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THAILAND (5)

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TUESDAY 6th OCTOBER 2020 ~ BLOG POST

THAILAND (5)

by John Yeo

  This will certainly be the final part of this series of blog posts. I decided to focus on an incredibly memorable section of our holiday in Thailand. Earlier we had visited a cultural show in Phuket where we photographed a couple of captive elephants in a procession. We were unaware of the controversy surrounding the use of elephants for entertainment at the time.

  We had the opportunity to visit the Green Elephant Sanctuary in Phuket. This is an ethically run sanctuary that operates as a retirement home for elephants. Mainly elephants rescued from cruelty and for retired working elephants. The sanctuary doesn’t promote elephant riding or performances and is famous for it’s treatment of these beautiful creatures.

  We booked a half day visit and we were incredibly impressed with the spacious layout of the sanctuary which is situated in a large jungle area with large spaces that enable these impressive creatures to freely roam around.

 First we were welcomed by one of the keepers who gathered everyone together and delivered an interesting, informative talk on the sanctuary and some safety tips for when we got close up to the elephants.

    Firstly we were provided with baskets of bananas. We then met and hand-fed some of the residents. This was done from a distance as we were taught to hold the banana towards the elephant who grasped it with his trunk. There were always keepers hovering as the visitors slowly became more confident of interacting with the elephants. 

  There was a cute baby calf elephant who captured the hearts of everyone on the site. The mother was pregnant when she was rescued and actually gave birth to her calf in the sanctuary. 

    An onsite photographer was taking photographs of the visitors interacting with the elephants and these were later to be downloaded onto Facebook and freely available.

   We were led to an area where the elephants and an onsite night keeper spend their nights. This was accompanied by an interesting lecture by a keeper with the opportunity to question her on the treatment and some of the stories of where these beautiful creatures had arrived from.

    Next came a highlight of our visit, when we had a mud bath with the elephants. After we had thoroughly coated them with a thick coating of mud; which they enjoyed immensely; we then shared a large elephant shower where we proceeded to clean off the mud. Wonderful fun for everyone concerned, both the pachyderms and the humans. Good thing we remembered to bring our swimsuits!

    Finally we showered in some conventional showers and we enjoyed a tasty meal of Thai curry and rice accompanied by fresh fruit.

     A wonderfully informative fun day.

©️ Written by John Yeo

THAILAND (4)

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MONDAY 5th OCTOBER 2020 ~ BLOG POST

Prompt ~ Explore what your travels in Asia have been like.

THAILAND (4)

by John Yeo

  We were absolutely delighted with our visit to Tiger World and we thought this would be an unmatchable memory of our visit to Phuket. However, our visit to Thailand was not over yet.

 The above photograph is of a trio that entertained the resort guests in two of the dining areas most nights of the week during our stay. They were incredibly good and we enjoyed their music, which was mostly hits made famous by British and USA pop stars. I made enquiries trying to ascertain what name they were known by. Apparently they didn’t have a name, they were just happy to play together in the resort, entertaining the guests for a living. I guess they were paid a wage by the management.

  Both Margaret and I are gardeners and grow-your-own enthusiasts and we decided to hire a taxi for the day,with a view to exploring the agricultural areas on the island. This proved to be a disappointment as far as the agricultural areas were concerned but the driver did provide an interesting tour of the island’s tourist areas and a couple of blatant tourist traps.

  We passed many small roadside, beachside thriving businesses along the route and I opened the taxi window and began snapping off photographs along our way. 

I would have loved to have stopped along the way to photograph some of these entrepreneurs and their shacks. 

  We were taken on a hair-raising ride along a narrow road through a large, select, private beach, fronted with busy small businesses.

   I think the driver was taking a shortcut to our first stop, an impressive viewpoint high on some cliffs overlooking a bay containing an island with many small craft on the blue sea. 

This was known as the windmill viewpoint in respect of a huge wind turbine that was nearby. We took many photographs here as the scenery was particularly beautiful. 

  I asked the driver to take us to an agricultural area and he asked if we would like to visit a museum first. We agreed to this thinking it would be a museum of Thai life. This was the first tourist trap, the museum was a large warehouse containing thousands of seashells of various shapes and sizes. We were charged an entrance fee and we declined to purchase any of the shell souvenirs in the gift shop.

  Again I requested a trip to the agricultural areas, but he responded with a blank reply and asked if we would visit another museum area first. We agreed to this and we were taken to a huge oriental diamond and precious stones business, where we wandered around accompanied by an oriental salesperson.      

The displays of precious gems were amazing and we were somewhat puzzled and entranced. This was obviously another tourist trap and we declined to purchase anything during our visit. Photographs were strictly prohibited here.

  I display a couple of beach side seashore photos I took through the car window along the way back to our resort.

  I then began to get quite annoyed as our day was coming to an end and we were unlikely to have time to drive out to a rural area.

Our driver stopped in the car park of a large hotel that contained a large hothouse full of salad plants growing with aquaculture. 

Not quite what we had in mind at the beginning of the trip.  We paid 1500 baht for the day. Our lesson for future reference would be to be absolutely sure of where you want to go before you engage a taxi for a day of sightseeing in Thailand.

©️ Written by John Yeo ~ All rights reserved.

THAILAND (3)

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SUNDAY 4th OCTOBER 2020 ~ BLOG POST

Prompt ~ Explore what your travels in Asia have been like.

THAILAND (3)

by John Yeo

    During our visit to the Thai Hua museum, which is housed in an old school building, built in the Portuguese style, we were impressed at the huge influence the Chinese community had on Phuket. We were able to examine many photographs and artefacts relating to the early Chinese immigrants here. This was a great informative cultural episode in our visit to Thailand.

   We were enormously impressed with the sunsets and the wild life in Thailand and I couldn’t resist snapping a few photographs during our visit.

. 

  Then came one of the huge highlights of our visit to Phuket island in Thailand when we visited a facility called the Tiger Kingdom. 

    This tourist attraction is laid out in three areas where the visitors can interact with their choice of Tiger by size, ranging from cub to full grown.The most popular area was the cage containing the tiger cubs. The areas were individually priced or there is a ticket available for all three areas. 

     We chose to visit a cage containing fully grown adult tigers. We waited quite a while for our turn in a long queue and we had to sign a form that effectively stated we knew the dangers and would follow the printed rules.

   We entered a cage containing two full grown tigers accompanied by a keeper, armed with a bamboo pole and a professional photographer. Apparently the bamboo pole is used as a form of control by the keeper. If the tiger shows any sign of aggression, the keeper administers a sharp rap on the tiger’s nose. This is a form of control that apparently works.

   We were then able to experience some extremely close contact with the tigers which involved stroking and petting them while the photographer took photographs. We had been advised to always sit and stand behind the tiger when we were stroking them and not to make any sudden moves.

 This was an incredible feeling of our vulnerability in the scheme of things and we were both overwhelmed with the experience. We were able to take many photographs on our mobile phone cameras.

   I was somewhat wary before we made this visit as I had read and heard many horror stories of cruelty to caged animals in the guise of conservation. I enquired on the net and I questioned the keeper who was in the cage with us during our visit. I had heard these magnificent cats were drugged to make them docile. I was assured they weren’t drugged and the reason they were compliant was because this was normally their sleeping period and they were ready for sleep. These tigers are bred and raised in captivity and their way of life in captivity, with food and shelter provided, makes them totally dependent on their keepers. So much so that if it was necessary; these tigers would never survive in the wild, making it highly questionable if there was any conservation going on here at all.

    We did enjoy this memorable experience of getting up close to one of these huge, magnificent big cats. At least we can assume that our entrance fee goes some way to keeping them alive, even if it’s a captive life.

©️ Written by John Yeo. All rights reserved.

THAILAND (2)

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SATURDAY 3rd OCTOBER 2020 ~ FLASH FICTION

Prompt ~ Explore what your travels in Asia have been like.

THAILAND (2)

by John Yeo

 At the end of our first week in Thailand during our visit to Phuket botanical gardens, we wandered around the hot houses. We enjoyed the orchid house and the impressive cactus house. At the end of our visit we viewed a large ornamental lake packed with huge Koi Carp where we enjoyed feeding these impressive creatures with fish food.

   There were some fantastic sandy beaches adjoining the hotel and we hired a couple of sun loungers for the princely sum of 100 baht each and spent some quality time on the beach. The seawater was warm and shallow for a long way out and we enjoyed a few beautiful relaxing days on the beach. We became friendly with the owner of the beach concession who arranged for us to have our clothes laundered at extremely reasonable rates.

  We were treated to another colourful show in the resort restaurant in the evening.

  Another interesting experience was our trip on a traditional Thailand long-tailed boat. We hired a boat complete with a young sailor who took us on a trip around the bay. The sea was as gentle and calm as a millpond and there was a nice gentle breeze.

 We visited a huge Thailand night market, this was an extremely memorable experience. 

