Cock o' the walk

Now I'm perfectly familiar with the concept of a city being a series of interconnected villages.  What I'm less used to is the villagers bringing their animals with them but in Mumbai it's fairly common.  There are a surprising amount of chickens in the city and this fine fellow struts his stuff just a few minutes walk from the Bentley showroom. He's showing some city living damage but is still Cock o' the Walk.

A city of contrasts?  Indeed it is.

Street Eaters

Dogs, cats, rats and cows are all fairly common eaters of things on the the street. I don't have any pictures of those at the moment so offer some alternatives:

Found everywhere but usually moving too fast for me to capture them.



Pigs were unexpected scavengers in Jaipur but they seem to do a pretty good job in clearing up the edible, and less obviously edible, junk.

Vinpearl "attractions"

I was in Nha Trang this week and was offered chances to see elephant and bear shows, ride ostriches or watch dog and monkey shows. Vietnam still likes performing animal shows. I've had conversations with people about their cruelty or being inappropriate ways to treat animals but no-one so far has responded wth anything other than some comment about the animals being cute or clever.



I suspect Vietnam hasn't had the luxury of being able to get all worked up about animal dignity having some bigger concerns to get sorted out.



The pictures here feature animals used in a very popular show at Vinpearl Land, Nha Trang. I find them heartbreaking and avoid them. I also support Wildlife at Risk who are doing a good job in education and practical rescue and protection programmes.

Frog

Nothing more interesting than a picture of a frog but I was particularly pleased to capture it so clearly.

Cambodia, light tourism

Following the rather serious last post I felt the need to return to what this is all about; pictures of things I like.

Here's an elephant. Who doesn't like elephants? This one works at a local park taking people for short rides, some time after 3pm she has a wander down the main riverside road stopping off for snacks.



The first time I saw her I made two assumptions, first that her mahout was getting money from people for posing with the elephant for pictures, he wasn't, he just wandered along beside her. Second I guessed she was getting fruit trimmings, wrong again, she got nicely arranged trays of fresh fruit including whole sliced pineapples. She looks in very good condition, it can't be too bad a life.

A tree decorated for Valentine's Day from the kind people at Coca Cola. I love you, may your teeth rot.





This dog knows it looks silly.



It looked even more long suffering the day before in a pink frilly blouse.

Barber Surgeon



The face mask, while adding a nice hygienic touch, was necessary, this is a very busy road just over the wall from the local crematorium.

An ox cart hauling pottery kitchen goods, a nice touch of the countryside in the city.



Meaty snacks:



I'm guessing cockroach but to my shame I didn't try them, a Cambodian girl told me that spiders tasted better anyway and they didn't have any on this stall.