in the entire region until 1767 when it was destroyed in a war with Burma.

The kings of Ayutthaya operated as absolute monarchs, deriving their authority from Hinduism and Buddhism, so evidence of the dominance of these two world religions are everywhere.

For me personally, the education in Buddhism was very important from the perspective that there is no one image of Buddha as I had preciously thought, but several including the black Buddha and a reclining Buddha exist. 

The Thai alphabet is definitely influenced by Sanskrit

(I also suspect that the reason why the Thai alphabet looks more like Sanskrit than the Chinese type alphabet that one sees in most other south east Asian countries, is because of the immense influence that Hinduism had on the development of the country.)

SOME IMAGES FROM AYUTTHAYA

The black Buddha in the back is highly revered

The reclining Buddha

The ancient palace is undergoing renovation

Thailand is a country which has in excess of forty rivers, so it is not strange that a great deal of commerce is conducted on water, called floating markets. The largest and most famous is at Damnoen where I was pleasantly surprised to see a nice portrait of our own Bob Marley on sale.

The Mighty Essequibo River

I had no idea Guyana had so many islands and so many with white sands beaches to boot,


until I took a day safari down the mighty Essequibo, the 3rd largest river in south America and the river where miners from all over the world are converging on to  make a fortune from gold, using huge dredges that we saw all over, to bring up the mineral.

Many of the islands you see are huge by Caribbean standards with Hog island being even larger than Barbados. Many are also owned by rich Guyanese who have built "country retreats," none being more beautiful and ostentatious than the house and studio on the island owned by internationally acclaimed Guyanese singer Eddie Grant of Electric avenue fame.

I really have never seen such a large expanse of water in my life either, although I have travelled on the Mississippi river and along side the Colorado river. Just being on the mighty Essequibo is like being on an ocean and it does get as rough in parts with huge swells rising up as the wind comes up. And of course we did not even begin to see the river in full for although it is approximately an hour and a half by speed boat to Bartica, allegedly the oldest village established by the Dutch when they colonized the area, that journey does not even cover a distance of one eight of the mighty river.

Eddie Grant's lavish home on his private island

 We had been on our way for a day trip to the 187 acre resort island in the river called Baganara. To get to  Parika where we were taking the speed boat, we had to drive on the longest floating bridge in the world which spans the Demerara river. This bridge is one and a quarter 1/4 miles long and opens up in the middle to allow through huge container ships which bring goods from all over the world, to the dock behind Stabroek market where  there are several wharves.

The road down to Parika symbolizes perfectly the Guyanese cultural heritage as we saw houses and temples boasting the type of architecture depicting Hinduism, Islam and westernization. You could not miss houses where the residents were Hindu as they tend to fly flags in their front yards each colour selected to inform you whether they were mourning or celebrating some important event. Most of the way down too,  sections of the 280 mile the sea wall built by the Dutch in the 18th century to protect the country which lies below sea level, from the mighty Atlantic Ocean was visible.

Our first stop down the very busy and well traversed river was Fort island which the Dutch colonial masters had used as a look out against their British adversaries and where they also auctioned African slaves. Today the population of that 100 acre island is just 10 families and there is a primary school there with 21 students who will have to travel to  the mainland when they get to high school age.

The banks of the Esiquibo are covered with villages where, agriculture, lumber yards and fishing are the mainstay. River transportation is widely used for all these products. Families of monkeys are also all over going about their business in tall trees along the banks.
We had a wonderful peaceful day at the nature reserve resort of Banganara which is a bird watcher's paradise with some 160 species and several shy small wild animals.

I had no idea what I was getting into when I signed up for that river safari, but I certainly would do it again as just being on that huge wide river and at one with nature was worth every minute.

I can't wait to see more of this vast expanse of rain forest known as Guyana before heading off to Suriname, french Guyana and Brazil.