
The most important thing to keep in mind regarding elephant care is: it’s all about input and output. And such a prodigious amount of both! I am sure there are statistics somewhere that state how much an average elephant eats, but from first hand experience I can testify that it’s beyond amazing. The WFF is either fortunately, or by design- and I am not sure which- located in a major banana growing… Read More
The taxi arrived at my hotel in Bangkok promptly at 9 am on Sunday morning to pick me up for the three hour drive to the Wildlife Friends Foundation (WFF) in southwestern Thailand, my home for the next three weeks. The WFF, founded 17 years ago by a Dutch ex-pat living in Bangkok, rescues animals, focusing on but not limited to, elephants, and reintroduces as many as possible back into the wild…. Read More
In a nutshell it’s all about the street food! It took me only ten minutes of walking along a street in the Ratchaparop district on my way to the hotel after alighting from the airport bus to decide I am going to love Bangkok. There were street vendors everywhere preparing all kinds of food, much of it unfamiliar to me. So many culinary experiences waiting to happen! The trip to Bangkok was… Read More
Before I move on to my experiences in Thailand (and I have been in Bangkok less than 48 hours and can tell you there is a lot to write about, not the least of which is the street food!), I wanted to post some more pictures from “roaming around Kathmandu”.
Today I’m leaving Nepal after nearly two months of wonderful adventures. As opposed to gracefully fading away, however, the last four days after returning from Bhaktapur have been exceptionally hectic. Not only were there several interesting historical and cultural sites that I wanted to visit in Kathmandu, but I had agreed to do several talks during the last week of my visit. Thus the last four days have been anything but slow… Read More
Visiting Bhaktapur was really a treat. It is an extremely old city, dating back centuries, an ancient capital of Nepal and has been listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. In addition the old part of city is not only still intact but also still functioning as a residential area for lots of people. While the main palace has been turned into an art museum, the city’s numerous temples and other… Read More
The past three days I have spent in Sauraha, Chitwan, a place totally opposite of the cool, mountainous area of Nepal I left. It is flat, super hot and extremely humid. I felt like I was back in Houston. The town is the main entry point to Chitwan National Park, an approximately 1000 square meter area of protected preserve in the south of Nepal. The town is a popular place for Nepali… Read More
Today was time to say good-bye to all of my new friends at the school project and move on. I had originally intended to leave tomorrow, on the 20th, but had to depart a day early due to bus schedules and logistics. The bus to Chitiwan, my next stop in Nepal, leaves at 6:30 am from Besisahar and it was necessary for me to spend the night in town in order to… Read More
The power situation has been especially challenging this week as two days in a row we experienced intense storms. They reminded me of some of the worse tropical storms I have seen- incredibly strong wind, constant thunder and lightning, driving rain and hail. Shamser commented that it is some of the worse weather they have had in years. The first storm developed fast and took us by surprise. The people walking the… Read More
It’s amazing how adaptable we are as humans. I’ve been here in Gaunshahar for two weeks and have completely settled into the routine of daily life. So much so that taking another cold shower, complete with washing my hair, seemed normal to me. The day starts around sunrise, usually sometime after 5:00 am. The house comes awake as people slowly get up; some are early risers, others sleep almost until breakfast time…. Read More
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