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Published: March 3rd 2010
The hammock
pity about what it looks like in the middle.Another exciting day ahead for you to read about! Whoop! Today went to a bear sanctuary! Oooooh I hear you say, how...interesting. Ah ha! That is not all; we also went to a waterfall. Ahh... that’s nice. BUT wait! It gets better! We are going to feed the bears! Okay - how will you manage that you ask. Simple, we go inside the bear’s enclosure and feed them! What! I went into a bear enclosure and lived to tell the tail! What is my huge secrete for staying alive? Shhhhh don’t tell anyone - the bears were not in there when we went in! See I told you it was an exciting day. Okay, so how then did I manage to feed the bears? Well let us go back and start at the beginning of the day.
It was a lovely day, the sun was shining, the sky was blue, the ants were busy marching and the mosquitoes were busy eating me. I swear I have a big neon sign above my head that says eat her, her blood tastes good. But I digress. To get to the Tat Kuang Si Bear Rescue Centre we had to drive an hour
watch your step
there is poo everywhere up winding roads that were barely roads at all. Some people got a little car sick, but oh no not me, I am made of much stronger stuff. Bumpy roads don’t worry me, but herds of meandering Buffalo that just walk out into the road while the car is doing 40 does. As soon as we got there it was like we had walked right into the backpacker’s paradise. Everyone who was there was between the age of 18-25 (okay I know I fall into that age range too but that is not the point). So how do you make a once in a life time experience from such a touristy attraction? Well we first got to the Bear Sanctuary I didn’t quite understand what was going on. There certainly didn’t look like somewhere we could feed the bears. I felt rather disappointed. That was until we met our guide from Oz. Here is a little background to the sanctuary:
They only have 17 bears here, most of which have come from farms that collect the bear’s bile for Chinese medicine. None of these bears will ever be reintroduced into the wild. Firstly they are too scared and some
injured too badly to be able to survive in the wild, secondly they would be easy targets to the poachers (that always makes me think of eggs) and finally there aren’t any safe places to release them. All the bears here are Asian Black Bears. They are rather small bears compared to some of their relatives. Our guide also told us that it is impossible to actually catch an adult bear! What they do is kill the adult and take the babies - sad huh.
So what did we actually do, well there are 3 enclosures and each one is fenced off with electric fencing, even some of the trees have electric wire around them. Sounds cruel but if they didn’t the bears would climb the trees and get out. So the front enclosure out of the three was the one that we were going into. Obviously they cleared the bears out first and put them into their bear house. Once we were inside we were given a whole bunch of food and told to hide it. This place was like an adventure playground - things to climb, hammocks to sit in, barrels with holes for the bears to
spin the food out off. Basically lots of things to do to keep the bears entertained while they search for their food. We spent an hour hiding all the food. I climbed up all the things (in a white skirt I might add), dug whole in the ground. I think we have more fun doing that than the bears do eating it. So this is how you make a touristy thing more interesting. I would like to add that we were the only people in there - this wasn’t something that Joe Blogs could do, no you need to be Anita Flynn to do this. Or you need to stay at the Hotel we stayed in as they have a special deal with them. Once everything was done we got given a chance to go into the Bear house and this time ACTUALLY feed a bear! While in the bear house you had to be so careful that you stood exactly where you were told to stand, otherwise you might find that your arm has been ripped off. That isn’t a joke! I got to feed 2 bears bananas - one was blind and the other was a stroppy female.
need some food
not for me, the bears That was fun. You had to hold the banana up to their mouths and let them bite it - then you let go.
On our way out of the house we passed the nursery enclosure. Their two newest arrivals had been found by police both in the same small plastic pipe that was one the back of a motorbike! No wonder they wouldn’t look at any humans for 3 months, I wouldn’t either. So that was our first part of the day.
The second part was to visit the waterfall - ah that is not so special. WRONG. Imagine you are me. You are walking along through the woods when BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ right in your ear. You scream throw your glasses (which are your only pair) into the ear and drop your bag. Oh whoops not that part (that did actually happen though, and if you know what my scream is like you will understand how much I frightened everyone and completely destroyed the peace). So anyway, you are walking along through the woods and there is suddenly a blue lagoon. Oh it is beautiful you think that water looks so inviting for frost bite. You carry on, a
mini waterfall and another lagoon with jungle all around you. Perfect. Careful HB you cry, watch where you are going! You can’t put a parasol in front of your face while walking, you will trip. Does she listen - no, does she fall? Yes. Smack on her face. Oh dear you say, now do the imaginary roll of the eyes. You carry on and there again is a bigger waterfall with a table in front of it. Ah that is nice, someone is having a picnic. Oh wait - that is you about to have a picnic! Hehe, not only has it been set up for you, but you also have your own butler wearing white! All those backpackers look on very enviously. This is the life I tell you. The life! Sweet fruit juices to drink with wonderful food. Mmmmmmmm. It was like something out of a movie. That is until F tried to get a closer look at the water and almost took me in with him. Grrrr. Never mind, it was rather funny, and if we had fallen in I think I would have died laughing. HB was too busy trying to find out what a sign
said to take much notice in what was going on, or the surroundings that we were in. Throughout the lunch, she was Anita what does that sign say? I don’t know HB it is on the other side of the tree and I can’t see it. Why not? Ugh! Because I left my x-ray glasses at home.
After our lovely lunch we headed up to see The Falls. Oh wow - how stunning it is. I wanted to get closer but before I could put one foot in front of the other, we all had to leave! Booo! I did manage to get a picture - but it does not do it justice. If I believed in Shangri-La this is what it would look like. It wasn’t just stunning, it was awe-inspiring. Oh our way back Mr G and F went for a quick dip in one of the Lagoons. I managed to get my toes wet. I tell you it was Freezing. Really really really cold. I saved my swimming for the pool at the hotel. The drive back to the hotel was a great one; F and HB were asking a ton of questions about Disney -
a big spider
okay maybe not that big, but it was green. which is my favourite, what is the best ride, what can you do there. I had to be careful how I worded things because I am like the magical sitar from Moulin Rouge - I only speak the truth when it comes to Disney. I think in the 2nd half of the trip when we go West to the Americas they are planning to go to DLR (that is Disneyland Resort for all you normal people) and they don’t want HB to go on and on and on about going to WDW (Walt Disney World).
To finish our lovely day HB and I went for a swim in our equally as cold pool. We played Cinderella - I was Anastasia and she was Cinderella, much to the amusement of the other guests. Pity the day came to a bad end. If there is one thing I cannot stand as a nanny it is when a child tries to play a parent of against me. I gave HB 15 mins warning that we would be going in for a bath. No sooner had those words come out of my mouth did she go up to her mum and ask if
she had to have a bath when I said she did. Uh oh HB, that was a huge mistake. No more play time for you miss. We marched back to the room there and then, and got straight into the bath, had a light supper and then went straight to bed. If a child goes against what I have said (if I have said it first) then it is a mistake they only make once. As I write this I am now 8 weeks in and she hasn’t repeated that. She even still talks about it and how she will never go against me again. One short sharp reaction is all it takes. That is my nannying tip for the day.
Tomorrow - our last day in Laos, which is rather strange.
As always
To be continued...
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Christa
non-member comment
Absolutely beautiful!