Kids smoking
12 March 1986
Day 3 of the hill tribe trek and we passed through a village where the kids were smoking locally grown tobacco.
Brother & sister twins? Possibly from the Karen tribe.
Family photo with a python
Singapore Zoo was more like a circus. There were animal shows and you could get a portrait with either a chimp, orangutan or python. The orangutan was frustrated, I saw it pinch a woman’s nipple and suffer a beating from the animal keepers. I like the mixed emotions of the family and onlookers in this shot. In the background you can see 4 kids placed on an elephant – trusting they don’t fall off.
Crocodile Harry’s dugout
8 August 1985
My first day in Coober Pedy and I went on a local tour of the town that included Crocodile Harry’s dugout – that’s him above on the right. Full of kitsch and his own lurid sculptures. It was used as a set in “Mad Max: beyond Thunderdome” that I saw in Darwin later that year. He was in fine form, drunk & lecherous. He came over to the youth hostel – Radeka’s dugout – later that night spinning ripping yarns. He may have been the inspiration for the movie “Crocodile Dundee” that I saw in London the year after.
Here’s some links:
http://www.baltictimes.com/latvia___s_crocodile_harry__inspiration_for_hollywood/
http://www.radekadownunder.com.au/
Coober Pedy’s desolate post-apocalyptic landscape – ideal as a movie set.
The next morning I was out early on the road hoping for a lift north. An incredible pink cloud sunrise at 6.40am.
Was picked up by an opal buyer/cutter from Perth going to Mintabie from Marla. A Latvian by birth, same as Crocodile Harry, he had given him the lift into C.P. yesterday. Going to buy opals from the miners at Mintabie a few hundred kilometres north.
Alot of wildlife early, emus, red kangaroos and the most Wedge-tailed eagles I’ve seen all feeding on overnight road kill. Also another bustard.
Elephants and a Gibbon
7 March 1986
Travelled north of Chiang Mai and got off the bus at the Chiang Dao Elephant Camp. The elephants in Thailand are Indian elephants, Elephas maximus indicus, they were listed as endangered that same year.
Evi was there. Not many other tourists, but a nice display of washing the elephants in the river and dragging logs. People fed them bananas and took 20 baht rides. Bought strawberries – delicious, and played with a docile gibbon.
Here’s Evi with an endangered Lar, or white-handed gibbon. You can just see the chain that tethered it to a spike in the ground.
Young boy at Kenja
19 April 1986
Day 2 of the Everest trek from Jiri. Reached the village of Kenja and waited an hour for lunch of dahl bhat. Used my telephoto lens to capture some of the locals including this one.
Took off at 2.30pm heading straight up the first part of the Lamjura Pass. An ascent of 950 metres from 1,630m altitude to 2,575m at Sete.
Less sherpas and porters on the trail today. A number of trekkers coming back including Alain! Last saw him in Singapore [February]. He gave me the usual run down on all the best places to stay and eat at and good advice on the route. His 23rd day, a great trek.
Another 20 minutes and arrived at Sete, the site of a defunct monastery. Staying at the Sagamartha Lodge – as recommended.