A walk through Phonm Penh market

A stroll through a market in Phonm Penh, Cambodia. A plethora of sights, sounds and smells. Everyday stuff for me.
The meat and fish section is extra difficult for this vegetarian!

Exploring Angkor Wat

The #1 attraction in Siem Reap, or all of Cambodia for that matter, is the impressive ruins from the ancient city of Angkor Wat. One of the 7 wonders of the world, it was built in the 11th century and is the largest religious monument ever constructed.

I decided to buy a 3 day pass to Angkor Wat, which cost $40. The other option was a 1 day pass for $20. I didn't think this would be a sufficient amount of time to explore the sprawling 37 sq. miles of the ancient city.

Due to the massive size of Angkor Wat, it's a good idea to hire a tuk-tuk driver for the day. This will cost about $20 for the entire day.
Each site is about 1-2 km apart. At each stop, locals rushed over to try to sell me anything from postcards and hand fans to water and clothes.

One time when my tuk-tuk arrived at a temple, I saw a lady get up out of her chair with such abruptness it made my heart jump. I thought her hut was on fire or something! Out of fear, I held my hand over my heart. I saw she was grabbing the menu for her restaurant and rushing over to me before anyone else got to me. "Hello, lady! Are you hungry? Cold drink?" she yelled, running up to me frantically. Relieved, I started laughing and said, "You scared me! Oh my gosh!" We laughed together for a while before I bought a bottle of water from her. I figured if she had to go to such extreme lengths to make a sale, life must be hard.

They have their children in on the act, too. 2 or 3 surrounded me at a time. With a voice that would get progressively more whiney, they would beg me, "Buy postcard, lady? Need money for school. You buy. Ok, lady?" towering above them, I looked down into their pleading brown eyes. "How old are you?", I'd ask. I got answers anywhere from 4-10 years old. They were so small for their age. I wanted to bring them back to the US with me and show them what a good life is like.
I did buy the postcards from them. Now I have 10 postcards to mail to friends and family :)

In the early morning hours, some of the ruins were void of any tourists. As I traipsed through the ancient city solo, the only sounds I heard were the buzzing of bugs, singing from birds and the soft tapping of my sandals on the ancient stones.

I tried to imagine what the city looked like at the height of the ancient Khmer era.

One of the temples I visited was where Angelina Jolie filmed "Tomb Raider".

The large trees are desperately trying to engulf this city, intertwining it's way through windows, doorways and scaling up walls.

Watching the sunrise over Angkor Wat is a must. Brushing the sleep from my eyes at 5 am, I made my way to Angkor Wat with my hired tuk-tuk driver. I found a spot on the mats set out by the little pond that provided the perfect view of Angkor Wat. I sat next to an older German gentleman that had a gentle spirit and the prettiest baby blue eyes I've ever seen.

We chatted sporadically as we patiently waited for the big ball of fire to make it's appearance.

As it began to rise, the sky turned from pinkish purple to an orangish yellow and eventually to blue. It was magnificent....

Angkor Wat, just another reason to love Cambodia!

"Hello, Lady!"

Entering another country is like opening a Christmas present. You never know exactly what you're going to get.

2 things are essential when arriving in a foreign country: obtaining local currency and learning how to say "hello" and "thank you" in the local language, at the very least. In Cambodia, it was easy, they speak English and the US dollar is widely used. They have their own currency, the Riel, but prefer to use the American dollar. Works for me!

The "15 hour" bus journey from Laos to Cambodia turned out to be an excruciating 29 hours, exactly as I predicted. It still boggles my mind why the local Laotians fabricate stories about how long it takes to get to your destination. I chalk it up to the fact that tourism is fairly new in Laos. Hopefully this will improve over the years. Bus journey lengths are a hot topic among tourists traveling in Laos. But, you have to learn to deal with it. Always double the time they tell you, problem solved. Ha!

I immediately felt a different vibe after crossing the border into Cambodia. It was a very good vibe, which provided me with tremendous relief. Cambodia's vibe is much lighter and happier than Laos.

The first thing I heard from a Cambodian man when I stepped off the bus was, "Hello, lady! Tuk-tuk?" I burst out laughing.

