Snapshots - meet Seebah Prakoon - aka 'Robert' (by Joe)

This is Seebah Prakoon (aka 'Robert' to European tourists). He was our guide on a three-day jungle trek in north Thailand (see 'Lau of the jungle' blog below) .

Seebah is 29, married and has a 14 month old child. He is of the Karen hilltribe group. Numbering some 500,000 the Karen is the largest of the hilltribe groups that live across north Thailand, Burma (Myanmar) and Laos. Like many Karen, his family left Burma for Thailand two generations ago to escape the Burmese Government.

Seebah spent several years in the Thai army fighting armed Burmese guerillas and drug smugglers in a deadly game of cat and mouse along the jungley 1000km(+) Thai - Burma border.

This, coupled with his hilltribe background gives him tremendous knowledge of the jungle, its terrain, and the plants and animals that inhabit it. The jungle is very much 'his patch' and this is a man who genuinely knows how to look after himself in it.

Seebah also claims to know how to kill and eat just about anything and, over the three day trek, explained to us in great detail how to kill and cook monkeys, snakes, spiders, pigs, cows, rats, dogs, chickens and cats. He also informed us jokingly (but with just a touch too much seriousness for complete comfort) that 'Farang' (white men) are relatively easy to kill and cook up nicely.

Like many young Thais, Seebah had ambition as a young man to become a champion Thai boxer. He took part in three bouts, he tells us, winning the first two and losing the third, which ended when an elbow to the jaw knocked him out cold for ten minutes. He says that now the thought of Thai boxing "... makes me feel very sleepy".

Despite a slight stammer, Seebah speaks good English and enjoys bantering in 6 or 7 foreign languages (depending on the make up of the treking group). In english his favourite banter phrases are 'Wow' and 'oh really' (in a slightly doubting tone). He also enjoys telling women on his treks that Thai men are 'small but very spicy' - after which he then makes a 'Carry on up the jungle' type face (see left).

Seebah also has an interesting campfire song repetoire. Essentially, he knows the first line or two (but no more) of many classic pop songs, so his songs become long medleys of well known tunes - for example: "And you can say, Baby / if I saw you in heaven / at hotel california, such a lovely place, such a lovely place / Yesterday / old macdonald had a farm eh aye eh aye oh." (Incidentally in Seebah's version, Old Macdonald only ever has a chicken, however many verses you sing).

In truth we didn't copmpletely take to Seebah at first, reading his banter as a sign that he was perhaps a bit overexperienced with tourists and might prove insincere. However, this was completely wrong - to us he was a very entertaining, informative, sincere guy - and more than occasionally hilarious.

However after the trek, back at the hotel we discovered something else about Seebah. He may be a king in the jungle, but in the bar after two or three beers he turns into a pussycat!

Joe