In this week’s exciting post, Sienna presents to us Thailand–a place full of smiles and beautiful culture. Sienna speaks from personal experience. She lived in and around Bangkok for eight months. Her favorite part of the experience? The animals! – Editor: Oliver Martinez
By Sienna Price, World Traveler
Welcome. This week I will be talking about Thailand, the animals living in many of its ecosystems, and my personal experiences with these animals. Also, I will be touching on Thai traditions and festivals. Thailand is known by many people as the land of smiles. This is because in Thailand there are 13 different smiles with 13 different meanings! There’s a very happy smile, a polite smile for someone you don’t know; there’s a stiff smile for when someone tells a really bad joke, a sad smile, and there’s even a smile when you want to say sorry.
Thai festivals
Thailand has many festivals and national holidays. Almost every month, I had a couple days off school due to a national holiday or festival. The Songkran festival is one of the biggest festivals in Thailand and one of my favorites. Songkran – also known as the Water Splashing Festival – is a celebration to mark the start of the Buddhist New Year in April. The Thai people celebrate the day of Songkran with water balloons and water guns. If you don’t want to get wet, don’t leave your house. There is a national water fight all over Thailand!
Loy Krathong is one of the most picturesque festivals in Bangkok. In November, people gather around lakes, rivers, and canals to pay respects to the goddess of water by releasing beautiful lotus-shaped rafts, decorated with candles, incense and flowers into the water (hotels.com).
Macaques
When someone says Thailand, I immediately think of monkeys. In Thailand there are thousands of monkeys, especially macaques. You don’t tend to see monkeys in the bustle of Bangkok, but drive one hour outside the city and there are thousands. I lived in Hua Hin, which is about a three and a half hour drive from Bangkok. In Hua Hin, it’s mostly jungle and temples. You see monkeys on both sides of the road, in the foliage, and everywhere. The median lifespan of macaques in the wild is less than 15 years (nc3rs.org.uk). In captivity, macaques can live for over 25 years. Most Thai people see the monkeys as pests because they steal their food and other belongings. Most days, you hear people clanging pots and pans around to scare them off! I got too close once and angered a macaque. It ran right at me. Macaque’s mostly eat fruit (and yes they do love bananas), but they can also eat seeds, leaves, flowers, and tree bark. I have even once seen a macaque riding on the back of a motorcycle!
Asian Elephants
If you’re going to Thailand, one of the main things to do is go to an elephant sanctuary. In Thai, elephant is chang. In Chiang Mai in northern Thailand there are loads of them, but you have to be careful that you go to an actual rescue center. There are many that claim to be an elephant sanctuary rescuing elephants from tourist attractions that treat them cruelly, but really they are exploiting them. In Thailand there is an estimated number of 3,000 to 4,000 elephants, and more than half of them are domesticated, the rest wild (elephantnaturepark.org). Asian elephants eat mainly fruits and vegetables but also eat grass. When I went to the elephant sanctuary, the hosts told us “the average elephant eats 300 pounds of food in a day”! The Asian elephants weigh 6,000 to 8,000 lbs.
King Cobra
The king cobra as some of you might know is one of the most venomous snakes in the world. I was once sitting on my deck in Thailand around the pool, and one slithered up from one of the broken deck panels. I instantly recognized its large face. I jumped up and slowly backed away. Straight away we called the maintenance staff, and, without hesitation, staff members went under the deck with only their cell phone flashlights and a stick! They found nothing but told us to look out. Luckily, we did not get a visit from the snake again. If you get bitten by a king cobra and don’t seek medical attention in an hour you will die of paralysis to the heart and lungs. It is recommended that if you see a snake in or around your property you take a picture of it and look for it on the internet. Most of the time in Thailand it is just the common golden tree snake which is hardly venomous, but it is always good to check.
Thailand is a great place to visit with loads of sightseeing activities and great food. You do need to be aware of Thai cultures and traditions so as to avoid offending. Most locals will recognize you as a tourist. There are many poisonous bugs and animals that you also need to be aware of. So, if you’re planning a trip to Thailand, do your research.
Thanks for reading!
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