Young Children for sale!

There are cute children in every village so I’m not labouring under the illusion that mine are the cutest in the world, but I thought I would share some of them. They’re not actually for sale, although Fitness First’s mum told me I could buy her for 5 Baht, which rather frightened the poor girl.

I call this little man Putter. He’s a big fan of the horn on motorbikes and he likes giving kisses. Everyone seems to like him and he never has a bad gurgle to say about anyone. In the photo he’s trying to do a “peace” sign, but clearly has a long way to go. I taught him how to do a thumbs-up on command, which he executes perfectly.

This is Bowl Cut. In Thailand most young girls wear their hair in this style, but Bowl Cut seems to have a special stylist who uses a ruler and only cuts horizontally, giving her a comedy helmet hairstyle that needs to be seen in the flesh to be properly appreciated. Bowl Cut and I are currently locked in a war of pulling faces at each other and I'm confident that with further support from the donating public I will emerge victorious.

When I forced every child in the village to do a certain number of pull-ups on the Jungle Gym, I was surprised to see the winner of the Under 10’s category was a girl, who I now call Fitness First. She has become a regular at the gym and continues to impress me with her work ethic and determination to pull herself up. I don't have a photo of her yet because she's quite shy so when I get one, I'll update this post.

Batman and Robin

This dynamic duo was an early favourite of mine and I thought they were a very cute couple. Unfortunately, Batman’s has started behaving aggressively. I suspect he’s getting this from his dad, who doesn’t seem like a particularly nice guy. I don’t really know how to react to his puny fists pummelling my legs and I don’t make a big deal out of it, but if he goes for a crotch-shot I pick him up by one leg and hold him upside down until he concedes defeat. The villagers seem to approve of this tactic.

Every child is special and all the children in the village have something interesting about them, but alas, only these four were available for the photo-shoot so only they are achieving internet fame. One nice thing is that I’ve been taking photos of little boys and girls and no one has given me devil looks or accused me of being a paedophile.

I won't be updating this blog any more - go to The Penang Blog to see my new and exciting Malaysia blog!