The turnout at the recent Thai election was an impressive 70%+ of all who were entitled to vote including this 109 year old lady who was determined to cast her vote having endured a long period of ( fairly undemocratic) rule by the military backed government who came to power in a coup some 8 years ago.
And what a kicking the existing government took, coming in a distant 3rd behind the newly formed Move Forward party and the Pheu Thai party, headed up by the daughter of a previous Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin. So, game, set and match you would have thought to the ‘newbies’ but…….
For those of us used to elections fought by just a very few major parties, it is difficult to imagine the complexities in an vote involving 31 different political groups as happened here. So, although the Move Forward party were the clear winners, they don’t have the required majority to be immediately confirmed as the new government and thus are currently hard at work trying to create a coalition to give them the required total number of seats. All this is fairly normal activity in democratic societies but what is not so normal is what might happen before everything is settled.
As in the UK’s political structure, Thailand has two houses, the upper one being the Senate. And the Senate has the power to veto the forming of a government by any party, more or less irrespective of any majority they might have. As the Senate consists almost entirely of those appointed by the current government, nobody here believes it is a foregone conclusion that the winner of the recent election will actually be asked – or be able- to becoming the next ruling party. A strange form of democracy, me thinks and one that will take time to resolve as there is a lot of political manoeuvring going on (as well as a bit of mud slinging) behind the scenes with some saying it will be August before a any new government is confirmed. All of this has created a lot of tension in the ranks of those who voted for change and in theory, achieved just that! So, watch this space!
Apart from being a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Kaeng Krachan national park, located close to the Myanmar border app 1.5hrs drive from Hua Hin, is the largest national park in Thailand covering an area close to 3,000 square kilometres. It is a vast area of all sorts of often dramatic flora and fauna
with beautiful walkways that meander through the surprisingly green tropical forest at what is the driest time of the year.
It was our good friend, Ian, who told us about the butterflies in this area. There are more than 1,000 different species of butterfly in Thailand and during these months, most of them seem to congregate in a particular area of this park to collect salt from the surrounding moisture which is, apparently, so essential for their breeding and general wellbeing. There are millions of them
of all different sizes and colours
and so very tame, too
A very definite ‘first’ for me as I have never seen anything like this before in my life. An extraordinary and beautiful day out.
Nokky was doing a bit of housework the other day when I heard her scream after she had discovered a Thai tree snake innocently sleeping on the floor behind a curtain.
These tree snakes can grow up to 140cm in length and this one must have been at least that but as I have learnt that this species is not venomous, I am less terrified now and managed to coax the speedy, slithering creature out of the front door, down the steps and into the bushes. In my haste, though, I forgot to take a photo but I know that it looked exactly like this..
And whilst on the subject of slithery things, whilst working in the garden the other day, I disturbed another such creature but at least this one had legs – so many of them, in fact, that it quickly disappeared into the undergrowth. Courtesy of Dr Google, I discovered later that what I had unearthed was about a 15cm long Red Giant Millipede (Spirobolus sp for the experts) which, in some parts of the world is quite a collectors item.
This one is for sale on the internet for a modest US$250!!
It’s still uber hot here with daytime temperatures of 35c+ dipping to a cool 28c at night!! But at least we’ve had some rain perhaps signalling that the rainy season is finally about to start.
Maybe that’s what’s causing all these animals to come out to play.
Until it gets wetter
R
thelasthurrahsite 