 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
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