Warning - wild elephants and wild animals can be dangerous

Elephants on clothes bought in Thailans.

Elephant visit, popular.

Elephant statue at hotel in Thailand

Elephant motif in reception of hotel in Thailand.

Elephant in the street.
 

We have fond memories of furry toys as children. Baby bears, elephants giving rides, even smiley crocodiles. The elephant is the national symbol of Thailand. I have clothes with elephant symbols. I have jewellery depicting elephants.

Wild Animals

But wild animals can be dangerous. They want food, including yours, such as sandwiches left in cars, or carried in carrier bags - especially if other tourists feed wild animals, but you bring food which they can smell but you are not willing to share. Just as many human mothers would protect their babies from an approaching strange snake, dog, or elephant, animals such as bears, tigers, crocodiles and elephants seek food, or protect their own young when unknown life approaches.

Wild Monkeys

So monkeys may snatch food and hats, or simply attack. They get into flats in Singapore, destroying furniture and furnishings. 

Wild elephants can be dangerous, not just the bggest, strongest males, but also females, wanting to frighten off or disarm approaching humans when their are baby elephants around. 

Poachers taking tusks and trophies would exascerbate the danger to tourists simply taking photos.

Guides And Safety

In theory local guides should know where animals roam and how to avoid being seen, and how to protect you from attack.

I recall going on a safari. We were warned to stay inside the vehicle. No arms out of the window holding camers. Arms of humans to wild elephants, look like insect legs to humans, tell the onlooker that something alive and smaller is moving about. Attract attention even from a distance by sudden movement.

Danger From Elephants

Apparently, as evident to me from a video, tourists were attacked, when they had been on canoes paddled like gondolas.

A canoe offers less protection and disguise than I would like in wild animal territory. Once out of a canoe, you have less protection.

A cat has whiskers. Motocades have outriders. Miners carried canaries. 

I am wondering whether out in the wild one could send something ahead. Up in the air, looking, like a drone.  Moving independently ahead, ike a child's  fist size car on wheels which can be pushed along a nursery floor and then races under its own stream, I meant steam, until it hits a wall.

Tourists tend to trust guides. Guides are supposed to take you to see animals, but keep you at a safe distance. But unless a wild animal is kept away, you are exposed..

Protection From Wild Animals

How can a wilkd animal can be kept away? In zood for photos, a wild animal can be kept on a chain, with a keeper holding it, a keeper with a weapon. 

Or in zoos kept away by a blockage such as a fence. At Singapore's night Safari by a deep ditch. With tourists behind trees, fences, or inside the walls of a windowed train. 

The news and the internet can entertain, and warn.

Useful Websites

Daily Mail 29 Feb Sept 2025 Video of elephant changing and hitting trunk on tourist tipped out of boat in Botswana.

 

Woburn Safari Park, Windsor, & Animal Headband Souvenirs

 

My family went to Windsor Safari Park, oops, Woburn Safari Park, Windsor, over the August bank Holiday weekend in England. 

Cars Allowed In Safari Parks

In the safari park you stay inside your car. You are not allowed to drive a convertible (soft roof) car, for safety reasons.

Animals To See In Woburn Safari Park

The animals my family saw included lions, giraffes, hippos, monkeys and many more. I think hippos are ugly, like unicorns? Unicorns with attitue. At four years old, my grand-daughter knows all the animals.

Most animals are nocturnal. The lions were asleep on a distant tree.

However, the monkeys were pretty lively. They jumed onto cars. Luckily, no pulling of the windscreen wipers on our family's car.

The site has a restaurant with basic popular food. 

Safari Park Shop Souvenirs

But the best bit was the shop. My four year old grand-daughter instantly took a fancy to a pair of animal colour headband and tail. The one she wanted was not available, only the headband, no tail. But she settled for another set.

I was amused by it. But I would have been quite happy just with the headband. 

My grand-daughter slept all the way though dinner. So I wore the headband.

Angela Lansbury wearing a headband from Woburn Safari Park.

Safari Park Prices

Regarding prices, you can buy tickets for individuals or for the car. The price for three, two adults and a child, worked out cheaper than paying for a car. But if you had a full car, five or more, it might be cheaper to pay for a car. Check what works for you before paying.

Woburn Safari Park Websites

https://www.thamesweb.co.uk/windsor/safaripark/index.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_Safari_Park

https://www.woburn.co.uk/https://www.woburn.co.uk/

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More memories of the eclipse

Total Eclipse

Cards84664 - Own work in Wikipedia under eclipse 2024 in Wikipedia Commons
 

I went to a newly formed Toastmasters International group called travelmasters. One of the prepared speeches started with memories of the eclipse. This year the speaker saw a partial eclipse from his area. Those in the New Jersey and New York area saw more.

India

He had previously been to see an eeclipse in India. He was with a local society which was studying wildlife. They went to the forest to see the effect the eclipse would have on animals, incects and birds. They were looking at bats and monkeys. 

Prepare For Dark & Cold

As the eclipse progressed over half an hour the sky grew darker. You need a torch to get around in the dark. 

As it got dark, the weather grew chillier. So this year he was prepared for the drop in temperature and took a jacket.

Camera Ready\

You have your camera ready. Not just for the sky and the eclipse. Also for the reactions on the ground. Your astonished friends. 

Animal Reactions

But also the wildlie. As the sky grew darker during the daytime, which was unusual, the animals stopped foraging for food and hunting and went back to their homes, their burrows, or nests. For their own safety? To protect their amilies. For comfort. I dont suppose they even thought about it. Just instinct.

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What to see in Gibraltar

Gibraltar,  the rock is easily identified in profile, sheer on one side, more gently sloping on the other side.


Flag of Spain

When we had a flat in Spain a popular side trip was to Gibraltar. Gibraltar has long been of strategic importance, guarding the entrance to the Mediterranean.




UK flag

 Gibraltar is popular with British visitors. But also has sites of interest to all.
Flag of Gibraltar.

The flag is white in the upper half which does not show up against a white background. You can copy it into a photo edit programme and put a border around it. Or look for a flag flying against a blue sky or other coloured background.

Gibraltar

What to see
The 'monkeys'. Actually Barbary macaques.

Signs in Singapore forbid you to feed monkeys because the wild animals later grab bags from other tourists and families visiting the area and the monkeys get irate when they find bags contain no food.

You can also do a dolphin safari.


General tour including the citadel.

Religious Buildings
You have a church, a synagogue and a mosque. Take your pick. Visit one or all.
See the outside, the inside if you know when it is open and who is permitted to enter.
Gibraltar has four synagogues, all orthodox, and you can see the interiors in Wikipedia.


Gibraltar Hindu temple, interior


.
Gibraltar mosque. Exterior.



The Great Synagogue, one of four synagogues.

Hotels
Must see the Rock Hotel.



The Rock Hotel, Gibraltar



The Rock Hotel, Gibraltar

I remember ordering coffee in the lounge. I asked for brown sugar. They brought the brown sugar. The next day, without being asked, the waiter brought me the brown sugar.

We visited for coffee and a meal on one occasion.

Later we stayed there one New Year's Eve. You could watch the fireworks out in the sea.

My family in the UK this month included a couple went to their relative's flat in southern Spain. A cheap holiday. They also have family members from Morocco. You can take trips from Gibraltar over to Morocco.

Spain is very popular with the Brits. Not just the multi millionaires with yachts. All kinds of people with all kinds of budgets. My window cleaner bought a property in Spain.

Side trips around Spain could include Seville. The city of Seville is capital of Andalucia in Southern Spain. Attractions include the landmark Giralda tower.

Entertainment includes flamenco dancing. Yes, you can dance at a distance for an audience.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibraltar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Gibraltar
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibraltar
https://wikitravel.org/en/Gibraltar
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Gibraltar
https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/SmartDeals-g187510-Gibraltar-Hotel-Deals.html
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/spain/entry-requirements
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/gibraltar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synagogues_of_Gibraltar

OK, so you can go. Which airlines will take you?
https://www.skyscanner.com.sg/flights-to/es/airlines-that-fly-to-spain.html

About the author, Angela Lansbury

I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a travel writer and photographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.

Please come to a Toastmasters International Club where the English clubs have a language evaluator or grammarian.  We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and other language clubs based in Singapore and many more online around the world which because of Covid-19 are now meeting online.

I am President of Braddell Heights Advanced, meeting the first Wednesday of the month, Usually on Zoom. But the other Wednesdays have workshops on app learncool.sg

Incoming president Faith from Wed July 15th 2020 change dates and platforms so please contact the club.

Latest is only two meetings each month.