"Lady?" I replied to the brown skinned man smiling ear to ear. It sounded so funny to hear such plain English coming out of his mouth. I was accustomed to Laos, where locals speak little to no English. I guess "Hello, Lady!" has been determined by the locals to be the best way to get the attention of a female foreigner.

These days, I get called "lady" at least 50 times a day. Each time it cracks me up. Sometimes I respond to their "hello, lady!" with "hello, man!" They seem to think this is pretty funny.

Cambodians are extremely friendly. They have a vibrant charisma to them. A zest for life, if you will. They are beautiful people, inside and out.

The children are especially adorable. They wave and also greet me with the ubiquitous "hello, lady!"

Venturing into the rural landscape outside of Siem Reap, I see scrawny Cambodian children riding a bike 10 times too big for him or her. It's quite comical. They can't even reach the seat. They are so cute! Maybe I'll follow in Angelina Jolie's footsteps and adopt my own Cambodian baby :)

Even though this is one of the poorest nations in the world, the people are resistantly happy. Cambodia should be dubbed the land of smiles, instead of Thailand. Their smiles are bountiful and purely genuine.

I'm still puzzled by the fact that everybody stares at me in Cambodia. I don't think much has changed since Laos, where they barely acknowledged my presence. Its a very curious stare and is always accompanied with a smile, so I don't mind. Their happy attitude is contagious, which causes me to wear a permanent smile. I feel so happy here, I don't think it would be possible to feel any happier. There's something about this country....

But it hasn't always been unicorns and lollipops for Cambodians.

They've seen their fair share of hardship. In 1975, the Khmer Rouge's totalitarian regime left 4 million Cambodians dead. Very sad. Not to mention that in the 60's the US was dropping bombs on them.

As I breeze through the peaceful green countryside in a tuk-tuk, it's hard to imagine that these horrific times ever existed.

We should all be grateful that we don't have to collect our own cow's poop to burn for cooking and staying warm. Because that's what they do in third world countries, in case you didn't know. Using their bare hands, they pack the poo into patties while it's still warm. Think of this the next time you nonchalantly turn the dial on your stove.

through Cambodia on a tuk-tuk

I feel like a good portion of Americans are clueless when it comes to third world countries. Since Americans aren't known for being well trodden travelers, we rely on information from the news. Well, my friends, sorry to burst your bubble, but that's an inaccurate perception.

Traveling is the best form of education money can buy. Forget Harvard, go travel!

Hello, Lady! Its a big world out there, go explore it!

So long, Laos

I was afraid that my travels through Morocco had broken my travel spirit. It left me feeling jaded. Once I arrived in Thailand, I realized that Morocco had actually renewed my spirit. Everything seemed so much better after that. I felt a lot more tolerable, like I did when I first started traveling. This quality helped me tremendously while in Laos.

I got a general "fed up" attitude from other people traveling through Laos.  They were sick of all the shenanigans. Nothing was ever as it seemed. A 2 hour bus ride was actually 5. Not to mention it was the most bone-jarring ride of your life. It was bewildering to me why the locals would knowingly tell us it took 2 hours when it was downright impossible to drive that road in less than 5.

If you choose to hoof it to one of the sights, the dirt roads make it a miserable journey, unless you desire dust-coated lungs.

Laos is definitely for the hardy traveler. I was shocked to see a few travelers in their 70's, one on crutches. Omg, hardcore.

I prayed I didn't require any emergency treatment while in Laos, I could only imagine how prehistoric their facilities were. My best bet for mediocre care would be a hospital in Bangkok, but that would still be at least a half day of travel away.

 I'm going out on a limb and declaring Laos to be as dirty as India. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of spectacular scenery here. It's a shame it has to be a third world country. I wonder what Alaska would look like as a third world country. Ufff, that makes me shudder.
 

The predominantly Buddhist locals working in the tourism industry will do anything to make a penny from the tourists. They feel the need to make false claims to make things look more appealing. They will say things like, "There's a toilet and air conditioning on the bus."

We buy the ticket for the bus.

There's no toilet. There's no air conditioning.
 

Another example: I bought a bottle of shampoo, it was half full :(

Sometimes at a shop, when you pay they will say "Sorry, no change."

