A birthday party with a difference loomed on Sunday. We were invited by our Thai friend Nit and her husband, Micky, to her birthday party. Nit once spent two months with her head shaved in a Buddhist temple and became very close to the head monk there, who incidentally is very famous in Thailand. He was invited to come. And he duly did… with six other monks of various ages, all bedecked in orange robes. Nit had spent days getting her house and garden ready for their arrival. They had put fairy lights all round the house and garden, it looked just beautiful. Friends and family started arriving from about 9am, including us, and the monks arrived (in an air-conditioned minibus – I had expected them to come walking along the road in a line chanting, desperate for sustenance after a long and weary trek – I’ve watched The Karate Kid once too often!). When they arrived, it all became very somber and the atmosphere was suddenly very serious. Thai religion is steeped in customs and culture and is revered all over the world for its quiet dignity.
The monks all proceeded to go through to the garden which Nit had made ready with pillows and cushions and prayer houses, all decorated with fresh flowers and incense sticks burning away. All over the garden were tables laden with fruit and cooked and raw meats – and bottles of Thai Whiskey – all as offerings for the Buddha. These were all surrounded, in and around the offerings, with incense sticks and burning candles. The monks all sat crossed legged in a long row and intertwined themselves with string which was also running around the house joining them and everyone in it together. Everyone, including us, although we weren’t quite sure what we were meant to be doing, was now bowing with prayer hands and quietly chanting. Nit and her husband kneeled down and lit candles by the first monk and he started chanting some sort of Mantra that we obviously didn’t understand and in turn each of the other monks did the same while being offered food in silver containers by each of the guests who were on their knees, their heads not being higher than the monks. Despite not being familiar with the proceedings we felt very privileged to have been invited to attend. Neighbours and passers by dropped in throughout the event, which lasted about 2 hours, to offer their prayers to the monks and in returne to be blessed with holy water, and all in all it was a very moving ceremony. After the monks had finished, they ate a veritable feast that Nit had taken days to prepare and once they had finished, the guests were invited to quieten their own rumbling tums. The monks left after they had blessed the house and the front doors were closed in order that the head monk could write a Thai blessing on the front doors in white powder. We were all invited back later that evening for more food and drink, which was courtesy of our host and joined in a party rather more in keeping of what we are used to! Just as a point of interest, when the monks are proceeding through people, women are expected to move out of the way, in case of any accidental touching or brushing past that may occur! Everyone does it. No-one minds in the least. It is the Thai way.
The next day, Monday, was work as usual – well for Dan anyway. I had decided to take the day off and just relax at home around the pool. So keen is Dan to be at the safari park every day, he’s not even moaning about his tan fading a bit!!!! A nd for anyone who knows Dan, being as brown as a berry used to be of vital importance to him!!!!
Being brown and tanned and healthy looking is fairly high up on the list when one goes on a hot holiday or anywhere for an extended period of time. Not so the Thais, or Cambodians or Vietnamese for that matter. There are actually rows upon row of, would you believe it, whitening powder on the shelves of the supermarkets and 711 shops in place of where we would find skin darkening products. They even go so far as to smooth talcum powder on exposed parts of their body to look whiter! When we are swimming in heat, bathed in heat, swaddling in heat, they are wearing long sleeves and jeans and sometimes jackets! This is their winter! Maybe that’s why they are not bitten to death by mozzies either, that or the fact that they eat food so bloody spicy, it would put the hottest Phaal to shame. Eat your heart out Bally Valley, you ain’t got nothing on these boys!!!! Now talking of mozzies, they are an absolute bane. We avoid dawn and dusk because of the deluge of them but still my legs resemble the texture of a chocolate-less Lion Bar!!!! And the itch – jaysus – it lasts for days and no amount of Tiger balm seems to alleviate it. Mind you I think most of my bites, nay welts, are accumulated when I’m up at the elephant enclosure, big mozzies are even able to leave a mark on an elephant’s hide. No jokes here please!!!!
Our English lessons for our new colleagues are going extremely well – they have added several new words to their ongoing collection including ‘sophisticated’ (hearing them try to pronounce THAT is hysterical!), and ‘marijuana’ (??!!?!?!) – Don’t ask! There are about 60 or more staff at the park who we don’t get to spend as much time with so we are in the process of organizing one hour lessons for those that want it after the park has closed. Us teachers!!! What a turn up! We are finding it increasingly easier to understand their language – as long as they speak fairly slowly. To give you an example of how difficult it is, because it is a tonal language and very few if any words have more than one syllable, ‘mai mai mai mai mai mai’ said correctly, means ‘new wood doesn’t burn, does it’!!!! This is a language exercise used to emphasis and teach the tones of each word. We still can’t get it right. In the course of this language exchange, we have realized that actually English is very difficult to learn too. Because Thai, as already mentioned, is a tonal language, our ‘students’ replicate our pronunciation exactly – there are several Thais that now have identical accents to me and Dan! We have only dipped our toes in the water of teaching English but it has become apparent just how hard it is for them too. The words ‘snake’ and ‘snack’ two completely different words, with very similar sounds. ‘celery’ and ‘salary’, ‘floor’, ‘four’ and ‘fall’. See what I mean! Mind you it’s enormous fun and we’re all getting something positive out of the experience. Just like our new friends, we don’t go anywhere without a pen and paper so that we can jot down new words and phrases. Dan is doing brilliantly – far better than me I have to say.
