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• My encounter with Orangutans in Lok Kawi Wildlife Park. (ajithphotography.wordpress.com)

I took a quick look at TreeHugger today, one of the blogs I actually have time to read that doesn’t deal with technology (work), and found out that it was Global Tiger Day. I was, as always, saddened by the news that there are only about 3,500 tigers left in the wild right now (there are actually more in America!). Since poaching and habitat loss are two of the biggest risks to these wonderful animals, here’s hoping that people stop shooting them for their skins and for “traditional medicines”.

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Ayutthaya is one of the old kingdoms of Thailand that was sacked by the Burmese. If you visit the main city of Ayutthaya,  which is an easy trip of about 1.5-2 hours outside of Bangkok, you will notice that nearly all the Buddha statues in the area had their heads cut off by the invading Burmese forces (kind of odd because both countries were then Buddhist, if I’m not mistaken).

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I took this picture of an Asiatic Leopard at the Safari Park in Kanchanaburi, Thailand. While tigers are probably my favorite animal of the big cat family, with a very close second going to the snow leopard, I’ve always admired the strength of leopards and the overall menace in their eyes (many people have commented on how piercing the eyes of a leopard are). Leopards are generally regarded as the strongest member of the big cat family on a pound-for-pound basis, which would make them the Manny Pacquiao of the big cat family, and I have no doubt that this animal would have no problems dispatching me to the netherworld even if I weigh considerably more than they do (leopards generally way about 100-150 pounds or so).

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My wife and I recently made a trip to Kanchanaburi, Thailand because it is one of the few tourist areas we hadn’t been to yet in Thailand. While the initial draw to Kanchanaburi was visiting The Tiger Temple and the River Kwai, we were very surprised to find a lovely temple called Wat Tham Suea in the region as well. The temple had a very impressive Golden Buddha in the temple, and also appeared to have both Chinese (a pagoda)  and Burmese influences in the design of the temple.

As an aside: While visiting the Tiger Temple was cool because of all of the tigers present there, I must admit to being a little bit disappointed because it seemed that there was more of a focus on rushing tourists through “Tiger Canyon” to take a photo (and yes, I do contribute to the problem by visiting there).  I think I would have been a little happier if the animals were in a more “natural enclosure” and if some of the animals were entirely off-limits to visitors.

As I mentioned in an earlier post about the Bangkok sklyline photos, I’ve been playing around with the new Sony Nex-5 camera to test out the features at a variety of places (this image is from the Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand). While I’m still not going to entirely move away from a regular DSLR just yet, I’m slowly becoming attached to the camera for the following reasons:

1. Extremely light.

2. The lenses for the camera are also very light.

3. The built-in features allow you to create things with HDR without having to use use special software.

4. The camera image quality, at least in my opinion, beats out the other Sony DSLR I have. The sensor also seems to be much better and faster.

When I spoke to the representative at Best Buy about the camera, I did mention I would be more inclined to switch entirely over if they had a range of telephoto lenses available for the Nex-5 (he advised me that they are in the works). While there is a adapter available for Sony DSLR lenses available for the camera, I think I would much rather prefer to have the lenses in a much lighter form than the other lenses.

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I’ve been playing around with the Sony Nex-5 camera I just purchased. While I don’t think I’m ready to give up a regular DSLR just yet, I have been impressed with the abilities of the camera. My only gripe has to do with learning the menu via the wheel, which makes it a little more difficult to make quick changes to what you’re photographing. The camera does have some pretty nifty features, including HDR and a panoramic option.

Koh Tao, Thailand

Koh Yang Nuan

Koh Tao and Koh Yang Nuan are islands were you can do some diving and snorkeling in the Gulf of Thailand. If you’re trying to get to these islands, your best option is to take a trip from the island of Koh Samui to get there. Koh Tao is one of the areas in Thailand where you can possibly see whale sharks (and regular ones!), and you will see lots of brightly colored tropical fish in the shallower snorkeling areas.

Given the recent announcement that the Thai government is considering restricting access to Koh Surin and The Similan Islands, it will be interesting to see if similar steps are taken to protect the coral for human development and other environmental pressures in other aquatic marine parks.