After I pleasantly say, "Ok, I just won't buy it then.", they magically have the correct change. It's frustrating. There's so many inconsistencies in Laos that we take for granted in the US. You have to take everything with a grain of salt.
 What do you expect? We've come to one of the poorest countries in the world. The camera hanging around my neck costs more than the average Laotian makes in 6 months. All this money is tempting to them. They think a few swindled dollars from tourists is no big deal to us.

I sympathize with the locals. This is a poor country and the living is hard.

 Even though it's a communist country, it feels like there are no rules here, and definitely no safety standards. Anything goes.

However, as hard as I try, I really can't empathize with the fact that Laotians eat dogs. I'm not even going to get into that on this blog, but it does happen. They also eat rats. Why? It's beyond me.
 

grubs to eat~ yum!

All in all, Laos was a great experience for me. I've had a lot of fun here and I'm grateful I met my temporary travel mate, Ember, she is such an awesome girl. We got along so well.

I'm also delighted with the amount of tolerance I've found myself to have while in Laos. You learn so much about yourself while traveling.

 I'm on my way to the bus station, where I'll be catching a "15 hour" bus ride to Siem Reap, Cambodia. But I know better. That really means 30 hours. I'm sure it will make an interesting blog post.....

Peace out, Laos!

40 miles on a bicycle through Laos

The American girl, Ember, turned out to be a pretty groovy gal. We've decided to continue to travel together through Laos. It's probably better to stick together with all the shady business that goes on in Laos.

Me and Ember in bamboo hats

We are constantly discovering similarities between us. It's almost scary. She's also on a solo round-the-world trip.

After the loooong boat ride, we ended up in the nice, smaller town of Luang Prabang.

We both thought it would be a great idea to rent bikes and head out to see the stunning Kuang Si waterfall. We both knew we had an ambitious feat ahead of us. It would be a 40 mile trip!! We were both up for the adventure.

I can't seem to get enough adventure in my life. I think I'm an adventure addict.

It had all the makings of a perfect day: ADVENTURE, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY and NATURE, all wrapped into one CULTURAL experience. All of my favorite things!

After a little bargaining, we scored rugged mountain bikes for $5 a day. Sweet! We had an early morning rise and were on our way to the waterfall by 9am.

We passed through small villages lined with wooden shacks and locals going about their daily routines. We were able to see the scenery at our own pace, instead of whizzing by on a bus or taxi. The road began fairly flat, but then, much to our dismay, turned extremely hilly. We pumped as hard as we could up the steep hills, our quads feeling like there were hot pokers embedded in them. Everyime we saw a steep hill ahead, we would grumble "Arghh, another hill!" Once at the top of each hill, we coasted down with the warm Laos air streaming through our hair. Southeast Asia has a funny way of making you feel FREE! It's so much fun here!

At times, we reached dangerously high speeds and our brakes would squeak loudly as we attempted to avoid a deadly situation on the windey roads.

We passed by so many surreal sights along this lengthy journey. As the green rice paddy fields passed us by, I thought, "This is exactly what I pictured Laos to be."

We passed by cute Laotian kids playing unsupervised on the road, they would reach their hands out for a high-five as we passed by. We breezed by cock-a-doodle-do'ing roosters, lazy water buffalo's, woman nursing infants on their porches, flimsy bamboo huts, locals walking under umbrellas for shade, woman washing clothes in streams, local schools with uniformed children congregating with friends in the schoolyard, workers in the fields wearing coned bamboo hats, and families eating outdoors together.

This stretch of land was unspoiled by tourism. But, Laos as a whole isn't exactly a popular vacation destination.

It feels very primitive here. The undeveloped infrastructure makes it very difficult to travel here. A 2 hour bus ride can easily turn into 5 hours.

As we pedaled through these small villages, we called out a friendly "sab-ah-dee!" (hello) to the locals. Some would giggle shyly.

Once we arrived at Kuang Si waterfall, we were greeted by small descending pools of clear blue water. It was a tropical paradise oasis.

A short hike through the jungle brought us to the spectacularly big waterfall. It was breathtaking and definitely worth all the sweat and hard work.

