Day 41 (Thur, March 24) - BKK: Crocodile Farm & 'The Last Airbender'

8am It wasn’t raining, so set off to the Samutprakarn Crocodile Farm & Zoo with Naew, Shin, Shain, and Awi driving. It’s right the other end of Bangkok, south of the center. Naew initially suggested going to the smaller & cleaner croc farm closer by – but as I was visiting, we went to the big one. Stopped off at Kasetsart University Laboratory School to pick up the kids’ report cards. Shin was mortified that he wasn’t wearing his school uniform as etiquette required; Naew was at first worried to show her face since she wasn’t planning on going back to her office. Shin got to practice making introductions in English by introducing me to his teachers. Shin got a grade point average of 3.83, above the 3.75 required to get a mention, and his written report-card comments revolved around his being an industrious and participatory student. Shain got a ‘four point zero zero’ for the year in English, P.E. and Music & Thai Dancing, and was praised for his self-confidence and happiness but encouraged to improve his concentration. It’s a very competitive school to get into, with over 3000 applicants for 300 spots, over half of which are reserved for the kids of university faculty staff and a little under a quarter for ‘special favors.’ The parents of mere mortals (albeit with good grades) have to impress the application committee with the right mix of donations and good works – and need to raise their profile with the PTA committee, on which Naew sits. So there’s a lot of ‘Sawadee-ka’-ing back and forth with hands folded and a slight bow of the head anytime Naew is on the school premises. / The Crocodile Farm is the largest in the world. I didn’t count, but there were a helluvalotta crocs. Big crocs, little crocs; well-fed crocs, emaciated crocs; crocs on land, crocs in the water; crocs piled on each other, crocs in solitary confinement. But mostly we saw stationary crocs you couldn’t tell were alive or dead. They hang out scattered across the pavement, sometimes lying across each other, often with their jaws frozen open. / We watched the 10am ‘Crocodile Wrestling Show’ which consisted in two young men dragging crocs out of a moat onto a concrete display area and prodding them sticks to get a snap out of them. The highlight of the show was a tender sticking first his arm then his head into the croc’s maw. They stroked the snout and upper jaw a lot beforehand, which I expect has a de-sensitizing effect; in contrast, when they wanted a sharp snap, they prodded the lower jaw. Naew observed that the show’s slap-stick and tip-begging emphasis was linked to the preponderance of Chinese tourists; last time the she’d seen the show, years ago, it had had more of a spiritual bent. / Afterwards we strolled across the bridges built over the crocodile water-pens, and fed the crocs. Naew bought several buckets of chicken carcasses which we tossed over the railing to the milling crocs below. There was also a ‘Jumping Croc’ station, where visitors could dangle meat over the water with a fishing pole, and the crocs would rise up out of the water snapping for it. / Awi and I walked along the breeding pens, where baby crocs from a few months to a few years were housed, and along the handicapped croc pens where the ‘eyeless’ and ‘humpbacked’ crocs had their home – as well as the ‘dark chocolate covered’ and ‘white chocolate covered’ crocs (now THAT’s what I call a handicap!).