For meetings learncool it is quicker to type and easier to remember: 

 tinyurl.com/BHACOOL

Useful Websites On Speaking and Languages

https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club
translate.google.com
duolingo.com

https://www.duolingo.com/enroll/vi/en/Learn-Vietnamese

https://www.facebook.com/groups/polygotcommunity/

Other Useful Posts By Angela Lansbury Author

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogs

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2020/07/where-you-see-six-point-star-of-david.html
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/04/how-to-say-thank-you-in-several.html
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/05/introducing-yourself-in-english-spanish.html
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2020/01/second-set-of-portuguese-words.html 

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What do you love and hate about America, England, Scotland, Singapore? Any surprises?

ke ice cream, 

Bagel Varieties 

Everybody worldwide knows bagels. New York bagels. Firm outside and soft, chewy inside. No longer a surprise. We have them in London. We have them in Singapore. 

American? Actually from Poland. back in the 1880s. I know from researching Europe where my ancestors came from for a family history which turned into a novel to make it more exciting to read. 

I learned that bagels had a hole in the middle so that the seller could put them on a pole - raised visibly in the air.  As a buyer could hang one, or a second one, on a string around your neck for travelling. 

But like so many modern things, it is the Americans who have spread the good ideas worldwide. Bagels are no longer a novelty.  But very welcome.

Ice Cream Varieties

In the Sixties I travelled from London, England to the USA for the first time. I was impressed by 24 hour restaurants, 

Now we have 24 hour McDonalds all over Singapore, often with an advertisement in the nearest MRT station. Then you have somewhere to meet your friends. Of, if you miss your last train home, you know where to go to eat and drink and doze or sit and call a cab.

Singapore McDonalds 24 hours or open until late.

Ice Cream Flavours

Another thing which impressed me in the good old days in the USA was that the restaurants themselves offered huge choices. For example, the dozens of varieties of ice cream. Now we have ice cream parlours with numerous flavours worldwide. 

Bagels, too, come in many varieties. Poppy seed. Sesame seed. Those are the savoury ones, Sweet one, too. Cinnamon with sultanas.

After you have eaten you want the toilet. You may want to wash the crumbs and mayonnaise off your fingers. But what about washing your hands before eating!

Toilets
What surprises you about America? Yes, I agree with others who have commented on toilets. I visited the USA years ago and in Dallas with a group of international travel writers I was shown the schoolbook depository where the assailant shot Kennedy. I was interviewed by a reporter from Dallas Morning News about what a British visitor noticed about America. I mentioned the toilets, the low partitions with gaps underneath.

My punchline was, 'it's not something you'd want the Queen to have to cope with'. I still have that news cutting on the wall of my home in London England.

What has changed? Not much, regarding toilets, if visitors from overseas are still surprised by American toilets.


American flag

AMERICAN TOILETS
The toilet cubicles with flimsy board partitions with gaps under the walls are annoying. No privacy.
On London railway stations they say mind the gap. The same in Singapore. They should say mind the gap in toilets.

Gaps under partitions and doors have spread worldwide. A water leak in one cubicle flows over all the others. You can see the reflection in tr floor or the shadow of the person next door taken the toilet paper, entering and leaving. It's like being a character in a spy movie.

t

A refuge worldwide is old fashioned buildings and hotels which still have solid walls. Spread to London, England. Same in Singapore.

Now, let us look at bread.

Plain white bread, sliced, toasted, at many hotels.

AMERICAN BREAD
Doorstop white bread sandwiches.

Union Jack, flat of the United Kingdom, currently, in 2019, comprised of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

I won't even mention that Scotland has salt in the breakfast porridge. You have to travel.  I was teaching English in Singapore. One of my Chinese pupils got the English words and grammar correct but the facts about Scotland wrong. Her sentence was: Scottish people in Scotland grow rice. No, they don't.

UK BREAD
The best bread/ Rye bread in B & K.


B & K salt beef sandwich from Hatch End or Edgware, in London, England.

Proper brown bread is available in supermarkets in London. Come to Tesco and look for seed breads, sliced seed breads. They make great sandwiches. You can buy made-up ready to go sandwiches with brown bread as well.

Tesco corners are in supermarkets in Singapore. I see Tesco wines but not Tesco seed bread sandwiches. Boo-hoo!

SINGAPORE BREAD
The local breakfast favourite is thin white bread with kaya jam, yellow coconut jam, toasted.

Toasted kaya sandwich and coffee for breakfast or elevenses, as we say in London, England. (Elevenses is a mid morning snack at around eleven o'clock).

I love it. But I know it is unhealty.

But too much thick white bread in Singapore, even in hotels, such as the Sheraton Towers.

At club events in Community Clubs, huge white bread sandwiches with peanut butter filling.

Peanut butter - that reminds me of the USA.

