Laos

Laos -- the difference is evident as you cross the Mekong River from Thailand.  The officials are solemn, withdrawn, and not into tourists.  It is dirty/dusty and everything seems on the verge of falling apart.

I arrived at the homestay/volunteer location and was deeply disappointed.  Good blog story and nice emails but a bit misleading and certainly not what I was hoping for.  So I will move on tomorrow:  yippee a 17 hour night bus ride.

I am staying here as a volunteer.....and um, it is not the finest decision I ever made.
So I will leave early...I was not planning on washing dishes and making earrings for the local folks to sell!!!

The restaurant cook as she makes coconut cookies --  the hygiene of the place, well, there is bottled water!

Chiang Rai

The trip evolves again:  Alan is back in Tucson & I am heading to Laos.  I am in Chiang Rai and tomorrow I head to Huay Xai--a small town on the border.  I will be there for a week as part of a volunteer program working with women and hilltribe minority peoples.

But today I wandered around this small town.  Always fun.

Inscription on a bell

Tourists -- all you need to know is where the toilet is!!

Buddha entering Nirvana

Birds, Mammals, Flowers and More

We spent a couple more days birding...and with a guide's help we saw 241 species of Thailand's 900+ species!  That is alot of birds!  In really challenging terrain with amazing forest trees & vines.  Not to mention the zillions of butterflies (and believe me a couple of times I thought it those butterflies were birds they were so large) and in the background the ruckus of gibbons & monkeys.  Pretty amazing experience.

Here are some photos--when we stopped long enough to focus and snap!

A fish with legs.  Really.

Mice Deer

2 signature birds:  the hornbills & the rachet tailed treepie.  We saw them both!
This treepie is found only along a few kilometer stretch of road & we saw several of them.  Lucky us.

No petting and no feeding this wild elephant!

We found an abandoned baby gibbon on our way out of the park.
Our guide, An, took it later to a wildlife rescue organization.

A weaver bird -- busy weaving nests to entice a female to choose him.  Ladies???

Let's Go Birding!

We just spent the last few days birding -- shore birds near Petchburi and in the mountains at Kaeng Krachan National Park.  Pictures of the butterflies, elephants, fish with legs, lizards, monkeys, orchids, OH YEAH, and gorgeous neo-tropical birds will be up on the next blog.

But for starters:

A placard for your car -- when I wanted to take a picture of the placard, the guard just gave it to me!

The DOWN side of birding with a guide is they actually schedule your day -- and it starts at 6am and goes till dark.
We found this coffee drink in a 7-Eleven in Bangkok....and it helped us stay awake.

Ayuthaya

This fabled city, the fallen city:  Ayuthaya crowned the pinnacle of ancient Thai history and defined the country's ascendancy to regional domination.  The city was built at the confluence of three rivers and has been called "the Venice of Asia".  This city-state was the capital of Thailand from 1350-1767 when it fell to Burmese assaults.  Today -- the rivers remain; moats and lakes fill the old city area; and hundreds (well, lots) of silent ruins are scattered everywhere.  The busy town just sort of "goes around" the ruins.

One of the most revered Buddhas in Thailand 

Lots of brick monuments; all wooden buildings long gone.  They seemed small in size and rather in poor shape.

The Burmese invaders removed the Buddha's head.  Thousands of "headless" statues are everywhere.

40 years ago this was covered in jungle.  The stupas are royal "tombstones" from kings and family members.

A snack to keep up the energy as we rode bikes around town.  This is a Muslim dessert:  roh-dee sai mai.  You roll the thin strands of melted palm sugar in a warm roti.  I could do one more temple.....