Panda Craze
A little trivia from life in Thailand today. On May 27 this year, a baby panda was born in the Chiang Mai zoo (the offspring of a pandas gifted to Thailand from China). Ever since, Thais have been rather obsessed. The panda cub has been featured almost daily on the front page of the Thai newspaper with reports on her height and weight. There was a big report the first day she opened one eye and another when she opened both! The girl's 2009 Wimbledon champion (a Thai) was photographed petting her. The most recent news is that the zoo is building a snow house for the pandas.
Our girls are interested in the naming process. It's been narrowed down to four choices and now the public will choose the winner. Eliza's vote is for Kwan Thai (Spirit of Thailand). She will mail this postcard to cast her vote.
Even Thailand's elephants are getting in on the action. Elephant keepers have made a light-hearted protest about how much more attention the panda is getting than Thailand's famous elephants...and they even went so far as to paint a few elephants as pandas.
-Candice