Earth and World

Castles of Sand

A Book to Read

A large crowd of monkeys has been filmed brawling over a pot of yoghurt in a street in the “monkey city” of Lopburi, Thailand. The collapse of tourists amid the COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in far fewer people offering them food. However, even in better times, when monkeys were well fed, it was an uneasy walking in Lopburi: monkeys everywhere and houses closed behind bars till the top. I can’t forget when one time while waiting for the crosslight, a big monkey gently but firmly tried to take away my Lonely Planet.

A Chip and a Chair

A passenger sits alone at a waiting room at the Hua Lamphong railway station in Bangkok, Thailand. Photo: Sakchai Lalit/AP.

All Around the Track

A woman poses for a picture in a rusty “supermini” class car parked on the street as a tourist attraction in Bangkok, Thailand. Photo: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters.

King Kong

Tourists pose for pictures lying down on the new glass deck of the King Power MahaNakhon (คิง เพาเวอร์ มหานคร) skycraper in Bangkok, Thailand. The MahaNakhon building, currently Thailand’s tallest at 314 meters (1,030 feet) tall with 78 floors, has a 360-degree view of Bangkok. Photo: AP/Sakchai Lalit.

Encaenia

A participant leads a buffalo to the start line during the annual buffalo races in Chonburi, Thailand. Photo: AFP/Jewel Samad.

Restless Farewell

A Malaysian sunbear lounges with crows in an enclosure on the last day of opening at Dusit Zoo in Bangkok. Thailand’s oldest and most famous animal park closed on 30 September after 80 years of operation. Photo: Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP/Getty Images.

Tales of the Champs

Pictured above are the eleven Thai boys, plus their coach, who, against all odds, won the Soccer World Cup final! Composite: Various.

Narongsak Osottanakorn, head of the rescue mission, attends a news conference in the northern province of Chiang Rai. Photo: Tyrone Siu/Reuters.

As Hikmet said, “Believe in the wheat, in the land, in the sea, but first of all, believe in man”

Indian schoolchildren in Ahmedabad hold placards and pictures during a prayer event for the safe rescue of young soccer players and their coach stuck in a cave in Thailand. Photo: AFP/Sam Panthaky.

It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game

Thai volunteers take a rest as rescue operation continues for the 12 boys and their soccer team coach trapped in Tham Luang Nang Non (“Great Cave of the Sleeping Lady”) in northern Thailand. Photo: AFP/Ye Aung Thu.

The Roots of Rap

Wat Mahathat is a 14th-century Buddhist temple in Ayutthaya reduced to ruins in 1767 when the Burmese army invaded the city. Over time, a tree has grown around one of the remaining stone Buddha heads, such that it is now completely enclosed by its roots with only the face peeking out. Photo: Mathew Browne.

A Right to Live

Bangkok, Thailand: Customs officials display one of 136 live pangolins and 450kg of scales that were seized Wednesday from two pickup trucks after the authorities received a tip off that it had been smuggled from Malaysia. Customs Department Director General Kulit Sombatsiri said his department has seized more than 2.9 tons of pangolin-related items this year worth more than 29 million Thai baht (US$870,000). Photo: Sakchai Lalit/AP.

I Shot The Sheriff

Bangkok, Thailand: A girl aims a water pistol at the camera during Songkran, Thailand’s traditional new year festival. Photo: Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP/Getty Images.

The Turtle Who Lost Her Shell

Sea turtle that lived in public pond in Thailand dies of blood poisoning despite surgery to remove 5kg of loose change from her stomach A sea turtle nicknamed “Bank” has died of complications following surgery to remove nearly 1,000 coins she swallowed during captivity, vets in Thailand have said. The cause of death was blood poisoning from the loose change, doctors at the veterinary faculty at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University confirmed. “She at least had the chance to swim freely and eat happily before she passed”, said Dr. Nantarika Chansue, who removed 5kg (11lbs) of coins from the turtle’s stomach in a lengthy operation on 6 March. “At 10.10am she went with peace”, Chansue, the vet in charge of Chulalongkorn Hospital’s aquatic research centre, told reporters, adding: “She is my friend, teacher and patient”. Thai media began publicising the turtle’s tale last month and members of the public donated about 15,000 baht (£350) towards her surgery. [Read more].

• “Bank” the turtle dies after swallowing 900 coins thrown into her pond, The Guardian, March 21, 2017

For years, visitors to “Bank”’s pond in Thailand’s Chonburi province tossed coins with the hope of having their wishes come true. No one knew that “Bank” had been accidentally consuming the coins – hundreds of them – until vets discovered her floating in the pond in severe pain. At first they suspected that the 25-year-old turtle had a tumor because her shell was cracked. Following a CT scan, however, they discovered the shocking truth. Photo: Nantarika Chansue.

An officer shows the coins the turtle ate over many years. Some had corroded or partially dissolved. Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images.

Vets hope that media coverage of the stricken creature will make people think twice about throwing coins into ponds where animals live.

Out of a Clear Sky

Chonburi, Thailand: Clear Sky, a six-month-old elephant, is cleaned before being lowered into a pool for a hydrotherapy session. Photo: Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images.

The Four Season Landscape

• Tom Phillips, A human rights activist, a secret prison and a tale from 习近平 (Xí Jìnpíng)’s new China, The Guardian, January 3, 2017

Peter Dahlin spent 23 days in a “black prison” in 北京 (Běijīng), where he says he was deprived of sleep and questioned with a “communication enhancement” machine. Here he tells the story of his incarceration and expulsion from the People’s Republic. [Read more].

The arrest of Peter Dahlin, as described to the Chiang Mai-based Mexican-American artist Nicolas Luna Fleck.

The activist says his interrogators then refused to let him sleep until he offered them detailed information and only relented after he protested to the centre’s boss – a woman who gave her name as Mrs. Zhang – that his treatment violated the UN convention against torture, which China ratified in 1988. “She was very upset”, Dahlin says of her reaction. “And went on about how nicely I’m being treated”. [Read more].

Peter Dahlin faces his interrogators. Illustration: Nicolas Luna Fleck.

Throne sharing

Bangkok, Thailand: A woman poses with a waxwork of Queen Elizabeth II at Madame Tussaud’s wax museum. Photo: Diego Azubel/EPA.

The Invisible Line

Bangkok, Thailand: Two flowerhorn cichlids face each other through separate glass tanks at a tropical and ornamental fish exhibition. Photo: Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP/Getty Images.

Ranking the Wishes

The recently-concluded 17th Conference of the Parties (CoP 17) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), held in Johannesburg, South Africa has finally ranked the pangolin as the “most illegally traded mammal of the world”.

An adult female white bellied pangolin and her baby. Photo credit: Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark.