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Published: December 24th 2010
Hey guys, sorry for the LONG delay. I've been waiting for some sort craziness or inspiration to ensue, but it's been just a month of great travel without too much drama. So, for this entry, you're just going to have to settle for a few comments and LOTS of pictures from my last 4 weeks through the northern parts of Thailand and Laos.
Okay, let's start out with a BIG stereotype - Thai people must be some of the happiest people in the world (I now see where it comes from Dan). No matter what was happening, all of the Thais I met were always laughing, even if it was bad. For example, on a rafting trip through northern Thailand, we flipped the raft in one of the rapids and one of the Thais got stuck underneath for 10-15 seconds. He came up spluttering and yelling that he nearly drowned, and then he proceeded to laugh about it for the next hour! Their joy really is contagious!
ELEPHANTS - I got to ride an asian elephant! So cool. And SOOO big! Why they ever let themselves be domesticated, I'll never know, though I'm guessing it has something to do
with lots of bananas and sugar cane. The elephant ride was a short hour-long gimmick before a 2-day trek to visit some minority villages, but it really was incredible. The best part was feeding them at the end. I can't believe how coordinated and gentle they are with their trunks!
TIGERS - As you'll see from the pictures, I did pet some tigers in Thailand. And yes I was a bit terrified! They're big! One of the ones that was sleeping smacked me with his tail a couple of times and nearly knocked me over. It really was amazing to see how strong they are.
BEARS - I'm cheating a bit with this one. I just visited a waterfall today outside of Luang Prabang in Laos, and there was an asian bear (Asian Black Bear and Sun Bear) rehabilitation center on cite. Nothing too exciting, but it helped with the title of the blog post 😊
In Kanchanaburi I got to relive my favorite David Lean film - The Bridge on the River Kwai. The Thai's even simulated blowing it up every night with fireworks in honor of the King's birthday (5 December).
Going back to
the trekking, I just want to say that the trek I just did in Northern Laos (near Luang Nam Tha) is probably the highlight of the trip so far. We hiked 3-4 hours into one of the minority villages in Luang Nam Tha National Park, and the villages were UNBELIEVABLY welcoming. They'd just finished the rice harvest, so they were celebrating by drinking some sweet rice alcohol they'd brewed. They asked us to drink with them (see pictures), and they stuff was amazingly good. Also, we got to play soccer with some of the village kids. And when we went down to the river to clean up afterwards, they just went back to their daily routines and went down to the river to wash their clothes and the kids. It was just such a fantastic day. Hopefully the pictures can do it some justice.
All right, that's all I can come up with late on Christmas Eve, so I think I'll leave it there. I hope everyone has a great holiday break with friends and family, and I'll try to send a great post in a couple of weeks after I've gone through Cambodia.
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Mom
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Another great blog!
As usual, I really enjoyed your blog and all your pictures. Yes those kids were as cute as you said they were!!!!------and the tigers looked huge but beautiful. Keep sending these blogs because they're great!!!