A BREATH of FRESH AIR: Water Buffalo

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Ride 'em buffalo girls...............

More riding lessons in lovely Thailand, and not on an elephant this time!
Can you believe the crazy things best friend Paula gets me up to when we're traveling together!

Let me introduce you to Mr. TONG, a 5 year old (a teen in buffalo years) albino water buffalo. According to his 'valet' he has strong leadership skills and is always eager to learn new things.........hopefully transporting silly tourists is on his favorites list!

"Giddy up" Mr. Tong...............it was awesome, and much closer to the ground than way up on my sweet but huge elephant Mokasoup, view here and here.

This view, from our suite, is of the spectacular rice paddies of The Four Seasons Resort in Chiang Mai, where these water buffaloes work. Staggered planting allows visitors to see rice in all its growth phases. The rice is also planted further apart to enable appreciation of the stunning sunsets reflected in the watery fields.

The harvested rice is donated to local Hill Tribe villagers through the assistance of Prince Bhisadej Rajani. This Royal Project, initiated by the King of Thailand, is to motivate farmers to grow vegetables, fruit and flowers, or produce handicrafts, rather than continue in the now diminishing opium trade which has been largely eradicated since the inception of this project.

This is the usual coloring for a water buffalo - he is named Mr. Thae and is the baby of the group. Although young, we learned the lady buffaloes pay a lot of attention to him because of his good looks. Just something special about those younger guys!

Paula on Mr. Tong............she actually rode him on our very first morning at The Four Seasons. I admit I was a bit nervous about hopping on. Can you blame me, it was my first close encounter with these big 'ole guys. Several days later, after conquering the heights of elephant riding, I was brave enough to try just about anything!

A buffalo talisman purchased at the Buddhist temple Wat Doi Suthep on the side of a mountain overlooking Chiang Mai. This one I brought back for a special boy I know - he loves zebras but I think he may just like water buffaloes too!