October
2003
Katie's Thai Diary |
|
 |
|
Katie
Weston
|
Katie Weston's
18 years old and lives in Leek. She's gone to Phuket in Thailand to do voluntary
work which will help to stop the abuse and maltreatment of Gibbons. Read
the full story here and see our mini tour of Thailand in pictures.
She's sending us regular updates of her progress at the sanctuary in Thailand.
Read her diary entries below or click here to see the latest
one...
Wednesday 24/09/2003
 |
|
Wat
Phra Kaeo temple in Bangkok
|
I arrived in
Bangkok at 7pm local time, and was collected by some staff at the central
organisation that runs the sanctuary. I spent one day in Bangkok then travelled
down to Phuket overnight by bus. I was very homesick in my first week but
I'm a lot better now, and really enjoying my self. This is all I have time
for now but I'll hopefully send more in the next couple of days.
Friday 26/09/2003
The Gibbon Sanctuary is part of the Wild Animal Rescue Foundation of Thailand
(WAR). It was originally set up just for the gibbons, which are virtually
extinct in Phuket.
They also have some Macaques, which are another type of ape. These animals
have unfortunately spent their entire life in laboratories. When they
first arrive, they have no hair and are extremely thin. The organisation
has about 500 of these animals to find homes for, and at the moment have
space for about ten in the sanctuary at Ranong.
WAR also operate a project to help turtles. If you want to find out more,
there's a website at www.warthai.org.
People can also adopt a gibbon for around £30.
There are seven volunteers in Phuket at the moment, and we all stay at a
house in a nearby village. We either cook for ourselves or we go to a local
restaurant to buy meals. Food is very cheap here - you can buy a meal and
a drink for about 70p.
 |
| The
sanctuary in Phuket looks after Gibbons like this little fella... |
In Phuket there
are three different sites where gibbons are kept. When they first arrive,
they are kept in Quarantine while they have blood tests. Unfortunately many
gibbons have Hepatitis B or Herpes, and this means they can never be released
completely in to the wild. This also means that they'll have to be cared
for for the rest of their lives. And, as a gibbon can live for 30 years
or more, this means that the sanctuary would rapidly run out of space. For
this reason some artificial islands have been built in Ranong, where families
of gibbons who have Herpes or Hepatitis can live out their lives in a natural
habitat.
After they have spent some time in Quarantine, they are moved to the site
at Bang Pae waterfall. Here they live in large cages, which although they
are not ideal, they have enough room for the gibbons to move around, and
interact socially. They are fed twice a day, with vegetables in the morning
and fruit in the afternoon. They are also watched to see if they call to
each other - when a male and female call together it means that they may
be suitable as mates.
Some Gibbons are also released in to a forest nearby, where they are closely
watched and are still given some food. Only family groups are released.
Some gibbons were released on an island near Ranong but unfortunately they
all disappeared. It is thought they were captured by local fishermen.
Gibbons are used as tourist attractions in Thailand's bars where tourists
can pay to have there photo taken with the animals. The Gibbons are usually
taken as babies, but in order to do this the mother has to be shot. However
when the gibbon reaches the age of six or seven, it reaches sexual maturity
and becomes aggressive - this means it can no longer be used as a tourist
attraction. This is when the owners sometimes call the sanctuary. Gibbons
are also rescued when a tourist visits the sanctuary and tells us about
a captive gibbon they have seen.
Volunteers help to feed the gibbons, clean out the cages, talk to visitors
and observe the gibbons in the wild. At the moment I have only worked at
the Waterfall site, but over the weekend I will work at the information
desk.
The day starts at 6.30 and we usually finish between 2 and 4. The work is
really good fun, and isn't too hard. In the evenings we sometimes go to
Phuket town to a live music bar or we eat at a restaurant. We sometimes
cook, play cards or watch TV.
On Thursday it was one of the Thai staff's birthday so we went out in Phuket.
However, we got a surprise call on the way. We had to collect a large Python
that was eating a man's chickens! We are going to release it in to the forest
in the next couple of days.
We're always pretty busy here but we do get some time off. Friday was my
day off, so I went to Phuket where a giant Tesco store has just opened.
While I was there I stocked up on English essentials like bread, pasta,
jam, and even English tea!!!