There were many food stalls selling a huge variety of street food, at the beginning of the market. This led to the main section of the market where a huge display of clothing, electrical goods, jewellery and much besides, was on display. Several different varieties of live music was performed by street musicians all along the length of the market.

 Our next attraction was a small museum that recorded the huge influence of the Chinese settlers  on the development of Thailand.

Margaret attended a Thai food cookery course and was presented with an impressive certificate on completion of the course.

© Written by John Yeo ~ All rights reserved.

THAILAND (1)

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FRIDAY 2nd OCTOBER 2020 ~ FLASH FICTION

Prompt ~ Explore what your travels in Asia have been like.

THAILAND

by John Yeo

Margaret and I have travelled to Thailand three times and we have been more intrigued and interested in the culture and the cuisine each time we’ve visited. Our most recent visit was in January 2020 in a wonderful comfortable resort on the island of Phuket.

Our first treat on our latest return visit to Thailand was to visit the resort restaurant by the sea where we indulged in a magnificent lunch of the excellent Thai cuisine.

The restaurant table overlooked the beach and the bay, with a sparkling blue sea, and palm trees along the walkway past the beach.

We familiarized ourselves with the location of the local shopping centre and the layout of the hotel.

The sunsets here are magnificent and we snapped some beautiful photographs of the sunset on our first night in Thailand.

We booked a table to see a colourful show in the restaurant in the evening featuring the amazing Thai ladyboys, young men who dress spectacularly as young women and mime to popular songs. The show was excellent and we marvelled at the lengths the young men went to; to dress and act as females. There were some lighthearted moments when one of the boy girls waggled a pair of huge balloons in time to the music.

We visited an open air market that consisted of canvas tent-like stalls selling a great variety of goods. There seemed to be an incredible amount of designer labels on the clothes and we came to the conclusion, these were obvious fakes. There were also a few stalls selling electronic goods at amazingly cheap prices. To our eyes the most eye opening sight were the unhygienic stalls selling fresh meat and fish in the open air that attracted millions of Thai flies. This would never have been allowed in the U.K., the USA or the European Union.

A visit to a Thai cultural show was the next memorable highlight. The pre-show featured a parade of Thai dancers, complete with a few elephants, that raised some criticism among members of our family when we displayed our photographs later. The show opened with the Thai national anthem; the audience were required to stand as a mark of respect for the King. The performance itself was an interesting amalgam of aspects of Thai life. It was colourful, entertaining and interesting.

We also visited the famous Big Buddha, a huge unfinished temple that is being constructed inside a massive statue of the Buddha. There were displays of various religious statuary and displays of both Buddhism and some Hindu religions along the route to the Buddah. We climbed some steep steps to the top of the outside, where we enjoyed a magnificent view of the local area.

We then went on to visit Phuket botanical gardens. This was a beautiful experience, although it was January when we visited and we had missed the peak of the floral splendour.

©️ Written by John Yeo

AT THE HEART OF HER

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MONDAY 14th SEPTEMBER 2020

This is a response to a Flash Fiction prompt from ‘Putting My Feet In the Dirt’, Writing Prompts hosted by ‘M’.
Which can be found by following the link below..

Today’s prompt ~ AT THE HEART OF HER

September Writing Prompts

AT THE HEART OF HER

by John Yeo

  We enjoyed a barbecue together which was so perfectly prepared and presented. It was obvious that food was her main interest and culinary perfection would always be at the heart of her.

  Another interest was reading prolifically on a wide range of subjects and this would always be incredibly close to her heart.

 These were intermingled with many other interests, but her prime interest that took her attention for twenty four hours a day and was really at the heart of her was me.

© Written by John Yeo

THE KISS THAT SAID IT ALL

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WEDNESDAY 22nd JULY 2020

This is a response to a Flash Fiction prompt from ‘Putting My Feet In the Dirt’, Writing Prompts hosted by ‘M’.
Which can be found by following the link below..

July Writing Prompts

THE KISS THAT SAID IT ALL

by John Yeo

He was a fledgling jackdaw who’d just left the nest

Driven away from safety forced into flight

Natural forces put his survival instincts to test.

~

He flew to the allotment, where he puffed out his chest.

The gardeners smiled at this unusual sight

He was a fledgling jackdaw who’d just left the nest.

~

He hopped to the fruit bushes, a welcome guest

Jacko feasted and cocked his head without fright

Natural forces put his survival instincts to the test.

