Soi Dog Foundation: Jackson & Mitchell

Trying to be lazy no more, we have upped the homeschooling to all morning and have begun volunteering a couple of times per week at the Soi Dog Foundation. They are a wonderful organization that cares for the 20,000 stray dogs here on the island of Phuket. Probably the most important thing they do is spay and neuter all these homeless dogs, as well feed them, clean them and house them until they are restored to health. They welcome volunteers of all ages, so it is a perfect fit for us and our dog-loving boys. You can read more about the great work they do by clicking on the link above.

Here's some more details from Mitchell and Jackson. . .

Mitchell: We heard about a foundation called "Soi Dogs" here in Phuket, which means "street dog" in English. They rescue stray dogs there, and they give them a home and take them off the streets. They also let people come and walk dogs, so the dogs get a chance to run. around and socialize. We came one day, and Jackson and I got to walk dogs. I picked a nice golden dog named Tesco, because she was found in the parking lot of the Tesco Lotus supermarket. She has a big scar around her mouth, because she had a bad owner who wanted to starve her, so he tied a wire around her mouth so she couldn't eat or drink. Jackson picked a white dog named Shirley. We walked them to the end of the street and back. Since. it was very hot outside, we couldn't walk very far without getting very hot quickly.

For that day, we only walked those two dogs. But the next time we came, we walked Shirley and Tesco, with another dog that had bad fur who looked like he wanted to walk, so we took him too. After we took them, we brought them back and took another group of three dogs for a walk. This time, Jackson took a big brown and white colored dog, I took a big black dog, and Dad took a big German Shepherd-looking dog. Mom didn't walk a dog because she carried all the supplies and water bottles. The dogs were really big and hard to control, but they were nice dogs. After that, we went back home and are looking forward to going again. I like Soi Dogs because I think it is a good foundation and it was fun to get to walk dogs.

Jackson: We found out about Soi Dog Foundation, where they keep stray dogs and sometimes cats from the street. They take care of them and you can play with them. We became volunteers and we go two times a week to walk, brush, and play with the dogs. We took a dog named Shirley and a dog named Tesco each time and some more dogs. It's fun doing it.

Jackson has a special fondness for this fluffy white dog named Shirley:
Brushing Shirley:

Mitchell taking Tesco for a walk:

We all have a soft spot for Tesco - explained later:

Soi Dog Shelter, there are a couple of these kennel areas on the grounds:

Impossibly clean kennels at the shelter - dog waste is scooped up regularly and the floors are hosed clean several times in a day. I think we've stayed in dirtier hotels, believe it or not:

The founders had areas of shade constructed within the kennels; they have thought of everything for these dogs:

Time to give some other dogs a turn for a walk and a brushing:

Beautiful Tesco - notice the scar across her snout. . .

Tesco's scar - someone wrapped a wire around her jaw which prevented her from eating, drinking, or barking. She was found emaciated in the Tesco Food Store parking lot and brought to the Soi Dog Shelter. We will all miss her when it's time to go.

Travel Day 212, (Sunny and 36 degrees) in Thailand

Spilt Blood and We are All Safe: Ted.

If you haven't heard there has been some political turmoil in the streets of Bangkok. We reside in the south very far from anything that would resemble social unrest. There are a number of Thai people who resent the current government and consider them to be illegitimate. More to the point they are ardent supporters of a former Prime Minister, Thaksin Shiniwatra. He was ousted in what might be considered a political coup by the military for so-called corruption and abuse of his powers. He went into exile at the time in 2006 but subsequently returned. The government of the day under new leadership functioned for a while but parliament was dissolved and a new unelected government was formed in January 2008 under the current Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

The protestors go by the name of United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship or more popularly the Red Shirts. These current demonstrations and protests in the streets of the capital stem from a recent court judgment at the end of February that convicted the former PM of certain charges from his time in power where they found that he unlawfully profited from his position. It was closely watched and big news here in Thailand as everyone expected massive disruptions and protests by his supporters.

He (Thaksin) was already very wealthy and companies that he owned benefited from government policies and decisions that were made at the time and he personally benefited financially as a result. In the end, in a February 26th Supreme Court decision, they stripped him of about $ 1.5 billion in assets that had been seized. He already has been convicted on other charges related to abuse of authority in a land deal and sentenced to two years in jail, but remains in exile. He left Thailand before the previous charges had reached court. His wife was convicted of tax evasion in 2008 and they jumped bail at that time. He resides in Dubai. We didn't pay him a visit while there. We weren't invited.

Regardless, it seems that the publicity of the protests is far greater than any real clout or support for those who are protesting. Things have been relatively peaceful as the group indicated that they wanted to operate within the law. Mostly there have been traffic annoyances. They have used measures such as throwing donated blood on the gates of government property and the prime ministers residence. The police were going to allow it to go this far but as things opened up some in the group threw blood on the house and the roof. It's some kind of ritual, supposedly placing a curse on the current government. I suppose it's also a show of defiance but other than that I'm not sure what it does. It's been widely criticized for a number of reasons including the wastefulness of a precious human resource, and how it reflects badly on Thailand as some uncivilized country that practices "black magic". Not to mention the unsafe and unhygienic conditions that were created.

