Thailand

Just got back from ten days in Thailand. Amazing holiday......

We saw some animals that you don't see in Europe much. Like elephants. And tigers.

The elephants were fantastic. We went for a ride first of all, somewhat slower than the horses, with a swinging stride......

......but that wasn't the best bit.
They took off their saddles and we got back on.....to take them for a bath in the river. Brilliant fun!!

Here's a video. The elephant Ali was on was trained to get rid of its riders!

Then the next day we went to see some tigers. They are kept by the monks in a temple and are raised by hand so are very tame, although you still have to be careful around them and follow the rules! We got to take one for a walk

Then the kids went off to play with the baby tigers and feed them.....

There's a lot of controversy about this place, I have read that the tigers are drugged, not fed properly, left out in the hot sun for hours........I have to say that we saw no evidence of this. Apparently it all started because some abandoned tigers ended up at the monks' temple and they took them in. Now they breed them and hand rear them so people can get close to them. We spoke to a couple of volunteers who work there and they had no concerns about the welfare of the animals. Yes, the tourists pay to see them but the money goes on taking care of them......

In fact I was pleasantly surprised how well animals in Thailand in general were cared for, I was expecting far worse. It's a Buddhist country though, so maybe not surprising. There are lots of cats and dogs around, they all follow the food for scraps, even on the beach but they were never agressive and a couple of times I ended up with a cat on my lap!

Bath time!

As the sun has finally put in a reappearance, we decided to try bathing Skyfaxa this afternoon. Here's what she looked like before:

Ali and her friend Kepler (who was actually daft enough to volunteer for cleaning duties!) got the shampoo out and got busy:

Her spots are a lot bigger when she's wet!

She wasn't so keen on the being rinsed off with the hose bit, but let us get on with it, and didn't mind having her tail dunked in a bucket either.

So here is the end result, tail and hocks still a bit yellowish, must try some of that whitening shampoo:

The girls get wet....

As the sun was shining this afternoon I decided to see how the girls would react to a bit of water. Got the hose out and washed their legs a bit, they weren't too sure at first but soon settled down......

When it warms up properly they can both have a bath, Kinna especially is filthy......They're starting to lose their winter coats now, Skyfaxa's spots are really showing up !