~

He came closer, fluffed his feathers and expressed

His fearlessness filled the gardeners with delight

He was a fledgling jackdaw who’d just left the nest.

~

Jacko hardly seemed to notice that predators exist

He was trusting fellow with his eyes shining bright

Natural forces put his survival instincts to the test.

~

Jacko left and was gone for a day and a night.

Giving His new found friends a terrible fright.

He was a fledgling jackdaw who’d just left the nest.

Natural forces put his survival instincts to the test.

~

Margaret and John taken by a sight full of wonder

Jacko a friendly bird had torn their hearts asunder

He appeared to tease and delight beyond recall

They embraced each other with the kiss that said it all.

© Written by John Yeo

LES BLANCS

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FRIDAY 3rd JULY 2020 

BLOG POST 

   Here is my take on the eye-opening performance of the play ‘Les Blancs’ written by Lorraine Hansberry., currently streaming on YouTube by the National Theatre. I think this is what reality theatre should be highlighting. The unacceptable face of a whitewashed history.

LES BLANCS


    Take a shack, place it in the middle of a revolving stage. Surround it with throbbing beating African music and let the story unfold.
  Except this was no story, this was the largely untold and hidden history of the horror and abject cruelty of racist imperialism. The hidden history of many European countries who colonised parts of Africa and bled the inhabitants dry of resources and treated the inhabitants as slaves or lesser members of humanity. This play obviously focussed on British imperialism, although it was written by an American, Lorraine Hansberry.
  Three African brothers are drawn together to attend the funeral of their Father. The shack represents a mission, where the local hospital is located. At the same moment an American writer arrives to research a book he’s writing on the situation in this unnamed part of Africa. The brothers are all from different spheres of life. The first of the brothers we encounter and who plays a leading role in the play has traveled from the USA, where he is married to a white woman, with whom he has a child. The second brother we meet is a priest who is preaching the white man’s religion and is thoroughly imbued with the white man’s culture. The third brother is a helper in the mission and appears to have a relationship with one of the white medical staff who provides him with alcohol and cigarettes. He is a half brother, conceived as a result of a rape of their Mother by an Army officer.
There are a melange of important characters who make up the white colonial cast, including a blind elderly lady missionary, two doctors, one male and a lady doctor.
The dialogue and the interaction between the various players is a powerful statement of the undercurrents of racism and revolution running through the country at a certain point in time. Revolution against the imperialist invaders is always in the background. The music and the scenes of cold blooded murder, by both the oppressors and the oppressed. There are rumours of white families including babies slaughtered by the rebels as the revolt against imperialism builds apace.
    Watching and recording everything as it happens in this racist microcosm of African life is always the American writer. Observing and questioning the background and behaviour of both the native rebels and the imperialist invaders.
  The language and the portrayal of the white supremacist treatment of the natives is shocking and the murders take place openly. The background culture of the lady missionary and the lady doctor as they try to make sense of an insensitive situation is an education in itself. The military presence is portrayed brilliantly by a cruel, racist military officer who has no qualms about shooting and killing a suspect in cold blood.
  The tension builds as the revolt draws closer and closer to the mission and the white population are ordered to evacuate and leave the area.
  As the American writer leaves, the  lady missionary pleads with him to, ‘Write it and tell it as it is.’
  The play makes its way to the final scenes.  The remaining two brothers are arguing in a passionate scene and the priest is killed by his brother, who returns to his tribal roots and joins the rebels. The revolution arrives with fire as the mission shack is engulfed in flames.
The reality behind this extraordinary play is the hidden history behind the story the author has vividly brought to life. This is the reality of a history that is never taught in schools, perhaps because the establishment is ashamed to draw attention to a past that will always be a stain on the conscience of imperialist colonialism.


  Sadly I think very few people will see this performance as the bulk of the viewers will be too busy watching soaps to tune in.

© Written by John Yeo

SUMMER SOLSTICE

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Image was a screenshot I took from the English Heritage live video.

SATURDAY 20th JUNE 2020 ~ BLOG POST

SUMMER SOLSTICE

by John Yeo

  Today is Midsummer day and the celebration of the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge, in Wiltshire. I’ve never had the opportunity to enjoy the pleasure of experiencing this amazing sight in reality. To my delight, English Heritage announced they would be setting up a live stream to enable people to view and virtually celebrate the Solstice at Stonehenge. We tuned in to YouTube and set the live video stream going. At first it seemed to be something of an anticlimax. The sky above the iconic stones was quite cloudy at 21:10; sunset was predicted to be a 21:27. There was no commentary but the camera occasionally panned around the standing stones. At one angle the setting solstice sun was quite bright and obviously the view from the other side was almost black, full of interesting evening shadows. I remarked to Margaret that it would probably feel quite uncomfortable if you were there alone.  