I'm having a wonderful time in Thailand - the country is beautiful and the
people are really friendly. I can't wait to come home and tell everyone
all about it!
Wednesday 08/10/2003
Hello again to everyone. By the time you read this I'll have been here in
Thailand for just over three weeks, and time is going very quickly.
On Saturday and Sunday I worked at the information desk where tourists can
find out about the project. It's right below the forest where the gibbons
are kept. The tour desk is really good but the only problem is that whilst
I'm there I read far too much because it's sometimes really quiet! We do
get loads of Australians visiting us, but so far not many Brits. I did meet
some people on Sunday who were on my flight from Manchester though, it's
a small world!
I thought that each week I would tell you about one of the gibbons at the
project. Some of them have amazing stories. Sam is a twelve year old brown
male. He is actually our largest gibbon because many of them are malnourished
and not allowed to move around as they should. Sam, however, was kept as
a family pet in Bangkok for six and a half years. When he was young he was
very well looked after and allowed to wander around his owner's flat. As
he got older, he was kept tied to a chair and later kept in a cage on the
balcony which he never left until he escaped.
When gibbons reach the age of six or seven they become sexually mature and
get aggressive towards people. Sam kept escaping until one day his owner
came home to find Sam in the kitchen with a knife. The owner then realised
that he could no longer keep Sam, so he contacted the project and Sam moved
to the sanctuary in Phuket in 1994. He currently lives alone because his
time in captivity has meant that he no longer knows how to behave like a
gibbon. If Sam doesn't sing he will never attract a mate. And unfortunately
he's showing no signs of singing at the moment. This, sadly, means he will
never be released as we can only release families. Sam however is now a
happy gibbon, with the correct diet and plenty of room to swing around.
Monday was my day off and me and another volunteer went in to Phuket town
to do some shopping. It was absolutely sweltering though so we didn't stay
long, but I did manage to get some presents. Phuket itself is nice but hard
to find your way around because it hasn't really got a centre or anywhere
in particular where all the shops are centred.
We watched a film in the evening with the other volunteers, which was good
but it turned into quite a late night and we get up at six here! On Tuesday
I worked in Quarantine, and it was another very hot day. It's even hot in
the evening.
A couple of volunteers are leaving this week so our group is getting smaller!
However, on Wednesday a new volunteer arrived unexpectedly. He's my age
and also from England.
On Wednesday, I was working up at Waterfall and it decided to rain torrentially.
I was right up by the top cages and got drenched as a result.
On Thursday, I worked at the tour desk, and Friday at the Waterfall again.
It rained for almost 48 hours straight so there have been hardly any visitors.
So much rain fell that when you walked between the bungalows and the kitchen
you had to wade through ankle deep water!
Thursday night was one of the volunteer's birthday so the Thai staff cooked
her a meal and afterwards a lot of people went out in to Phuket town. Sadly
for me, I had to be up at six again, so I didn't go.
It's been a really good week, but it has gone so quickly! At this rate,
I'm going to be back in Leek before I know it!
Saturday 11th October 2003
Hello again to everyone. It's rained really hard here this week, although
it's not been as bad as last weekend, but still enough to make life a bit
miserable. When you come in cold and wet after a day's work and only have
a cold water tap as your shower, life can be pretty miserable - believe
me!
Last weekend was a real struggle to find restaurants serving meat dishes.
There's been a vegetarian festival here in Phuket which ended on Sunday,
but unfortunately it's meant that none of the restaurants have had very
much meat!
On Saturday, Sunday and Monday I worked at the Tour Desk. This is quite
fun but it can get very boring telling tourists the same thing over and
over!
On Saturday half the road between our village and the waterfall washed away,
it's rained so much here. Some of the streets are underwater. At the tour
desk we kept hearing crashes as parts of trees and bits of bamboo wee being
brought down by the rain.
You don't imagine rain could be dangerous but on Sunday, just as we were
packing up to go home, we heard a particularly large crash. We ran outside
just in time to see an enormous tree fall down. Two smaller trees had been
blown over, falling in to it. If one of the trees had fallen the other way
it would have flattened the tourist centre!
The gibbon I'm going to tell you about this week is called Tam. Tam is an
eight year old female who has been with the project for just under
one year. When she arrived at the WAR office in Bangkok she was the most
pitiful gibbon our staff had ever seen.
