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PADONG |
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The Padong are the most beautiful, calm people I have ever met - they face lots of daily hardships - they do not have any real home - they are chased out of both Burma and Thailand and have to live a nomadic life in the jungle - tourists help their survival by buying their wares - they do beautiful weaving - the "rings" around their necks are actually a single piece of copper which is wound around the neck, arms and legs - it is considered a thing of beauty - once it was used as protection against tiger attacks - there are few tigers now so it is used to attract men - if the rings are removed the neck would not be able to hold up the head as the muscles are stretched and weak - cloth is pushed under the rings to stop rubbing and sores developing |
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This is a typical Padong house made out of whatever they can find in the jungle - every time they are chased on they build a new village. |
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A very proud mother with her son. |
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| Weaving is one of the pastimes the Padong engage in. |
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This guitar is made from solid teak. |
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Trekking the Hilltribes |
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My daughter and I spent an exhilarating few weeks trekking the Hilltribes up to the Burmese border - this is one of the bridges we had to cross - I am afraid of heights and the others took great pleasure in making the bridge swing. |
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We all pile into the longboat for a trip down the river - the rapids were not too bad - aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh |
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| A half day trek on an elephants back is something to remember. |
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font size="3">The only way to mount the elephants was to climb up a tree. |
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This is the main street in Bangkok - the traffic is like this 24 hours a day - and we thought Sydney, Australia was bad !!! |
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KOI SAMUI |
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| After a few weeks of trekking in Thailand we went to Koi Samui to recouperate |
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The beaches have clean white sand, clear blue water at about bath temperature and the sun shines on tired aching limbs. |
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| Every sunrise and sunset the locals bring their waterbuffalo down to the sea for a well earned bath. |
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Koi Samui is famous for Grandmother and Grandfather rocks. |
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Monkeys are trained to harvest coconuts. |
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This monk died whilst he was doing his meditation - he did not rot - nor did his hair fall out - the other monks built a glass fronted box for him - put sunglasses on him because his eyeballs fell out. The box is not airtight - this happened many years ago. |
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THE BULL FIGHTS |
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| Koi Samui has NON bloody bull fights. The bulls are washed - blessed - adorned with gold leaf and painted - they are kept apart by a curtain - when the time is right the curtain is pulled back and the bulls lock horns - after a few minutes the bulls pull back - one bull runs away and the other bull chases it - the owners go and catch their bull - the bull that runs away loses and the bull who chases wins - both bulls live to fight many times - lots of money changes hands at these meetings - the locals have a wonderful time cheering and shouting for their particular bull. |
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