Laotians, Tigers and Bears! Oh My!

Cheesy title, yes, but just read on.

We finally made it to the Kuang Si waterfall today.
When we got there, we found the Bear Rescue project,
working to save Southeast Asia's black bears. There
were about 9 or 10 bears, mostly very young (1-4
years). One or all of them were making odd chirping
noises and were just generally being bearish.

Next door to the bear enclosure was Phet, a lone
Indonesian tiger. She was very small compared to the
larger ones at Busch Gardens (Bengal or Siberian) but
she very conveniently placed herself right at the
front of her enclosure so we could take a picture of
her.

After that, we visited the waterfall, hiked to the top
and swam for a while in what has to be the coolest
water in Southeast Asia.

Helping out

So the other day, we learned of a project here in Luang Prabang called Big Brother Mouse. Started by a few young locals, the aim is to provide books for kids here in Laos. For several reasons - poverty and small size - there are incredibly few books here and many of those are not even in Lao. The group has a storefront where you can buy books and a classroom where they have "English practice".

A portion of the profits from the bookstore goes to giving books away in the countryside, with the hopes of hooking readers early (sounds familiar). We went by the classroom today to donate an hour teaching a few novices ("novice" referring to their status as monks, not yet to their English). Lisa worked with an older, slightly more advanced boy - a task made difficult since he is not allowed to have contact with a female. I worked on reading "pen", "pencil", "table" and "chair" and a few other classroom vocab words with 2 younger boys.

After our "work", I chatted with one of the young men who runs the classroom part time. His name is Linthot, he has finished college and plans to attend university to become an English teacher. He comes from a farming village and we had a great chat about farming life in Laos.

ici à Luang Prabang

C'est très jolie dans cette ville. C'était une
capitale coloniale et les rues dans le viel quartier
sont vraiment français. C'est aussi possible de parler
français avec les Laotiens et aussi avec les autres
gens de l'Ouest (aujord'hui, c'était des touristes
francais, hier, c'était un homme qui m'a donné
directions)

(ma mere et ma soeur doivent écrit une note après
cette exercise de langue)

People Everywhere

One of the themes i've used in world history classes
for years is that people are the same, everywhere and
anytime. Every once in awhile, I am reminded of the
truth of this idea.

Completely unsurprising has been the prevalence of
mobile phone usage. I know that mobiles have long
since passed land lines for price and flexibility in
developing countries. In spite of my expectations, it
does startle me a bit to see a traditionally dressed
Hmong on the side of a rural highway chatting away on
a Nokia or the monks at the Wat we visited today with
a more up-to-date phone than me...

Riding through less affluent areas, I've noticed a
phenomena identical to one i'd noticed in rural SE
Georgia 13 years ago: satellite tv dishes outside of
homes that barely seem like they keep out the rain.

I guess everyone wants to be connected to the rest of
the world.

Trekking in Thailand

There are a few photos on the Flickr stream of our
trek today. We went through 2 hill tribe villages and
ended at a beautiful waterfall. It was a great day
(overcast so not too hot) and we had a great time. We
walked through rice fields, banana groves and bamboo
forests.

A truly amazing day.

Our guide, Cha, was a member of the Karen tribe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_people

We walked through a village of the Lisu tribe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisu_people

Lunch was in a Lahu village, with "Lahu noodle soup" -
Lisa is going to look for the Campbell's version when
we get back to the States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lahu_people

Pai

Lonely Planet said that "the hippy spirit is alive and well in Pai". Lonely Planet was right!

Pai is a small town (3000) in the north-west of Thailand. The trekking and hill tribes that are a
popular trip from Chiang Mai are close here. Chinese Muslims from Yunnan are here too.

At some point, Pai became the spot for bohemian Westerners to drop out for awhile. In certain parts of town, it seems the fareng outnumber the Thai...

We had lunch at the appropriately named Drop In Cafe where we had the best Thai food we've had yet, but we could go back tomorrow and have bangers&mash or a croque monsieur. The proprietor was a Swede who took our orders and relayed them in Thai to the rest of the staff. He drank beer and smoked cigarettes while they did the busy work. Seems to be a workable business model.

Chiang Mai

I guess we don't need to go to Bangkok - everyone in
Chiang Mai told us that Chiang Mai is much better -
including the guy vacationing from Bangkok. According
to the folks around town it is more relaxed (we were
relaxed), less crowded (1.5 million people versus 8
million), less polluted (believable).

I think we are still going to spend a few day in
Bangkok, but CM was very nice. Chiang Mai was the
capitol of the pre-Siam kingdom of Lanna and so has a
large walled and moated area. Further more, there are
a lot of wats (temples) in town. Various "experts"
have told us 300, 1500 and 2500. I'm sure a real
figure is in our guide book, but who cares...?

The highlight is outside of town - Wat Doi Suthep.
Perched on a mountain, it was built in the 1500s
because a particularly special white elephant died
there. I'm putting some of our photos on the Flickr
stream.