Elephant Nature Park= Awesome

We stayed at the Elephant Nature Park outside of Chiang Mai for a few days.  It was a great experience because we got to help take care of these elephants who were recovering from abuse from their previous owners.  http://www.ElephantNatureFoundation.org/go/park

 It was fun to interact with these huge animals.

We got to feed the elephants a few times a day.  The things that they can do with their trunks are really impressive.

The elephants' food supply was endless.  They ate squash, cucumber,  watermelon, and banana mostly.  Their favorite was banana.

We helped bathe the elephants in the river.  They seemed to love playing in the water.  We saw them frolicking and rolling around in it a few times.

I got caught by surprise when this one tried to kiss me.

Elephant kiss

The elephants must have been happy, because they seemed to be smiling all the time.

A family of elephants

Thailand

We had an amazing time in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Phuket. We ate lots of yummy thai food, visited temples, met some cool people, chilled on the beach, hung out with elephants, went tubing down a really muddy river, and I even got a traditional thai massage.  

sitting golden buddha

pagodas

giant sleeping buddha

temples

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

There was a lot to take in on that first day in Ho Chi Minh. The streets were littered with plastic bottles, and the smell of the city was a combination of hot trash, sweat, spices, and car exhaust.   Families were cooking, eating, and even napping out on the sidewalks.  The weather was hot and sticky, and there were vendors approaching us at every corner asking us to buy something.  The most noticeable thing about the city was all the motor bikes and scooters that dominated the streets. It was amazing watching all the different people riding them, each one having their own unique situation. There were families of 3 or 4 all riding on 1 bike, people carrying big boxes or long poles, or other kinds of loads, passengers sleeping on the back, mothers feeding their baby a bottle while riding, little old ladies driving their own, people wearing masks and head gear, some riding side saddle, and even these ladies with fancy clothes and long gloves riding on designer scooters.  Mixed in with the scooters and motor bikes were a few cars, taxis, and people on bicycles.  Frequently, you would see tiny old men riding bikes carrying passengers who were 3 times the size of them in their front cart.  

Of all the pictures we took in Ho Chi Minh, I feel this one of chickens and barefoot toddlers roaming free on the sidewalks (with motor bikes parked in the background) really captures the beautiful chaos of this city.  

Here’s our 1.5 million Dong fortune.  We felt sort of proud of it.  The exchange rate was roughly 20,000 Vietnamese Dong to 1 US Dollar.

Esperance, Part Deux

Since our last blog entry we had the opportunity to eat shark, and we are planning on trying crocodile at some point!  Hopefully that doesn't make sharks and crocodiles want to eat us too.  Also, we've planned our trips to some other countries: Vietnam, Thailand, New Zealand, and Samoa, and we booked our flights back to the US in October.  

During Easter holidays this past week, we went back down to Esperance to camp at Cape Le Grande and Cape Arid National Parks.  We did a lot of relaxing, swimming, and hiking. On one of our hikes, we came across a funny coincidence. When we climbed to the top of Frenchman's Peak at Cape Le Grand, there were actually French people up there hanging out!  

We really enjoyed our week of camping at the National Parks here.  One thing thats interesting about camping in Australia is that we awake to the sights and sounds of magpies, ravens, cockatoos, and parakeets rather than birds that we're used to like robins, crows, or sparrows.  And when we're driving, instead of worrying about deer running out into the road, we're looking for kangaroos and emus.  

Finally, here's the highlight of the trip: We went to this really pretty cove (pictured above) for a swim, and as we were wading into the water, we came across a pod of about 10 dolphins (roughly 50 feet away from us).  We ran down the beach, following them as they swam down the coast line and we watched them actually surf the waves!  We weren't able to take a picture of it, but we found a picture of what it looked like:

It was the most incredible thing we've seen since we've been here.  I never thought I would ever see anything as cool as that!