Dear all

Well as I’m sure some of you know I am back in England, well Scotland actually at my mums, same difference. So I will have to arrange to meet up with you all at some point.

I just wanted you update you on my travels since Ko Samui, plus finish my blogs properly.

When I was in Koh Samui I decided to go on a full day Safari to do what I’ve been dying to do since I started travelling, swim in a waterfall in the mountains before I left for Bangkok. The company that was recommended to me was Mr. Ungs magical safari tours. Their safari sounded a great way to see the island.

The full day safari took me to the popular tourist places like; the famous Grandmother and Grandfather rocks, which are genital looking rock formations, the mummyfied monk wearing sunglasses in a temple, this is where I also saw tattooed smoking monks, swimming in a waterfall, climbing bumpy hills in a 4 X 4, where we got so dusty, elephant trekking through a jungle, and finally seeing the sunset at the Big Buddha. All this was very worthwhile as well as having a delicious thai lunch with beautiful mountainous views of Samui. Unfortuantley reality set in as I realised this safari was a huge money making scheme and so the Mummyfied Monk seemed like a made up story. But then I witnessed some distressing animal shows which made me feel ashamed to be a tourist.

I was ushered around from after a 10 minute trek on an elephant that was probably on its 100th lap of carrying holiday makers around, to watch elephant, monkey and crocodile shows. As I watched a baby elephant perform tricks like, hand stands, walking on its back legs whilst spinning a hula hoop around its trunk, playing football, tug of war and finally playing a harmonica, I questioned whether its trainer was treating it well and to be fair it seemed to be happy enough and enjoyed performing in front of a crowd. We then went onto watch a very distressing monkey show where the monkeys wore make-up and small glitzy childrens clothes. One monkey pretended to sing, another fought with swords and another spun fire sticks around which is when I saw his burnt hand. The monkey seemed slightly scared and unsure of what his trainer was asking him to do. Then I was ushered to a crocodile areana where two thai men persisted on putting their hands, and heads into the crocs mouths. Secretly I wanted them to snap them! But they seemed very submissive!!!

So after this safari I don’t think I would recommend going on a tour that involved animal shows. I did mention the monkeys burnt hand to the place where I booked the trip, but it was just dismissed and didn’t want to cause a scene. I realised this tour is a huge revenue for the island and so if I did decide to report it, one: the monkey might be sacked, two: another monkey would end up being retrained, three: if I influence people not to go on this tour what will happen to all these animals, where would they go, who would look after them etc!!! I know I am having this argument in my head and so I decided to leave it and just know never to go on a tour like that ever again and for other people to make their own minds up about the tour.

well take care now.