When she became sexually mature she started to become aggressive and bit
her owners child. Her owner punished Tam for this by beating her so badly
that she had to have a hand and foot amputated. She was then passed round
to several other owners until she was found by War and bought to Phuket.
Because of her disability she can never be released but we are very hopeful
that she will find a suitable mate and raise a family of her own.
Despite her extreme abuse, Tam is actually a very friendly gibbon. She will
sit and let you scratch her back and she never tries to grab you. Normally
we would avoid getting close to the gibbons but, because Tam will never
be released, a small amount of human contact is OK.
She is one of our most vocal gibbons, you can guarantee that if you are
standing below her cage talking to a group of tourists she will start to
sing!
Tam is in a cage that adjoins Sam's because we are hopeful that they will
accept each other and become mates. Considering her disability, Tam copes
remarkably well. She moves about her cage with very little difficulty.
On Monday I worked on the tour desk again, which I was very glad about because
it was still raining. However on Tuesday, when I worked at the waterfall
site, it hardly rained at all which I was very pleased about! All the other
volunteers went to the beach or shopping on Tuesday night but I stayed behind
because there wasn't enough room on the motorbikes for all of us. I also
wanted to use the Internet to check that everything was all right at home.
On Wednesday I worked at the tour desk again but was on my own for some
of the time as the member of Thai staff who was working with had been called
away on family business. It was just typical that all the tourists came
when she wasn't there though!
Thursday was my day off and I went in to Phuket town again. I didn't really
see anything that tempted me to spend money. I did have quite a good day,
helped by the fact that I had the most gorgeous ice cream I've ever eaten!
I probably won't go back in to Phuket town again though, I've been to the
market and most of the shops, and seen some of the temples. Despite all
this, it's not that nice a place.
On Friday, I was working at the waterfall again. I prayed that the water
system was working, because all the falling bamboo had caused some of the
pipes to break. If it wasn't working, it would create a lot of hard work
for us!
I'm staying overnight in the jungle on Saturday night, which I'm looking
forward to, but I'll tell you about that next time.
The mini drama of the week was the snake I found in our bungalow. It was
eating a gecko, which is a small lizard-like creature. It was a golden tree
snake, which was very small and not poisonous, but it was still enough to
give me a nasty fright. We eventually came to the conclusion that the gecko
was too big for it to eat, and none of us were prepared to leave it in the
bungalow overnight, so it was gently moved outside!
Friday 17th October 2003
Hello again! On Monday it was 4 weeks until I return home, this means I'm
half way through my time in Phuket! I worked on the tour desk on Saturday
but left slightly early because that afternoon I walked up to the forest
and spent the night there.
Several other volunteers had done this earlier in my stay and told me lots
of horror stories about rats as big as cats that jumped on you and killer
mosquitoes! I did see the rat but it wasn't that big and if it jumped in
me in the night I slept through it. I was amazed at how cold it was, I had
a T-shirt a long sleeved top and a fleece jumper on and I as still cold.
My feet were absolutely freezing!
We got up at 5.30 and spent the day observing the gibbons. Every 10 minutes
you have to record the distances between the gibbons, and also one of the
gibbons has its behaviour recorded every 2 minutes. It's actually very interesting
but very hard work. It's so easy to lose sight of the gibbons, and then
you have a really hard job finding them again! I was really lucky because
it hardly rained, but I can't wait to do it again!
When I got back I was desperate for a shower, because I wore the same clothes
the whole time! We all went out that night because it was another volunteers
birthday and luckily I had Monday off, because we didn't get to bed until
3 in the morning. I had planned on going to the beach but it has rained
for most of the day and I was so tired that I just sat and relaxed.
Not a lot happened on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, I worked at tour
desk and waterfall. But on Tuesday a new volunteer arrived. She's my age
and I knew I'd met her somewhere before we both spent days trying to think
where until we realised that we'd both attended an engineering course at
Birmingham University last year!
The gibbon of the week is called Bubu. He's a black male gibbon and came
to us in March 1995 aged 18 months. He was kept on a bar on an island called
Kosa Mui, and was severely mistreated by his owner who punished him for
singing. A group of tourists watched Bubu for several days, he chewed on
his rope and escaped 4 times. Eventually the tourists couldn't stand to
see his mistreatment for any longer and bought him to us.