We were invited to produce a quiz for the local pub – panicked at the thought – although why heaven knows as we did it at the Kings Head week on week – we were heartened to learn that the Red Fox in Lamai, was patronized mostly by ex-pats so the language barrier was removed completely! Three rounds of 10 questions was not such a large task to master until I learned that it was me that had to be quizmaster while Dan supped away on the free beer we had been given for doing it! Oh Gawd! Heart-thumping and racing pulse abounded when I had to stand up and get started. Don’t know why I was worried – I just pretended I was back at the pub and dealt with the inevitable barracking as I would have done there. Take no shit! Alan, the very outspoken and Northern landlord was very impressed with my no-nonsense approach and has invited us back to do it again! Prior to arriving up at the pub to do the quiz, we met up with our boss, Nuch, who lives next door but one to the pub for dinner. The street that the pub, and her house is in, is on one of the main streets in Lamai, teeming with bars and restaurants, markets and hot food stalls. We sat and ate fried rice and chicken with a tin of Thai beer, along with another couple of colleagues who live there too. Both quite young, they were helping their English by learning guitar and singing English songs. Expecting Lady Ga Ga and Robbie Williams renditions, we never thought we’d find so much fun in singing ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ and our alphabet song with them, inhibitions cast away and giggling and laughing like kids!
Lots of strange and amusing things happen at the tiger enclosure; to mention them all would take up the blog in its entirety no doubt; but there are some which are certainly worth mentioning. Remember, we are dealing with a 300lb Bengal Tiger, a 200lb leopard and two, albeit it small, cubs with big teeth and claws and the penchant for play techniques that resemble playing with an angry Rottweiler!!! To untrained ears they mew; to ours they say “meat eater, very hungry”.
There are hundreds of tourists who come to the park every day, this is still low season so goodness knows what it’ll be like in the high season when it starts in a few weeks, and these tourists fall into three brackets when dealing with the big cats – scared shitless (most women and the biggest, hardest looking of men), brave (the smallest of children) and devil-may-care, I’m not bothered! (the rest of the population) HA! They are definitely the best ones to watch getting their pictures taken with the Tigers. They swagger into the tiger enclosure, with a smugness on their faces thinking that they are the hardest thing on the planet until they encounter Bacchio, the 12-month old Bengal, yawning and stretching out about 12 feet or so, give a few inches, on his podium! You’ll never see a tanned face turn white in such a short space of time!!! They are told to listen to the trainer and do as they are told. They amount of people that are so obviously temporarily deaf is unbelievable. Ever tried to hug a tiger that doesn’t want to be hugged! Bulgarian visitors came the other day armed with vicious looking sling-shots! They wanted to have their picture taken winging something at the tiger. We agreed, so long as we could give Bacchio a fighting chance and unchain him. Funny how quick someone can change their mind. We’ve had middle-aged American tourists, wanting to have their photos taken topless with the cats, young girls with long hair wanting to swathe the tiger’s back in their locks!!!!
We work with these animals every day and every day, without exception, there is something else to surprise and disappoint you with people’s attitudes. Yes these animals are chained up for a few hours a day, yes they are used, in part, as a tourist attraction and yes, to some it may seem cruel BUT these cats have been born in captivity through no fault of their own, could not survive in the wild, they are hand fed and reared by their trainers and were it not for places like the safari park, who do look after them in as best a fashion as I have seen, would be condemned to lives of misery elsewhere in the world! Each cat has their own trainer. They spend 24/7 with them. They sleep at night with them. They shower every morning with them. They exercise them daily. If the cats can’t see, smell or hear their trainer, they pine! These young fellas love and care for their furry, clawed and toothed charges as we would our beloved pet dog .
As much as we stroke and play with the tigers each day under the wary eyes of their keepers, we don’t even begin to expect that the animals like us. We are not their trainers, we are privileged guests and we remain lightning-alert and with a VERY healthy respect for the fact that if they so desired – we’d be lunch … and that tiny little chain that’s on their neck . . . well, it might as well be dental floss!!!!
Take care M&D x
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