Cordelia is keeping a virtual menagerie of the wild & wonderful insects & animals we are seeing:
- Ants - big, small, enormous, red, black, yellow, brown, so numerous & so organised. They are truly amazing.
- Bats - or Batageddon - bats are everywhere! They swoop for a drink of pool water while we are swimming, flying really low & close, seemingly without any fear of us. On a couple of occasions it has been quite biblical
- Bumblebees - huge, bright yellow bees in Myanmar & enormous black bumblebees in Cambodia
- Cats - everywhere - especially in monastries. In the floating monastry in Inle Lake there are some cats that perform for treats. They used to be known as the dancing cats as the monks had trained them to perform for cash but that was considered unseemly so now they don't really dance, just move it bit. There are hundreds of cats slinking everywhere.
- Chameleons in a park in Siem Reap, changing colour as they moved out of bushes (green) to rubbish mounds (brown) to forage for food. This has been amazing to see
- Cows, bulls, bullocks, sheep, goats - wandering all over the road at will in Myanmar & Cambodia. Bullocks are still used to pull ploughs in Myanmar & have fluorescent leads in Kampot as they are walked up & down the roads.
- Dogs - mangy, barky, scary dogs roam streets everywhere.
- Dragonflies - enormous & persistent. They buzz in droves.
- Elephants - offering rides at the temples in Siem Reap - $20 for 15 minutes. There's lots of controversy about elephants in SE Asia with maltreatment an obvious issue. Several conservation parks are being set up. It all comes down to money though, everyone is trying to make a dollar the best way they know how.
- Flamingos - beautiful & statuesque in a park in Hong Kong.
- Geckos - everywhere. They are fast but also statues when eyeing their prey. We love watching them.
- Horses - pulling carts in Myanmar & Cambodia; providing temple tours in Bagan (very uncomfortable but ye olde worldy); horses to pose upon at Angkor Wat
- Monkeys - on Mt Popa stealing food; in temples playing near Buddha; near Angkor Wat playing in the trees; in Phnom Penh sitting on electricity wires
- Waterboatmen - gorgoeus spiders gliding along the top of pools of water. These clever guys kept us entertained for ages in the Inle Lake Novotel pool
No comments:
Post a Comment