Photoshop attack
(A picture of Pete and I with a shark, taken at Chiang Mai Zoo Aquarium: Chiang Mai, Thailand)
All I can do is explain that it was somehow irresistibly tacky and banal, and we had to have one. Since you may not believe I was actually perched atop a shark, I had a photograph taken on a small green stool in a green room inside the aquarium, and was then super imposed on this great fish. Pete posed inside the green room and then the rather bored Photoshop wizards created a deep-sea scene in which we were the stars.
The picture itself is decidedly unimpressive, but the frame was worth the couple of hundred baht on its own – it is priceless. I am especially fond of the turtle on the right, flailing his limbs in the air as if a passenger on some ocean rollercoaster. I was a little disappointed that there was no feely tank in the aquarium, although it did have the longest underwater tunnel in the world, but really it was two moderately long tunnels with a photo opportunity between them. However, in the absence of touching manta rays, there was an exhibit in the zoo chock full of tortoises at waist level with a very low fence. You can probably imagine that natural curiosity took over. I’ve never actually touched a tortoise and never picked one up. So I did. Pete and I considered smuggling it into the boot of the car as there were so many in the enclosure as to be a little cramped. Then I pictured the tortoise being harangued by a feisty cockerel in Pete’s garden and I came to my senses and put him back.