Let them eat cake. Green pandan cake.

Green buns.

AMERICAN FOOD TO GO
I love the way in American restaurants the food is always wrapped to go. You don't have to ask. They ask you., "Would you like it wrapped up to go?"

AMERICAN SIGNS
And I love the signs in the USA. Drive up the mountains, as we did along the empty east coast hilltop road which runs parallel to the busy coastal road below, nobody for miles, nothing but you and the birds and the clouds. But stop your car at what might be a viewpoint and you see signs to parking, toilets and - the best place to take a photo.


Flag of Singapore

SINGAPORE SIGNS
The same applies in Singapore at reservoir walks. Signs warn, do not feed the monkeys.

Back in the city centre, the trains run frequently, every three to five minutes. With free public toilets outside the entrance to every station.

See my previous post about toilets around the world. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Oh, the joys of travel. Even if you do nothing more exciting than going to the toilet in the city, or standing alone on a mountaintop, there's always something to marvel at.

Even if you never leave the airport.


Jewel Shopping mall with its giant central waterfall, opened 2019 at Changi airport, with shuttle train to other terminals.

Useful Websites
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-6856507/Tourists-reveal-things-surprised-visiting-US.html

USA
visittheusa.co.uk

UK
visitbritain.com

CHINA
http://www.travelchina.gov.cn/en/index/index.shtml

SINGAPORE
visitsingapore.com

Airline, often voted the world's best.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Banana grabbing monkeys in Cambodia

Problem
Monkeys on the loose. In the Zenghua area of North Singapore a monkey has been on the loose. A few people have been feeding the monkey. Up to ten people have reported being bitten.

At a Toastmasters Club meeting at Zenghua Community Centre, the Sergeant At Arms, who opens the meeting, went around the table asking each person in term to give their name, club and view os what to do about monkeys. This produced varied views.


A day later I was talking to a friend about my recent trip to Cambodia where we tok a ride in a tuk-tuk and saw monkeys near monuments under nearby trees being fed by visitors.

My friend recalled her trip to Cambodia, with a monkey encounter. She had visited a temple and the tuk-tuk was parked outside. A small girl was selling bananas, cheaply.

My friend bought a bunch of small bananas. She placed the bunch on the lid of the backrest to the back seat. Suddenly a monkey jumped down from a nearby tree. It grabbed hold of the bananas and started eating them.

Along came some more monkeys. It was monkey's World War Three.

the first monkey had shot up a tree with its banana. I had been expected my fired to say, "I shot up the tree and grabbed back my banana."

Not so fast. Not so easy.

I was expecting my friend to say, "As we turned the corner I looked back and saw the key returning the bananas to the little girl so she could re-sell them to somebody else."

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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Why You Should Not Feed Monkeys

Problem
Children were shrieking, running after a monkey which ran up a tree. The girls were trying to feed the monkey. A boy was chasing the monkey with a stick.

I said to one of the girls: "You're are frightening it. There are twenty of you twice its size."

She replied, "I'm trying to feed it."

I said, "You shouldn't feed monkeys. They will attack you."

She retorted: "We fed it and it didn't attack us."

Days later I spoke to a security guard who said:

"Yes, we know all about the monkey. We think it got separated from a group. Lots of monkeys live on Bukit Timah. (Central Singapore.) We called the NEA. The National Environment Agency. We aren't allowed to kill it. We have to catch it and release it.

"We've been trying to catch it for days. But it's too clever. We put food down in the open to lure it, and more food inside a cage. It took the food from the open but would not go inside the cage. Would you go inside a cage? I wouldn't. We are supposed to be descended from monkeys but monkeys are cleverer than we are.

"The reason you're not supposed to feed monkeys is that it stops them being able to fend for themselves. They aren't born knowing how to catch food. They learn from their elders. If you stop a baby monkey learning, it doesn't know how to survive and can't teach its children.

"Once a monkey learns that it gets food where humans live it hangs around. If it gets food three or four times it waits for some more. Then if somebody comes back from shopping with food in a bag the monkey will try to take it.

"We had one monkey climbing up the balconies to one of the upper flats. Luckily it didn't get inside. A monkey indoors creates havoc, hundreds of pounds worth of damage, a huge insurance claim."

A biker who is also a hasher (a member of a worldwide running group which in Singapore runs through the jungle) told me"
"We see the monkeys if we have a run through Bukit Timah. Th government used to put up little signs asking you not to feed damage. Now the signs are huge. Monkeys can be very aggressive and destructive. They can get on your bike and tear the saddle."

Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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