 The wealth of mysterious legends and fables based around Stonehenge are enough to fill the culpable mind full of awesome dread of Stonehenge. The Druids are a religious sect who once used Stonehenge as a temple, in fact I believe the modern day equivalent Druids still use the ancient stones. The famous sacrificial stone is a highlight of every visit, although there is no direct evidence it was ever used for sacrifice. 

  The sunset was incredibly dark and obscured by a cloudy sky. 

The sunrise in the morning will be at 04:52 and should certainly be more of a spectacle.

Sunday 21st June 2020

I woke up in time to view the live stream video of the sunrise over Stonehenge. The sun rose at 04:52 but unfortunately the sky was covered with thick clouds and the spectacular sunrise didn’t occur.

I snapped a screenshot from the live video. Sadly a gray dreary start.

HAPPY SOLSTICE!

Another screenshot of the unspectacular Summer Solstice sunrise.
I downloaded this image from the internet to remind me of things that might have been.

© Written by John Yeo ~ All rights reserved.

A SMALL ISLAND

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Image from the net credited to the Financial Times.

FRIDAY 19th JUNE 2020 ~ BLOG POST

A SMALL ISLAND 

by John Yeo

  We watched a performance of ‘A Small Island,’ screened by the National Theatre. This is a play based on a novel by Andrea Levy, who sadly passed away from Cancer before she was able to see it. 

   This play is based on the Windrush scandal. A reflection of the time when many people from Jamaica in the West Indies arrived in England as citizens. Many of these people had earned their citizenship by fighting for their colonial Mother country of England during the Second World War. Jamaica was a colony of the British Empire and this gave these people the right to take up citizenship in Britain. 

 The play focussed on a few unfortunate people who had arrived in England from their homes in Jamaica to live and work. 

 The play started in the West Indies by highlighting the shortage of employment and the frequent hurricanes and tropical storms that afflict Jamaica. England became something of a paradise, where jobs and houses were freely available and the expectations of these people’s dreams were clearly evident.

 Some had dreams of taking up professional careers or joining the forces when they reached England. 

 The play focused partly on one couple. The man Gilbert, joined the Air Force and had plans to study to become a lawyer. The scene when he was interviewed for his career was illuminating as he was promised a high position. This never materialised as he was immediately placed in a menial position as a driver. The first example of the huge letdown most of these people would experience. 

  A young light skinned, half caste lady, named Hortense, wanted to go to England but single young women were discouraged from applying and she was at her wits end. The only way she could get accepted was to go through a marriage ceremony with her friend Gilbert who would then send for her as his wife. Hortense was a teacher and she planned to continue her teaching profession in England.

   Meanwhile Gilbert had settled in England and after he had left the Air Force, he desperately tried to get a job. He had little success, due to the overt racism of the times. He was subjected to some terrible racial abuse during his employment and was attacked at his place of work. 

  He tried everywhere to secure some comfortable accommodation to rent but once again ingrained racism reared its ugly head with landlords refusing to let their properties to black people. He finally managed to rent a shabby one-roomed bedsit from a landlady named, Queenie, who desperately needed the income from a few rooms in her house and she was happy to accept black and coloured people. 

   Eventually Gilbert sent for Hortense, who arrived and was shocked to discover the living conditions in the bedsit. 

 The racism and the trials and tribulations this couple went through were harrowing to say the least. This story is riddled with some obnoxious scenes of the horrible challenges facing black people in England during this period.

 Queenie, the landlady gives birth to a black child, the result of a liaison with a former tenant. Meanwhile her husband had unexpectedly returned from a forces posting in India and is revealed to be an extreme racist. He demands that Gilbert and Hortense get out of his house immediately.

 Gilbert and Hortense find somewhere else to live and the play finishes with Queenie, the landlady, begging them to take her black child with them as she believed this would be the only way her child could ever expect to be accepted into British society.

 I was vaguely aware of the so-called Windrush scandal, when thousands of black people arrived in England looking for a better life. This eye-opening play revealed the shocking depths of racism that was ingrained throughout society at that period in time. I’m sure there are residues of these cruel, unfortunate, unforgivable attitudes running through all strands of our society still. I think by screening this play the National Theatre has done a powerful service to the Black Lives Matter campaign.

Written by John Yeo ~ All rights reserved.