When he was younger he was housed with several different gibbons, including
another male called Bill. However as they reached sexual maturity they could
no longer be kept together, and attempts were made to find a mate for Bubu.
He was put with Candy a black female. She is one of our biggest gibbons
, and Bubu is one our smallest, so we were understandably worried when we
put them together. However they got along really well, and now live at our
waterfall site.
Unfortunately during his contact with humans, Bubu contracted Herpes. This
means he will never be released in to the wild, but we do hope to release
him and Candy on to one of the small artificial islands that we have built
at our sanctuary in Ranong.
Friday was actually quite an exciting day. At the waterfall site we have
a male gibbon called Fish who was released 2 years ago, but he disappeared
for 4 days and arrived back at the waterfall. Attempts were made to catch
him but were all unsuccessful. Until recently it wasn't a problem for him
to live freely, but he has recently reached sexual maturity and has started
to get too close to people.
Friday was the day we planned to catch him! None of the gibbons were fed
first thing in the morning, to increase the chance of Fish being around
when we fed in the afternoon, and we very nearly managed to dart him, but
he ran away! We're going to have to catch him eventually and I'll let you
know how we get on.
Friday 24th October 2003
I can't believe I've been here another week! I can't even imagine being
at home any more it seems so far away, and just very different to life here!
Life here has had some small bits of drama. We've been trying to catch a
gibbon called Fish, but so far haven't had any luck. As soon as he sees
the blow pipe he disappear up in to the trees, and when we tried to give
him fruit with sedative in he ate the fruit but nothing happened!
On Saturday I worked at the tour desk, and it was really busy, we did six
adoptions and took a lot of money which is good news. On Sunday I worked
at waterfall with one of the Thai staff who thinks it's great fun to wind
me up about everything, especially driving!
A new volunteer also arrived, he's from Holland, and it means that our other
Dutch volunteer now has someone to speak to. The only problem is that he's
been here for eight weeks, and has forgotten how to speak Dutch!
On Monday I worked at Waterfall, and on Tuesday at tour desk with the new
volunteer, which was interesting - people are always really scared about
what they're going to say to tourists but once they start talking they amaze
themselves by what they know!
A group of Thai students arrived on Tuesday. They're going to be with us
for three days, and its means that there are no spare beds, heaven knows
how we're going to agree on what to watch on TV!
This weeks gibbon is Rumthai. She's a pale brown female who came to the
project in August 2002. She was bought to us by a group of tourists who
had found her in a small bird cage in Phuket. She had so little space that
she was very undersized, we estimate that she was one year old, but she
was the size of a six month old, and her arms were growing backwards.
At first she didn't eat and we thought that she was dying. For the first
two weeks she required 24 hour care by the staff and volunteers. However
she eventually made excellent progress, and now lives in quarantine with
two other young gibbons. She will always be malformed, but we hope to find
a mate for here in the future, and release her back in to the wild.
On Tuesday I was at tour desk again, which was quite quiet and spent the
evening teaching one of the Thai staff English, which was entertaining.
I'm not really sure I should be teaching him how to say words with a Leek
accent! I caused great confusion over how to say cup earlier in the week,
no one had a clue what I was on about!
On Wednesday I was at waterfall, and we finally managed to catch Fish. It
meant we didn't get back to the project until 3.30 though, and we're meant
to finish at 2. One of the Thai staff managed to dart him, and then all
the Thai students had to find him because he disappeared in to the forest!
We had double cause for celebration that night because we all went out to
celebrate the first birthday of the first gibbon to born in the wild on
Phuket for twenty years. When we arrived back, we found that Fish had completely
trashed the room we had put his cage in and at 4.00 we decided he was too
stressed and had to move him in to his cage in quarantine.
There were a lot of tired hungover people wandering round the next day!
Luckily for me I was on tour desk on Thursday, some poor people had to be
up at 5.00! However there was no chance of a quiet day, we had the second
highest takings this month!
Friday is my day off, but that evening I'm going to sleep in the forest
again, which I'll tell you about next time. Thursday was also my Mum's birthday,
so Happy Birthday Mum, and I'm going to be back in Leek very soon!
