DAY 7. One week in.
After breakfast Pharanee and I get a chance to walk around and I am introduced properly to some of the
characters that reside here. The sun is out and it seems like a fine day to take photos. No-one told Jane this! She is a rather formidable female who almost rips my lens right off within about 4 minutes of my tour.After lunch Ta Win and I head back into Mae Sot to get the rest of the materials and another layer of paint is put on. While we are away some of the lads make another set of Monkey/Ape bars/escalators. I reckon it won’t be long until all the enclosures have them as there is an abundance of Bamboo to be used. I have requested some 8m long triple beam ones for the new enclosures.
DAY 9. Sunday 23/11/2008
Stephanie and I accompanied Pharanee to a Buddhist Temple in the hills today. It is a
beautiful place and we all left feeling quite serene. The Temple was decorated by one man who was apparently completely bonkers. He had long matted hair and wore a white sheet, the kind that is normally used to wrap up the dead! After 13 years the work was complete and the result is amazing.DAY 10. Monkey nuts for Monkey puzzles!
Today I made a puzzle for the monkeys then realized we had no nuts to put in it! So after lunch, Pharanee took me to the nearby markets to buy some vegetables and a bag of Monkey nuts/peanuts. We bought pumpkins, green beans, frilly beans, pak choi,
bananas, mandarins and aubergine. We then went to the Sunday market, which is on everyday, and bought some morning glory, which the Gibbons love. I also picked up a bag of freshly dug up and boiled monkey nuts which are so much more tasty than the dried out things we wind up with in the U.K.I try out the monkey puzzle on the young Gibbons first but they weren’t too impressed and just kept tipping the nuts onto the ground! The monkeys, on the other hand, were intrigued. They checked out the puzzle from every angle and then started to stick their arms up the big hole to try and grab them. It was great to see the concentration on some of their faces. I just need to make a few adjustments and a few more puzzles and then they can all have a go.
DAY 11. Drama-rama.
So, last night we had a burglary. After breakfast Nok went to double check the materials against the receipt. She discovered that 10 of our 1-½ inch crossbeams had been stolen, around 3000Baht ($100) worth. There were clear footprints against the wall to the land next door. The neighbour is actually away at the moment so somebody has come across his land from the nearby village. I had been out just before dusk 2 days ago and saw someone with a ladder up against a shed next door exactly where the materials have been taken from. I didn’t think anything of it at the time so I didn’t mention it to anyone. I also heard a funny metallic noise at around midnight last night, which I did mention to Pharanee this morning. She told me that there is a Garage nearby and sometimes they work late. We didn’t think any more about it.
I went with Pharanee to the nearby Police station and we had a chat with a very lively chap who was happy to help. He, and a colleague, came back to Highland Farm with us and had a good look at the boundaries. He knows a couple of the local crooks so he reckons he will let us know in 2 days if he finds them.
After that I start work on a model hatch and runway so that Ta Win has a blueprint to copy when I have gone. Pharanee is attending a funeral in Chiang Mai this weekend so I have the time off to explore the area and be a tourist. This means that, including today, I only have 6 full days left at Highland Farm!
Keri ;o)
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