The current government is standing firm and not caving in to unrealistic demands. The local consensus is that that can only be good for democracy. In addition, it seems to be reacting in a reasonable manner as well by keeping appearances of armed might low key and avoiding the escalation of conflict. From what I can gather there is more support for the current government and the Thai people feel that the country has fared better with them. They do look forward to the chance to vote in upcoming elections sometime in the future. Mostly, the majority of people are just going about their business of trying to work and make some money and provide for their families. They are friendly and appear grateful for those opportunities.

There is another protest planned by the Red Shirts for March 20th in the capital. We'll see what happens as, hopefully, law and order continues to prevail.

We are so lazy

We are so lazy right now, I'm embarrassed. We haven't posted a blog for over a week because, truthfully, we haven't done much. A typical day here in Phuket: we rise, eat breakfast, squeeze in an hour or so of homeschooling, swim, eat lunch, swim again, read by the pool or at the beach, watch TV while snacking (oh it's bad, I know, so lazy), then go for a walk which usually ends up at a beachside restaurant which just happens to be having happy hour, then walk back home, make supper, eat supper, clean up all the dishes that have accumulated over the day, watch a movie (we don't know what to do with all these channels, more channels than we ever had back in Ottawa), and then eventually retire after another slothful day. Some days hold a slight variation, such as when we need to re-stock on groceries or visit the laundry. Also, I forgot to mention Internet surfing, which we all do. One cannot live like this for long, I realize. I am actually forgetting how to construct complete sentences. This could be very bad for my return to work. Perhaps this is travel fatigue. Perhaps this had to happen. I promise the next post will be courtesy another family member . . . something with actual substance.

Big waves at Surin Beach - the boys like this beach better than Bang Tao because of the excellent "body-surfing" they're trying to do:

We made a chore chart for while we're here - Jackson's turn to wash:

The boys have created a game from these poolside rocks. The idea is to toss an increasing number of rocks into the pool, then dive underwater and gather them in one breath. Kind of reminds me of jacks when I was a kid. Onesies, twosies, threesies, etc.

Jackson leaping in:

Ted taking the plunge - the observant reader will notice how I have carefully avoided any photos of myself in a bathing suit from appearing on this blog, so there:

Surin Beach:

Oh yes, and homeschooling . . . the best part is being able to work in your PJ's:

Bang Tao Bliss

Sawatdee (hello) from Bang Tao, Phuket! We thought we had seen the most beautiful beaches in the world in Zanzibar but the beaches of Phuket surpass even those. The small, tear-drop shaped island of Phuket lies in southern Thailand, with the Andaman Sea all around it. We're on the west coast, more to the north at Bang Tao Beach but also walking distance to Surin Beach. We spent the first three months of this trip in France, where we had rented a house with kitchen, living room, bedrooms, etc. It was a good way to ease into this trip and I think sometimes we took for granted how much space we had. Since then, we've spent two months in Africa and two months touring all over South-East Asia. With the exception of our three weeks in Kijabe, Kenya, we've been staying in small guesthouses (usually equivalent to a two-star hotel) sharing one room among all four of us. We always tried to ensure breakfast was included but have had to eat every lunch and dinner out. It adds up and it becomes challenging to all get along when we don't have much space. So we made a plan to drop anchor here in lovely Phuket for the next 6 weeks before we head off to Japan in mid-April.

We have rented a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment with many amenities such as a gorgeous pool, fitness room, restaurant (not that we plan on dining there much) with pool table (boys plan on using that), and (gasp) cable TV. It's been great these past few days to fully unpack our backpacks, hang clothes up, grocery shop and make meals in a kitchen. The best thing is the close proximity to great beaches and tons of beachy shops.

The pool at our new apartment:

It is actually a saltwater pool, unusual for Thailand but catching on:

The best thing about having cable TV was seeing the Olympic hockey game between Canada and the US on our very first morning here. Because it was live from Vancouver, the guys had to get up at something like 4:00am to watch it. I declined. I was awakened later by screams, shouts and cheers when Crosby scored the winning goal in overtime. Here are the die-hard fans in our living room, waving flags and all: The kitchen:

Master bedroom:

Mitchell & Jackson's room (quick, take a photo, it will never be this tidy again):

Fitness centre (no excuses not to exercise) - I've observed that it's almost always empty - guess people don't come all the way to Phuket just to work out:

We cannot get enough of this pool:

Jackson likes how the dolphins spit on you - actually it's just a fountain:

The hottest months in Thailand are apparently March and April. Between May and October is the rainy season, which is also very hot but moderated by the rains. Since we've been back in Thailand, everyday has been in the low to mid thirties with high humidity. Yesterday I spent an hour walking around exploring the area - an hour is not really that long but I felt like my head was going to explode from the heat.

One great place we discovered in our explorations is Nok & Jo's, a restaurant run by a Canadian guy and his Thai wife. We dropped in for a visit and a fruit shake and the boys were excited to see a large hockey table set up. Jo is from BC near Radium. He came after the 2004 tsunami to help with re-building and that was when he met Nok, whose small beachside restaurant had been destroyed. They fell in love and he ended up returning again to Thailand to re-build and enlarge the restaurant by hand using timber construction and now runs the restaurant with her. No doubt we'll be back. Lah-gorn (bye) for now.