Goodbye to Thailand (finally) and hello to Laos. The differences are already obvious and welcome! For one thing there isn’t a 7/11 or Boots pharmacy anywhere! There is also only two ATM’s in the whole country. Laos is much less tourist orientated, a fact which is fast changing. It is also much less developed, a fact that is also changing rapidly.
I am currently staying in Luang Prabang in central northern Laos. It is a really lovely smallish town with a lot of french colonial architecture. Because of the french influence, they also have pretty good bread, baguettes and croissants!
It is also the home of a bear sanctuary run by “Free the Bears Fund. inc”. I found what they were doing to be really interesting and inspiring. I got chatting to an English volunteer there who said that there maybe volunteer work available in Cambodia, from anything from one week to two months. They also had a tiger there housed in a large jungle enclosure. She would come right up to the fence so you were literally only inches away. When presented with a ball, she would run around the enclosure like a kitten. Damn they can move fast!
No photos for a while though since the new Sony Cybershot broke and is in for repair.
Mmmm…
I love bears!
Oh like the dancing bears?
Exactly
Yeah dancing bears and other bears, rescued from all sorts of things. Some were brought in as babies because there mothers were killed by poachers. Just went to the sanctuary near Phnom Penh in Cambodia. A lot of the bears beg for food by performing in front of the fence. I think this is because of their initial mistreatment and also because locals charge tourist to feed them bits of coconut etc. despite signs that say NOT to feed them. It’s really sad!