A Brit in The Orient.

Just as a final throw for tonight, I came across these whilst searching for the marijuana and poppy field snaps.

Be careful who you tell about these.

I have a habit of getting myself in enough trouble as it is, without having it added too




The one above is well below ground in Vietnam, many years ago, the room you are viewing is a hospital room.

The soldier was guarding it very seriously, but allowed me somewhat reluctantly to take a snap.



This one actually shows an underground operating theatre, talk about back to basics, the parachute was placed there to try and keep the place clean, it had been stolen for this purpose from the Americans.






Unless I inform you differently every photograph I show you has been taken by myself or my wife.

The guy below was actually making a pipe of opium up for somebody to try.

You don't see many photographs like this do you.

A snapshot of some marijuana, I have some much better photographs than this one and when I turn them up I will let you have sight of the same.

Working elephants, I absolutely adore these animals. My wife too, and there is a tale to tell regarding an experience we had once upon a time in The East.





This beauty looked great and the mahout appeared happy with his little lot.

Some years ago, Flobo was almost trampled by a mother cow though.
We were trekking in northern Thailand and stayed overnight in a large 'longhouse' virtually attached to a working jungle Elephant camp, high in the mountains. There were numerous elephants there.

One of the cows had a thirty five day old calf by the river, we had arrived at the camps just prior to nightfall, well knackered, sticky and sweaty etc. We took a bath in the river, the water was really cold, straight from the snowy mountains no doubt.

We dined well and retired to the 'longhouse' for the night, there was a fire burning on the floor which I kept going all night, it really went down to freezing during the night and we would have been very cold indeed without the fire, out bags were only light.

The following morning we saw the baby calf with mother cow by the river, she was drinking and spraying herself, the calf was under her front legs taking milk.
Flobo went down with the camera, she got quite close and took a snap, it was not full daylight and the camera flash startled the calf which cried out.

The cow raised her trunk, bellowed and ran at Flobo, she in turn ran like hell and leaped up the banking, the cow stopped there, it was only a few feet from her and although I was running towards her, there would have been nothing I could have done had it got to her.

It was quite an experience and we still get the 'strange feeling' when we think back to that episode in life.

I think I have a photograph of the cow and calf somewhere, I will enter it up in due course.

The next shot is of two more working elephants in the mountain area.

Sorry about some of the past photographs going missing.

Apparently it's my fault, I thought I was getting too clogged up with the number I had transferred from my collection to my Photobucket Album and deleted a few from the album which I had posted, hoping it would speed the transfer of new installations up. It didn't and those I deleted from the album have automatically been deleted from these pages.

I'll sort it out when I get a bit more time.

SORRY.

Modern technology huh!

This was a strange set up. Tucked away high in the mountains, some kind of still I think.

We came across it like you do most unusual things, purely by accident.





Flobo went down whilst I kept a good look out from the higher ground and she showed them the camera, gave the lady at the house a few baht and asked if we could take some photographs. There was no problem, but we still were not certain as to exactly what was going on and decided it must be some form of moonshine factory.

In any event it was certainly a good set up of mechanical ingenuity.

Henry Ford would have been proud of that little lot.

It wasn't just the sound of the engine on the little tractor unit driving all the presses and grinders etc but the fire belching away and the slurping noises made it somewhat unusual and unique in it's obvious originality to us.





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It never ceases to totally amaze me as to how the originality of the creators of these cottage industries set themselves up.

It could have been just about anything at all that they were making.

Truth as they say, is much stranger than fiction.

Some people say a man is made outta' mud
A poor man's made outta' muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong

You load sixteen tons, what do ya get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number 9 coal
And the straw boss said "Well, a-bless my soul"

You load sixteen tons, what do ya get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain
Fightin' and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the canebrake by an ol' mama lion
Can't no-a high-toned woman make me walk the line

You load sixteen tons, what do ya get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

If you see me comin', better step aside
A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't getcha, then the left one will

You load sixteen tons, what do ya get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store.


They were great words and a great song.

I've felt like that since I came back from LOS.

Grand though isn't it.

I still enjoy a good days manual work though, the harder the better, I feel its like going to the gym and does me good.

I still help out at the Boxing Gym four nights a week I get a great deal of enjoyment from that too.

But it's five until seven thirty or eight o'clock if we run a little late, then by the time I get home and have a bite to eat, its got to nine o'clock before I can get on here.

Then before i know it its bloody bed time.

Some nights if there are contests on it can be midnight by the time I get home. Have to make sure the young lads are delivered safely to their parents, we can travel up to a hundred mile for a major contest as well. Weekends can also be taken up with contests, especially the Schoolboy Championships.

Anyhow, I'm simply trying to explain why I cannot give the thread as much time as I would like to.

There is so much to write about and so many pictures to show.

Cambodia, which I spent a great deal of time in last year and prior to that, has so many extremely interesting topics.

The Killing Fields.

Angkor Wat

Tonle Sap Lake

The actual country and people.

Umphang in Thailand.

Mae Sot and so much more information and photographs I obtained from the refugee camps in the area. Absolutely brilliant stuff.

The loony on River Island who tried to rob me!

Kanchanaburi.. Brilliant stuff again.

All good fun and more besides.


This was a simple route up a waterfall but it was a great climb for us both in the heat of the day.