Friday 31st October 2003
Hello again,
I can't believe I have less than 2 weeks left here, it's very scary and
I can't say I'm exactly looking forward to coming home to Leek weather in
November! I'm also having a wonderful time here!
Last week I said that I would be spending Friday night in the forest, unfortunately
the person in charge of the observations had a migraine so we didn't go.
I am going to be going next Friday instead though.
Friday itself was my day off and I made one last trip to Tescos which should
hopefully last me until I leave. I went up and swam in the waterfall that
afternoon which was wonderful, its is so beautiful up there and on a hot
day the water is lovely and cool.
I spent Saturday and Sunday on tour desk, both days were pretty quiet and
nothing really interesting happened. However on Sunday night we went in
to Phuket town and ate pizza which was gorgeous! We also went to this really
cool night market, it sells loads of clothes and jewellery, and lots of
CDs and VCDs. On the way back we stopped at an Irish pub, and I'm sure that
we were sitting opposite some people that I gave a tour to at tour desk
earlier that day!
Monday was another day off, so I took one of the project bicycles and rode
down to the pier, it's only about 4km, but the bike had no gears and crooked
handlebars, so it wasn't that easy to go up hill! It was really beautiful,
but the weather has turned really hot and when I got back everyone was really
worried about because I'd gone bright red from the heat!
I went to use the internet that evening, but an enormous storm started,
and the internet stopped working, so I had to run home. Within 2 seconds
it looked as if someone had chucked a bucket of water on me! Luckily I was
picked up by the police part of the way there, they were really worried
at the project when they saw a police car pull up! The water between the
kitchen and bungalow reached shin height!
I spent Tuesday at tour desk again, it was another hot day, and my brain
stopped working by the afternoon so I ended up giving one woman too much
change.
This week's gibbon is Mary. She was born at the project on the 1st October
2002. She's the daughter of Pompam and Bird. Pompam had previously had 2
offspring with no problems at all, but in the last few days of her pregnancy
she began to have problems.
Our Thai vet decided to operate and she was found to have internal bleeding.
We believe that Mary is the first gibbon to be born by Caesarean Section
in the world. At first it seemed that Mary wouldn't survive, but she pulled
through. However Pompam wouldn't accept Mary and this meant that she had
to be hand raised by staff and volunteers 24 hours a day!
She was later moved to a cage with 2 other young gibbons called Teddy and
Rumthai in the Quarantine area. Pompam has since gone on to have another
offspring called Yogi who she has accepted. Mary was named after the British
ambassadors wife who came to visit us a few days after she was born.
On Wednesday I worked on waterfall for the first time in a week. I always
get put on tour desk because I talk a lot to all the tourists! I also manage
to persuade them to give us lots of money which is good! It was really hot
that day and all the Thai staff found it really funny that my face went
bright red!
I spent Thursday in the office rewriting the adoption fact files on each
afternoon. That was really good because the previous evening the Royal Forest
department invited us out for a meal and it would have been rude to refuse
the free samples of the local Thai beer!
I'm really looking forward to going in to the forest on Friday - it's amazing
to see the gibbons in their natural habitat ad gets you through the times
when you start to wonder why you're here. When you read this I'll be in
my last week on Phuket and leaving is going to be so hard, I've made so
many friends here and learnt so much...
Thursday 6th November 2003 
Hello again to everyone, by the time you read this I'll be back home in
Leek. It's very scary, I've made so many friends, and I've had such an amazing
time here! I hope some of my photos come out so you can see the things I've
been doing and how adorable the gibbons are.
On Friday I worked on waterfall and it was very hot. I took photos of a
lot of the gibbons when I went round and did the health check. That evening
at 5pm, a group of us went in to the forest, it was very hot walking up
there but about 10 minutes away from the camp it started to rain, and we
all got quite wet. My T-shirt got wet because I didn't manage to get my
waterproof on in time because the rain is torrential here. Luckily I had
some dry clothes with me, and I managed to dry my T-shirt by sleeping in
it. I got woken up in the middle of the night by a badger, which was quite
cool - just a pity I couldn't see it clearly because I didn't have my glasses
on!
