People_and_Places

My wife and a young tiger, in Nong Nooch village, Pattaya, Thailand.

We rented a motorcycle to travel around on, and were pleasantly surprised how clear and smooth the roads are, compared to the Philippines anyway.
Yes, that's a baby's bottle she's feeding him with. The tiger is about eight months old.

The picture to the right was taken at the same place, with a very friendly and curious gibbon, called Poi. The keepers charge a few cents to allow you to pose for photgraphs and play with the animals, and the money goes towards the animals upkeep, supposedly.

Back in the early eighties I read a book about a 42 year old journalist, Ted Simon, who decided to ride around the world on a motorcycle. The journey took four years, covered 60,000 miles and fifty four countries. That book was called Jupiters Travels, and it changed my life forever.
This is a picture of the motorcycle he used, a Triumph 500.

Click the big pic to his website, and read about his latest adventure, A re run of the same incredible journey, some 28 years later, and at the grand old age of 69. When he first did it at age 42, people told him he was too old, but what did they know!.

One of the earlier rides out on the SR500. The area is called Bam Ban, and was once a small town. The rivers of mud and ash that poured out of the skies when Pinatubo volcano erupted, overflowed the river in hours and made short work of the town. All that can be seen now are a few rooftops poking out of the new "desert".
The concrete wall in the background is actually a dyke to prevent the river overflowing if it happens again. Which it does occasionally.

This was taken in '96, a few days after the first rebuild.
We were so nervous of damage or theft, after all that hard work, that we wouldn't leave the bike anywhere we couldn't see it.
It actually lived inside the bedroom of our little apartment when I was away at work for weeks.

This page is just a mixture of places and events, people and creatures, in no real order.

Two pictures, taken 30 years apart. Who would have thought that the aggresive looking thug to the right, would have grown into the handsome and succesful gentleman on the left?