Would I Eat My Workmate?

I find it difficult to resist taking pictures of a buffalo, especially when a proud owner asks me to and plonks two small children on its back.

Although the days when buffaloes were the rice farmer's essential work mate are long gone, there is still a strong affection for buffaloes. Many people still keep them, raising them for meat and there's money to be made. This man has seven and he could buy a decent second hand pickup with the proceeds.

Cat says she would never eat buffalo though. She remembers Yuie too well, the buffalo of her childhood to even consider it. The French eat horse but I as a Brit likewise never would.

Rural Thais remember swimming with the buffaloes, tumbling off their backs into the muddy water, taking them out to graze in the morning and sitting with them as the eat, sometimes riding on their backs and having races with their friends. It's then hard not to bond with them.

Buffaloes are not as stupid as they look and they're good natured and work hard. I'd never eat my work mate either, especially when it's such an icon!