Yes - There Are Elephants on the Streets of Korat

I don't usually photograph them because as soon as you do the mahout starts to harass you to buy food from them to feed their elephant.

Australia September 2011

I spent a week in Brisbane, Australia to visit my friends Bill and Lee. Bill and I first met in 1977 on an overland trip from London to Kathmandu.

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I flew into the Gold Coast and took a bus and train (pictured) to Brisbane.

Here's Bill, in the garden.

Bill and Lee have a great pond full of huge Comets.

Here's Lee shopping for fish at Redcliffe, north of Brisbane. Bill grew up in Redcliffe. 

Here we are at Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

Lunch at the Mooloolaba Lifesavers Club.

Barbecued kangaroo steaks.

View into the garden.

Brisbane has some beautiful architecture.

Lovely King Prawn picnic on the Brisbane River.

Bill and Lee live in Ascot, a neighborhood full of fine Queensland architecture.

We took the ferry to Stradbroke Island.

Bill, with Lee at the helm.

Hiking Point Lookout on Stradbroke Island.

Nice little bay at Point Lookout.

Yours truly.

Lunch at the pub near Point Lookout.

I promised myself one burger this trip.

Beach at Point Lookout.

Old Peculier, one of my favorite beers.

Brisbane River

Brisbane Mall

In Australia, Burger King is Hungry Jack.

Treasury Casino. Bill worked in this building when it was still the Treasury Building.

The Breakfast Creek Hotel, home of XXXX Beer 'off the wood' (out of a wooden keg).

A schooner off the wood.

The Gold Coast, looking toward Surfer's Paradise.

Perhaps the only thing good about the Kuala Lumpur airport is the availability of Guinness. Granted, it is in bottles, but it's still Guinness.

Homeland 3

Homeland 3 is an upscale housing development in the western outskirts of Korat. I live in the nearby Homeland 2. Homeland 3 is being built in a wetland that is adjacent to land used for rice farming. It touts  itself as being "surrounded by nature" with a view of the rice fields.

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The entrance is certainly grand and inviting.

Once inside there's not much nature and no rice fields in sight.

The water table is extremely high. Note the standing surface water.

The wetland once looked like this. It was used to grow coconuts, betel nuts, bananas, citrus, pandanus and a number of other useful crops. This photo is on the east side of Homeland 3 where the ground water continues to flow uninterrupted. 

The development has blocked the natural flow of ground water. This is the wetland just to the west of Homleland 3. Most of the old betel nut trees have died. Coconuts are about the only trees still living.

This used to be a small fishing pond and informal restaurant. Now it's just a decaying swamp.

This is just across from the entrance to Homeland 3. The home on the left houses my favorite little minimart. They have great prices on things like flour, sugar, raw peanuts and Scotch!

Click the Google Maps link below to see the photo location in Google Maps.