A busy 3rd last week

The countdown is on, and I'm packing it in!
Starting with last weekend:

I climbed Doi Luang Chiang Dao again, this time with a full pack, from a slightly different route, and with friends Marcus, Liz and Shirley. Nice and cosy in my own winter sleeping bag this time. We had a great time, but the haze is getting worse. And it's getting hot. Back to the gym in Oz.

The big work event for this week was convening an International Edible Insects conference in Chiang Mai. It was great to be involved in such an unusual event, and I was keen to learn from the experience as much as possible - including sampling all of the goods. And some weren't bad at all! Edible insects are generally highly nutritious and are a vital dietary component for many societies. Funny that we have no problems eating prawns etc. that are detrius feeders, eating all manner of unmentionables on the ocean/pond floors, yet we squirm when vegetarian insects are on the plate. It's an interesting comparison of cultural opinions. Eating insects is very environmentally friendly.....ask me more!

Very interestingly, I met another Schabel at the conference - a retired german-american University Professor named Hans. I've only met one other Schabel in my life, and that was Dad's cousin. We had a lot to talk about - there could be a distanct relation connection. 8 generations ago my forefather Hans Schabel moved to Denmark and started a locksmith business. Funny!

Following the conference Hans and a fellow american David (who started an edible insect educational business) were interested in seeing more of northern Thailand for 2 days, so we hired a car and headed north west, to a cave lodge 15km from the Burmese border. The karst scenery is spectacular (I headed here on my MHS motorbike adventure) and we visited Tham Lod. We saw thousands of cave features, thousands of bats, a couple of 2,000 year old teak log coffins and cave paintings. The absolute highlight though happened when we left the cave at dusk: 300,000 (odd) swifts flew back in the cave in large spirals to roost for the night. This nature spectacular lasted for almost an hour (black specks in the twilight photo below). We stayed in a bamboo bungalow and went for a valley walk the next morning, stopping frequently to seek out bugs and discuss other natural science phenomena. I learnt a lot!

Lovely Laos

Just a month till I'm back in Oz.....I've arrived back from another visa run to Laos, this one involving a 5 day trip to catch glimpses of it while the tourist industry is still in its infancy (has only been open for about the past 10 years).

I followed the tourist highway, for sure though, after flying in to the UNESCO-world heritage listed city of Luang Probang in the north, busing it to backpacker-central in Vang Vieng, then on to the capital Vientiane. Laos was a french colony for about a century, influencing it's architecture, cuisine and multi-lingual abilities. It is also the poorest country in south-east asia, and the most bombed during the war. We passed ethnic minority villages high on steep mountain slopes, with widespread deforestation leaving them (Jen concludes) with little ability to earn an income except for collecting grass seed heads to make into brooms. And this was on the main highway - probably the situation is ten times worse in remoter areas. World Vision is one of many NGOs active in the country.

So Jen's take on the tourist scene: most tourists seemed to be posh-nosh europeans or the heavy-drinking young backpacker variety. You could tell the aussie lads: beer lao t-shirts and aussie board shorts. Not sure what the locals make of this new invasion - it seemed that if you were able to sleep off the hangover on the bus between the main stops, you could avoid any culture (Jen was on her own for this trip so had more time for reflection perhaps - back in her box). I did actually meet some pretty nice people and kept seeing the same faces pop up at each town along the way.

Apologies for the formatting issues - will try to avoid them by not including photo captions......

LUANG PROBANG

The Mekong River; french influences; many wats and alms processions; coconuts; river life

DAY TRIPS FROM L.P.
Beautiful Krung Si limestone waterfall, and Pak Ou cave (with 1000's of buddha shrines); bird-release sellers; whisky distilleries

VANG VIENG

This small town is surrounded by some beatiful limestone karst scenery. It has a huge number of pubs and you can watch "Friends" reruns and have pizza and beer in the many cinema-style restaurants. Very Byron Bay (or Pai in Northern Thailand) - like. I only spent 22 hours there, but managed to get a fair bit in: cycling out to some nearby caves (most of the way chatting with a cycling group from southern Thailand), getting a lift back to town after dark with some locals (preplanned!), and going on a half day tour to tube through a cave (which ended up being a personal motorbike tour). Fun! Left town before the aussie-organised cross dressing tube race hit the river......

VIENTIANE
The capital city was a quick stopover before my flight back. A pretty quiet city! Caught the sun setting over the Mekong river, experienced a Laos oil massage, and some live music.

Excitement at the Ellie Park

Soooo many photos of elephants. This was my Christmas present: a weekend stay at the Elephant Nature Park on the Mae Taeng River. No logging, no street begging, no rides, no artificial performances: just elephants allowed to do their thing, build new family units, and heal the scars of years of mistreatment (the customary "breaking in" of elephants in this country is torture). With some friends I'd sponsored a baby ellie called Tong Jan as a wedding present last year for a friend, so it was time to go and visit.

schmackers all round (with bread rewards); check out my bungalow's view!

There has been a sharp decline in the number of Asian elephants in Thailand, particularly after the logging ban in 1989. There aren't many left in the wild either - habitat loss and being the target of farmers losing their crops has seen to that. This park stands out as a haven for some elephants, a "re-learning" centre for humans, and the face of an emergency medical unit, the Jumbo Express, which also provides support to hilltribes.

THE SERIOUS STUFF

blinded Jokia; a landmine victim; severe deformity from a broken leg and pelvis

THE FUN STUFF

baby mud pool; lazying in the river

eating in the scrub; dirt application for sun protection

our walk to the river; happy elephants left to make mischief

THE ARTY FARTY STUFF

the lunch box; trunk detail; mountains of leftovers (to avoid pesticides)

I met a volunteer who is starting up an Australian charity link to the park - let me know if you are interested! I think Great Outdoors were filming here last week, so keep a look out. It was a fun weekend - some solitude once the day trippers had headed back. Lots of rescued cats & dogs to befriend too.

BTW: Yes, Jen won't be riding elephants no more.......