Gallery: The Tourist marvel that is the Surin Elephant Roundup!

On our way out we were kidnapped by school kids interviewing farangs for their school project. A friendly bunch, we were even given a present to say thanks for participating!

On our way out we were kidnapped by school kids interviewing farangs for their school project. A friendly bunch, we were even given a present to say thanks for participating!21-Nov-2009 05:13, Panasonic DMC-TZ6, 4.0, 4.1mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 80

Our arrival in Thailand conveniently (and completely unintentionally) coincided with the annual Surin Elephant Roundup, a huge event for the area apparently. A chance to see some local excitement and our first elephants outside of a zoo sucked us across to East Thailand to Surin in our first Thai train, armed with nothing more than our guidebook and a smile. On our way we met a documentary crew hoping to scratch the festival’s surface, discovered why Wikipedia describes Surin as having a ‘substantial population of expatriate westerners married to local women’, and saw an elephant commit a blatant ‘trunk-ball’ without even receiving a yellow card. Continue reading Gallery: The Tourist marvel that is the Surin Elephant Roundup!…

First 24hrs in Rio! Includes such delights as Copacabana Beach and Rio water…

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We’re here, we’ve done it, we’ve hightailed it out of the UK in style – chauffeur driven (thanks Dad!), drinking Champagne (thanks Jenny!) and were then plied with alcohol and stuffed with food (thanks British Airways!). A late night packing and an early morning cleaning meant that finally getting on the flight was a sigh of relief. But… what was Rio going to be like? Would our hostel be crawling with roaches? Would British Airways lose our bags? Would we end up on a deserted island a la Lost?!

Continue reading First 24hrs in Rio! Includes such delights as Copacabana Beach and Rio water……