We woke up at 5am which sounds early but it gets dark really quickly here
and we were asleep by 8pm the night before. I observed Arun's family again,
they spent most of the day really high up so we couldn't really see them,
but they spent about a half hour really close to the ground, and we got
so close to them. It was absolutely amazing and hopefully I've got some
good photos.
At about 3pm, it started raining and they all disappeared up a tree. Unfortunately
because we couldn't tell if they were asleep or not we couldn't leave, but
we couldn't see them either. It eventually stopped raining about 4pm and
when they still didn't move we decided they must have gone to sleep.
That evening we had a barbecue on the beach with some of the friends of
the Thai staff, it was absolutely gorgeous - fresh fish and shrimp. There
was even a thunder and lightning storm going on the distance.
I had to come back and do all my washing though because I had no clean clothes
to wear, so it was about 1pm when I finally got to sleep!
On Sunday I worked at the tour desk but, because I really didn't want to
get up, I had to eat my bread and jam breakfast up there! It was quite a
busy day too, but we didn't take much money because there weren't many American,
Australian or British tourists, and they're the only ones that seem to be
generous with the cash!
This week's gibbon is Jita. She's a black female who was born in 1993. She
was taken from the forest aged about six months old by poachers, and was
sold to a bar in Patong on Phuket island. Luckily for Jita she only stayed
there for one month before being confiscated by the Police and Royal Forestry
department in June 1994. She was bought to us and spent 2 years at the rehabilitation
site. In 1995 she was put with Sonram, a male born in mid 1992. He was taken
from the forest aged only three months and grew up like a human baby. He
came to the GRP in February 1995. He and Jita became friends the moment
they were put together and in 1996 they were released on to Ko Ti Mu. This
is an island in Pang-nga bay, and then in 1997 they were transferred to
a larger island called KO Deang. They were doing really well, they practiced
brachiating, and singing, but unfortunately Sonrams body was discovered
late in September 1999. It is believed he died of natural causes.
On December 5th 1999 another male called Mr Lisa was introduced to the island
in the hope he would bond with Jita. This appeared to be going well, but
unfortunately Mr Lisa disappeared. There had been a lot of trouble with
poachers and the local fishermen so after this all the gibbons were removed
from the islands and bought to Phuket. Jita was kept in quarantine and we
attempted to find her a mate, but were unsuccessful. We are now trying to
mate her with Fish, the gibbon who was born on one of the islands and lived
freely at waterfall until we caught him. If this is successful Jita and
Fish will be moved to the waterfall site and released in to the forest in
the near future.
I was on your desk again on Monday for the last time. I bought T-shirts
and photos, and was wound up for the last time by someone who kept asking
me stupid questions and then interrupting me when I answered!
Tuesday was my last day on waterfall, the other volunteer practically had
to drag me away it was so hard to say good-bye to all the gibbons, especially
the juveniles. I hadn't realised how attached I'd become to them all!
We organised a meal at a Korean restaurant where you cook your own food,
as a good-bye party. When we came back we sat around and talked, and I didn't
get to bed until 2.30!
Luckily Wednesday was my day off, I went and tried to get my bus ticket
up to Bangkok with one of the Thai staff, but unfortunately they didn't
sell them where we went so that afternoon I went in Phuket Town, and got
dreadfully sun burnt shoulders even though I had factor 25 on. It was really
hot so the only thing you could do in the afternoon was to sleep.
In the evening I went and had my final banana pancake and went down to the
beach. I went to bed quite early though because on Thursday I did observations
on Hope's family. This is the first family we released and we walked up
to the forest at 5pm. It was a beautiful day, really hot and sunny. The
gibbons didn't come close enough for me to get any good photos, and unfortunately
I didn't see Hope or her mother because they've disappeared over the last
few days.
On Friday I'm going to try and fit everything back in my bag, which could
be very interesting, and I'm catching the bus up to Bangkok that evening.
I'm going to spend two days in Bangkok shopping and sight seeing before
I fly home on Monday morning, so I will actually be back home by the time
you read this!
I've had a magical time in Thailand, I've made so many good friends, and
I'm already thinking about when I can come back! I hope you've enjoyed reading
about my time there. I've enjoyed doing it because it's made me keep track
of the amazing experiences I've had.
See you soon!
Katie Weston
|
The
BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites
|
|
