Cool Zoo

I'm constantly reminded about how much closer to nature I am here in Thailand than back home in New York. Granted, in New York, a deer would occasionally walk though my yard, which was sort of cool. There were occasional groundhogs... but how boring is that?

I snapped this photo of a praying mantis on the door frame of my balcony. (That door frame is 5 inches wide.) That's not boring.

In Thailand, you see elephants with the same frequency you see horses back home. Monkeys live in the wild here. Geckos make there little kiss-kiss calls from behind every air conditioner in my house.

Granted, America has bears out West, foxes. A moose... how cool would that be? But really America may have a gazillion wild animals, but you don't run into any of them on a regular basis unless you are employed by Fish & Wildlife or something. In Thailand, they are hanging out in your front yard... or in the parking lot of the 7-11.

A day later, same balcony as the preying mantis, 10 feet away, I shot this lizard photo (called a "Tookeh" in Thai). That's a foot-tall cement girder. Cool.