Buddha at Koh Kret
I was well paid and this enabled me to travel away from Bangkok - to Chiang Mai in the north down to Koh Lanta and Koh Phangan in the south. And I went to Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia and across the Andaman Sea to Sri Lanka. Great adventures. So many memories.
I would love to travel some more. However, this damned pandemic has put the dampeners on those notions and in the meantime I am growing older. Of course, there will come a day when independent faraway adventures are no longer possible for me so the passing of these coronavirus months has very much felt like observing precious sand running through an hour glass.
Me with a tiger at Tiger Kingdom in April 2011
This post was ignited by unearthing photographs I had stored on our desktop computer.
An old window in Bangkok
I did! I did! I did taw a puddy tat! That is pretty cool though, YP.
ReplyDeleteThat big pussy seemed to enjoy being stroked.
DeleteCovid has made me want to travel more than I normally would, just because I can't. I want to visit my cousins, the Caribbean, Europe, especially southern France and Italy and Holland of course. The big guy is dutch. It feels like time is slipping away and that I'm just treading water.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it's so nice to see a photo of you and the photos of the beach make me want to travel to Thailand as well.
Well, I never knew that The Big Guy was Dutch. Does he wear clogs?
DeleteDo you know what they say about the Dutch? Wooden shoes, wooden head, wouldn't listen.
DeleteHe's Dutch heritage. His parents came here after the war and settled here. The big guy worked for Philips for 30 years so spent a lot of time in Holland.
I have never traveled that direction, but like all our planet, it must be fascinating and beautiful. I remember another post you did about your time at the school there, you showed us the cards and posters your students made for you when you left. Teaching students who appreciate you and your work must be such a rewarding job!
ReplyDeleteHaving taught for so many years in an area with significant social deprivation and all that that entails, teaching at St Stephen's was dreamlike Meike.
DeleteWhat a cracking photo. Is that Tiger the Secretary of Bangkok Hull City FC Supporters Club YP?
ReplyDeleteNo, he's our main striker. Causes havoc in the opposition's penalty box.
DeleteA marvellous opportunity for you. Is that Ursula Andress striding up the beach towards you?
ReplyDeleteUrsula Andress is now 85 years old. She would be coming up the beach on a mobility scooter.
DeleteMess like that with tigers and you won't have any more days of doing anything. Or was there a guy with a rifle just out of the picture?
ReplyDeleteI asked the zoo keeper if I could go in the cage as I have a way with animals - just like Dr Dolittle.
DeleteDid you have your way with the tiger?
DeleteYoung people legitimately complain about the loss of 2020 and now into 2021 with their lives. We who have finite years of fitness to travel have also lost a lot. I now know I will never ride a tram in Prague or travel on the train through Dawlish on my way to St Ives where we will stay in perfect accommodation overlooking the sea.
ReplyDeleteYou understood my point completely. Thank you Andrew.
DeleteHow fortunate to have had that experience; being well paid to work in Paradise!
ReplyDeleteI have visited various places in the Far East and enjoyed each of them. I feel sad that it is now highly unlikely that I will have that opportunity again.
I am not sure that it was wise of you to get quite so close to that tiger, YP.
No need to worry JayCee. If that tiger had attacked me I would have made mincemeat of him.
DeleteAn old window in Bangkok is a stunning photo. Of course the two tigers are as well. Lucky traveling days, I do miss them.
ReplyDeleteI have the money and I still have the hunger to travel but COVID has drawn everything to a halt for all of us and anywayhow will it be when COVID has eventually been pushed back in its box?
DeleteYou are so lucky to have had so many wonderful opportunities to travel. I'm beginning to fear that I'll never have a chance to see much of the world. I like the photo of you petting the tiger!
ReplyDeleteIf you want it badly enough Jennifer, I believe you could have a travelling adventure. You are still just a young lass.
DeleteFunnily enough it doesn't worry me, thinking about non-travel it is all on the web if you want to travel and we have memories to look back on as well. But you looked as if you had a great time in Thailand.
ReplyDeleteIn unfamiliar territory I usually feel more alive than ever.
DeleteDo you ever think that you're like your father in that you got these marvelous adventures to ponder back on forever?
ReplyDeleteTyping the account up has made me realise that I am more like him than I thought. My mother had the travel bug even more than my father.
DeleteIf the tiger has got an Off Switch you surely found it, Yorky.
ReplyDeletePhoebe will gaze on this photo in years to come: My Gramps the Tiger Whisperer !
The Buddha at Koh Kret is agreeably weathered and has such straight shoulders.
As a young man I was moved by the shoulders of girls I dated whether their shoulders were straight as a swimmer's or aslant as a Madonna's: I liked their vertebrae too, and the clavicle or collar bone is a masterpiece of evolution.
Would I have made an orthopedic surgeon? Nope. More of a failed John Updike.
Christopher Eccleston's memoirs *I Love the Bones of You* is a braw read.
I await your own memoirs, *The Sheffield Curlew and Other Larks* which I shall review in The Oldie.
You think Freddie Raphael is a destroyer of talents?
Call me Vishnu or Ishmael or just plain Hamel(d).
Vishnu? Ishmael? "By What Name Shall I Call Thee?" by Michael A. Singer sung by· Kathy Zavada.
DeleteWhat wonderful adventures you've had YP - and such wonderful memories to call on at times like this. You must write them all down so that young Phoebe will know just what a seasoned traveller you were - just like her great Grandpa!
ReplyDeleteOver the years I have been fortunate enough to travel to most places I really wanted to see, along with some I'd rather not have! When we're free to travel again, I'd like to re-visit one or two of my favourites - though there is the old saying that you should never go back. If I'm honest, I no longer have the burning desire to travel too far afield, but maybe that will change if things ever get back to normal.
For some time to come, even when we're allowed to travel again, I think many people will be worried about the possibility of another Covid lurking in the shadows.
If that free travelling feeling ever returns it will take a long while. I agree with you on that point. Have you been to Cleckheaton?
DeleteNot that I can recall - does it have a nice beach with fancy sun umbrellas and lots of ice cream parlours?
DeleteNo. Cleckheaton is not like that. Not like that at all. But it does have what is reputed to be the world's biggest curry restaurant. Only the most intrepid of travellers venture to Cleckheaton. There be dragons.
DeleteCool pictures, although I don't think I would get that close to a tiger. Unless it was anesthetized. :) I'm sure we'll all be traveling again eventually, but it IS hard to watch all this time pass with no opportunity to see the world. I miss traveling too. It was one of the main reasons we moved to England!
ReplyDeleteThe world was our oyster but now the two parts of the shell are sealed tightly together.
DeleteFirst time commenting here (been lurking for a while), but I'm a travel fanatic too. Since my divorce 10 years ago I've done 12 "solos" trips and have loved every one of them, getting to see so many of the places that finances didn't allow me to visit when married and raising a family. Actually I was just talking to my friend today and telling him I can't decide if first on my list once this damn pandemic is over will be either Mexico or Thailand. But I get what you're saying, I think there definitely comes an age where you can't handle the long distances. Thankfully I'm not there yet but ....
ReplyDeleteLet us hope that both of us can travel some more as this damned virus is driven back into its cave. Thanks for calling by Treaders.
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