by Loti | Feb 7, 2013 | Animals, Singapore
Half fish and half lion, a merlion. (That is a new one for me). This mythical creature was created by the Singapore Tourism Board in 1964. It represents a fish/mermaid to symbolize Singapore’s maritime industry and a lion which was spotted by a prince back in 11 AD as he stepped onto Singapore’s shores. The Merlion is 28 feet high, weighs 63 tons and is made of cement, with little red teacups for its eyes (not sure what that is all about) and porcelain plates for its scales. One of the most photographed statues in Singapore and probably the world, it is magnificent to behold as water cascades from his mouth into the bay. And for one month in 2011 it was made into a single room 5 star hotel. Temporary walls were erected around the statue, a bathroom was installed, and a butler assigned. Part of an art exhibit, this is one of the most creative marketing tools I have ever seen. The hotel sold out in hours and was publicized throughout the world. Quite a bargain for $125 US a night! So China has their dragon as a national symbol, Scotland has the unicorn and Singapore has its Merlion. I wonder what other mythical creatures...
by Loti | Feb 5, 2013 | Animals, Thailand
This is one of the students, a pig tailed macaque, at The Monkey Training College in Southern Thailand. He is learning to pick ripe coconuts from 30 feet off the ground (not sure why there are so many height things in Thailand–elephants, suspension bridges …). The school was started in the 1950’s by a Thai who wanted to use his peaceful Buddhism philosophy to teach monkeys without using violent force which was then an accepted way to treat the animals. Teaching monkeys to harvest was not a new concept as there is evidence of monkeys being used to gather fruit as far back as 2500 BC depicted in Egyptian stone carvings. For 6,000 baht ($200 US dollars), you can send your monkey to a 3-6 month boarding school. There they learn to spin coconuts free of their stem, untangle themselves from a harness around their waist if they get entangled, only pick ripe ones and throw them down from the tree. This is considered elementary school. For an additional tuition, they can go to secondary school and learn to put the coconuts in a bag and on a truck. Compared to a fit person who can pick about 100 ripe coconuts a day (you have to climb the tree each time), a male monkey can pick between 1,000 to 1,500 coconuts. Quite the labor force. Another very interesting profession although bird nest gathering still remains one of my top...
by Loti | Jan 27, 2013 | Animals, Thailand
I am feeling really cocky about an hour into our elephant ride until the elephant grabbed a big branch and brought it down crashing toward me. An average elephant eats 600 pounds of food a day so they are constantly reaching out for leaves, branches, and grasses since they are vegetarian. The elephant I am riding, Bounma, was originally used in the logging industry to transport teak. Logging was banned in Thailand in 1989 because of the deforestation occurring through out the country. She was savagely beaten and still has scars on her head and ears (her ear was actually broken). When the timber ban went into effect all the elephants lost their jobs. Many of the owners resorted to taking them to big cities like Bangkok where they would perform for food. And as we already know, they eat a lot of food a day so this was not a good situation for anyone. Bounma was rescued along with her mahout, her trainer, and lives at The Four Seasons elephant camp today where she gets lots of love and treats including cucumbers, bananas and sugar cane. I am so privileged to have ridden this beautiful animal. She helped me fall in love, with...
by Loti | Jan 6, 2013 | Animals, Thailand
You really get a sense how big these beautiful creatures are from the photo. Asian elephants average 3-4 tons and are very tall, at least from my perch sitting on my elephant’s head. What to me, is truly amazing, is the current research being done with elephants. We don’t really know much about them since they are difficult to study in the wild and with a dwindling population (it is estimated there are about 40,000 elephants in the wild in SE Asia), it is all the more challenging. And Asian elephants are smarter than African elephants attributed to their larger brains. But elephants are among a very elite group of animals who possess self awareness. Meaning they recognize themselves in a mirror. They join humans/apes (one can argue a lot of humans never progressed past the ape stage), dolphins and orcas, and are you ready? Magpies. The same family of bird as the crow and bluejay. Kinda of a weird group but all recognize themselves. I was sorry we weren’t able to participate in the research at the elephant camp, as we only learned the last night you could do a half day helping the researchers. Next...
