Animals in Thailand

We thought it was time to do a "subject" related post on the topic of the animals in Thailand.

Well the first is the dogs. I think we already told you that there are many dogs in Thailand. Well that perception is still strong. David was doing some yoga in the garden of the last guesthouse where we stayed and looked down to see six (6) dashounds (sp?) watching him. They all had there own little jackets with their names embroidered on them. The owners work very hard running this guesthouse - cleaning rooms, doing laundry, sweeping walkways and I'd guess a considerable portion of their income must go to taking care of all these dogs. Then there are the many dogs with T-shirts on. You will see this bulldog type of big dog with a human T-shirt on - the front legs through the legs of the dog and the waist kind of tied up around the belly of the dog. I guess people must be worried that the dogs will be cold b/c the dashounds lost their clothes during the afternoon. Oh yes, and they had mulitiple wardrobes b/c there were always extra jackets hanging out to dry.

Next is the chickens. Everyone seems to have chickens for eggs. We were walking down a busy street in Chiang Rai (pop 40,000) and there was a chicken on the sidewalk - not an unusal sight but we noticed a few extra legs under the chicken. Turns out that there were eight tiny baby chicks under the mother. They all just hung around the mom while she picked/pecked around the dirt next to the sidewalk. Also there are all these wonderful large basket affairs that people use to cover the chickens in their yards during the night and other baskets that they put the chicken in and hang from the edge of a roof. I guess this creates a safe space for the chicken to roost. And there hasn't been a night yet except the first night in Bangkok that we haven't heard a rooster crow at the break of dawn.

Then there are the geckos everywhere including in our current Chinese/Thai hotel. It was hanging around the bathroom despite the fact that we are on the third floor.

Elephants are a constant source of pleasure to see. We went on a 5 hour river trip down the Nam Mae Kok river in Chiang Rai province. During this trip we stopped for a rest at another elephant camp. It's alway fun to see them. There were giant pythons at the same place. I guess you could get your picture taken with them. Their bodies were as big around as David's thighs. I guess from a message I got from Patrick that you can eat snake in Thailand. We haven't been in a position to try that and I'm not sure that we would even if we did have a chance but you never know. You do have your choice of many bugs, slugs, worms and other tasty morsels at the food court in the night market. I haven't seen people flocking to that booth but someone must be eating them or they wouldn't be there.

Cows - we have seen white cows with humps at the back of their neck and another type of cow that looks like what I remember a yak looking like in school books. I don't know what it is in fact but I must look it up. There are also lots of lovely beige and brown cows and we've had to make our way by them when walking on the rural roads.

I guess that's about it for now - we are on our way to Burma/Mynamar via Mai Sai tomorrow. We will cross the border for the day so that we can update our Thai visas.