2008.03.09

Thailand, day 1. Arrived in Bangkok late on March 8th, and was met at the airport by Dr. Karn Lekugal, vet at Dusit Zoo in Bangkok. He and a driver took me to Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi, about an hour southeast of Bangkok. The zoo is huge, and most of the staff live on grounds. We went to the tourist accomodations, small rooms with AC and a bathroom - it was a bit odd that to get to my room, I had to walk through the public men's room, but oh well. I was happy enough to have a bed after my zillion-hour flight!

Awakened this morning to the sound of tokay geckos calling. Ate breakfast on a nice terrace overlooking the ocean (in the distance) and a nifty banana tree, which I photographed for Henry. Lots of geckos, butterflies, and wonderful bird calls.

After breakfast, learned that we were moving from the tourist to the staff accomodations. The zoo has a ton of houses, where - aside from the bathrooms and paths for walking - the entire floor is covered with mattresses. There are no kitchens or laundry or living rooms, just places to sleep. Thai people don't usually use toilet paper, so there are little vegetable sprayers on the wall beside each toilet (at least they are sit-down rather than squat toilets!).

Met Dr. Mitchell Bush and his wife, Lanna May. Dr. Bush is from the National Zoo in DC and is here for a few years helping train the vet staff. Toured the zoo with Ding Kongprom, the bird curator, and was thrilled (and sort of amazed) to be able to walk right up to Willy, a male Indian elephant, who was chained but not in an enclosure.

Later, I had some SPICY pad thai for lunch (my hosts laughed. Apparently, it wasn't spicy), then went into town with Ding to grab some bottled water, pop, cookies, and TP (vegetable sprayer?! I think not!) Then home to bed - after a quick scan of the house to be sure I wasn't sleeping on any of my house mates - like great big spiders or geckos!