Photographs rekindle good memories.

I have just been looking at a few more photographs of the "Still"

It's amazing what a photograph can show up if you study the same for a while.

The white stuff she is playing with, could be coconut I suppose, but I doubt it.
There is quite a bit of interesting stuff on these photographs take a close look yourselves and study them. The pen and notebook look interesting for a "Still" in the middle of nowhere. A packet that looks like a bag of plastic bags on the deck.

Allo! allo! allo! What's going on here then?




The next one gets better.





I'll let you come to your own conclusions.

It rather looks to me like the shack could be their place of residence too.

I have noticed the locals using mosquito nets much more this year, the problematical diseases are obviously becoming an issue again.





This is quite a decent snap of the working machinery too.






I rather think the contents of the wok, the scales and all the other paraphernalia are somewhat enlightening myself.

This guy looked a real character even to the tattoo on his torso.

I got the feeling he was on another planet to be honest with you.

We treated him in any event and Flobo also gave him some of the fresh fruit we were carrying at the time.





I would love to buy one of these 'Old Isuzu' wagons. I think they are brilliant.
I have been looking at a few whilst over in LOS and hopefully I will have one sorted for the current year.

However, if you see one in your area in good running order going really cheap, let me know.

I was checking out some old hard copy photographs earlier, this one compliments the one I put up a night or two back of the Vietnamese Army underground operating table, it is a cabinet containing all the operating equipment and tools for amputations etc.





This would have been a very cleverly disguised entrance to a section of the underground tunnels.





Other entrances had traps with spiked bamboo sticking up which would have been coated with human excrement to ensure infection of any cut or piercing etc.

Nasty.

Just came across one of Flobo crossing a river on a man made teak log tree trunk.

We have done a few of these over the years.

This particular one had been blessed with foot holes being chopped into the same, in the wet season, or following a shower or morning dew even, the same can be treacherous.





Just to let you see we haven't always been golden oldies either, this one is a few years back taken in Mae Sarian after a few days in no mans land.

This is a photograph of the baby elephant 35 week old that was the source of Flobo almost being trampled. Beautiful little creature though and the mother was simply doing what all mothers would do.

Hell am I glad it came to a halt though.





Below is a photograph from inside 'The Longhouse' were we stayed high in the mountains overnight and kept the fire burning.

There are some great memories






The feet on the other side of the fire belonged to the lady of the house.

I just think the photograph below is fantastic, we were heading toward a village on the river which you can just about see the first sign of a dwelling on the left of the river bank. They also helped us out by selling us a raft to continue our journey.

Great photograph here too from The Mae Hong Son area, gorgeous views in this area and so lush.






When I say we stay in some pretty rough places in the mountains, I mean it, really mean it, there are no 'Holiday Inn' facilities if you follow the trails I take Flobo on. The thing is, if you want to get the experience and find out what is going on then there is only one way to do it.





So she deserves something like Tara once in a while.

Bamboo rafting on a fast flowing river high in the mountains, is quite a majical experience. It can be hair raising if you career out of control and spin like a top, finally crashing into rocks or banking too.

Our guide and 'raft master' on this occasion was Joss. He was a great guy, (most of them are) and a brilliant guide. During the evenings when we were camping up, he would whittle away for hours on bamboo and pieces of teak, he made us a fork each out of bamboo and some small animal shapes, we still have them.








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We stayed in this hut, but we had a fire burning outside before morning, the hut was alive with every bug that ever bit and lived on human flesh. We couldn't take it all night, it was bloody awful. Cold outside too. We lit a fire, and washed down as best we could from some containers of water with added bleach in. (We always carry bleach), wiped our bodies over with some whiskey and gave the sleeping bags a wipe out with the mixed water and bleach solution. We aired them by the fire for a while and settled down outside until daylight.

There is something quite unique in obtaining experiences of this nature.




A family here doing the weekly wash in the river, husband (probably husband) on guard. These are dangerous locations, children are stolen in these mountain areas on a regular basis.






We also spent a night in this humble abode, it wasn't anything like the previous one but the owner was like a grotesque Neanderthal man, positively inhuman and I mean that.




Apparently he had done this to his dog with a machete at some earlier stage of its life and just left it to heal of its own accord.

I'll put some photographs and give you a little write up on Tara later this evening after the Manu U v Barcelona game.

Isn't this a view though, what do you think?





Mae Hong Son early morning. A table top plateau 'The Land that time forgot'

Actually it is a really beautiful area of Thailand.

My wife really loves it there, after some of the mountain places we stayed in and there were some rough ones, believe me. I usually treat her to a few special days in Tara.

Tara is a beautiful resort. We always take a suite, I managed to get a good deal. I'll stick a few photographs on and show you what I mean.

Nice place all round.





The veranda overlooks the pool which is also nice, I'll find some photographs of the same.




Full kitchen facilities on the other side of the breakfast bar as well,






Everything you need, service second to none.

Below is the pool at Tara, the water is taken direct from the river and it is extremely cold, even on the hottest of days, you never find too many people hanging about in there. If you enjoy a good swim and aren't too bothered by very cold water (I happen to like it that way) then it's a great spot for an uninterrupted swimming session.





The grounds as you can see below are very nice and extremely well maintained.