Pixeldawg Loc: Suzhou, China

Last year about this time, my wife and I went on our honeymoon. We had already been married a year, but took our son, Johnny with us on our trip to Japan, shortly after getting married. This time though, we went to Thailand while he visited my brother Mike and his family in America. It was interesting because the country was still mourning the loss of their King, who had died months previous to our visit. It was fascinating to see all of the displays in his honor. Hotels, billboards (Which are HUGE in Thailand- I would guess 6x's the size of an average billboard in America...). We started our trip in Bangkok and I just loved it. Such a cool city and such friendly people. I really enjoyed the time there. One of the things that we did was take a canal tour, and while riding around we came across this beast- a 5-6 foot long Water Monitor Lizard. So big. I'd never seen one of these before and had to contact a friend in Alabama, who is a Biologist to see if she knew what it was. She was really amazed that I was able to see one of these in a native environment. They were everywhere though and even sat in the yards of people, who basically ignored them. Anyway, if you have the opportunity to go to Thailand, you should. A really magnificent place and in Bangkok it is a fusion of both western and eastern cultures with buildings that are magnificent to look at and again a culture and people who I found very friendly and interesting.


Here is the lizard:

Doddy Loc: Barnard Castle-England

The 'relaxed' look..nice shot.

bedouin Loc: Big Bend area, Texas

A bit of trivia. I lived in Thailand almost 4 years. The natives refer to that lizard as a"hia." Hia is also a vulgar term referring to a woman's genitals. I asked several Thais why are they called the lizard that term and none could give me a satisfactory answer!

sailorsmom Loc: Souderton, PA

Beautiful shot, Mark!

topcat Loc: Alameda, CA

Very nice capture