Me and Ember were looking forward to soaking our sore muscles in the water, but one dip of our toes changed our minds quickly. It was ice cold! But we still winced our way in half way. We enjoyed a much needed rest at this idyllic spot and gained back our strength with fresh fruit bought from a local vendor.

The 20 mile ride back went by surprisingly quick. Once we got back to Luang Prabang, we started to see the familiar sights of shaved-head orange-robed monks, the night market and heavier traffic. I felt exhausted, but in a good way. It was a perfect day. I would say it was one of my best day in Southeast Asia so far. Good views with great company. What more could I ask for?

That night, we slept like babies..... babies with very sore bums :)

Getting swindled in Laos

I'll admit, I'm pretty proud of my ability to see through the lies I'm told from people trying to make a profit from me as a tourist. It's a trait that can only be achieved after logging many hours in your travel book, and learning from your mistakes along the way. Some locals lead a sad existence of preying on unsuspecting tourists to make a quick buck. It seems like I've seen every trick in the book. Same scam, different place. When I encounter one of these attempted shenanigans, I laugh in their face and declare, "that one's not working with me." Their demeanor changes quickly as they realize they're dealing with a seasoned traveler.
During the learning process, when I happened to get ripped off, sometimes I felt stupid, sometimes I felt angry and sometimes I'd laugh and say "that was a good one!" I'll give the local a little credit for their sneaky ways, if it's done in good nature. But sometimes it's done mean spiritedly, and that makes me angry.

Due to my vigilance, I've never had any large amounts of money swindled from me while I've been overseas. A little in Egypt, a little more in India. Nothing significant. There were times that I knowingly let it happen, knowing they needed the money more than I did. Their family needs to eat.

However, Laos takes the cake.

Here's the swindle story:

Laos is pretty undeveloped, so getting around can be difficult. It's best to go through organized tours when navigating the country. I bought a package deal that included 3 days of transportation from Thailand into Laos by slow boat along the Mekong River. 6 hours by mini-van, then two 8 hour days on the boat. This is a popular route among backpackers. I imagined the scenery being little riverside villages among picturesque green landscape. It was exactly that.

views along the Mekong

One of the village stops along the Mekong

On the mini-van ride to the border of Laos, I met the travelers that would be joining me on this 3 day adventure. 3 girls from Ireland, a girl from Chile and an American girl, named Ember. We all meshed well and shared lots of laughs. Our first night, in the town of Chiang Khong, we stumbled upon a celebration at the local temple. There were dancing performances by doll-like Thai children with faces full of make-up. It was adorable.

The locals warmly greeted us, joyful that we wanted to be a part of their culture for the night. We mingled toward the dance floor and had several happily intoxicated small-stature Thai men try to pull us onto the dance floor. Thailand is full of friendly, happy locals. This was my last night in Thailand, and I was saddened to be leaving this cheerful country.

The next morning, we lugged our back-breaking backpacks down to the river and hopped on a small unstable wooden boat for a short ride across the muddy river. Minutes later, we stepped off the boat and were in Laos!

Standing in Laos, looking at Thailand across the river

The visa process went through without a hitch and soon we were on our way to the slow boat. The tour coordinator met us at the border. He explained that he needed our passports, so he could make copies of our visas. He also advised that we should exchange our Thai bahts for Laos kip with him because it was much cheaper. He informed us that there would be no access to an ATM or money exchange for the next 2 days. Everyone reluctantly handed over their precious passport and Thai bahts to the seemingly trustworthy man. He passed around a piece of paper to write down our name with the amount of money we were exchanging. He did not count the money with us. We could have wrote any amount on the paper and there would be no evidence otherwise. I instantly had a bad feeling about the whole situation. No one asked any questions. I felt like I was the only one with any common sense out of the group of 20. I said to the man, "Are you crazy?! You want me to give you my passport and all my money so you can run off to the exchange office with it? Why can't I just go myself to exchange my money? This sounds shady. I don't trust you."

I was the only person that spoke up. I would guess the others were less experienced travelers.

I interrogated the man, "What's the exchange rate?" "What percentage do you keep for commission?" He said it was 1% and the exchange rate he told me was excellent. He said, "Listen, I have no reason to steal from you. I understand you don't trust me, but I'm a good man. I'll only be gone for 15 minutes." He looked at me with pure sincerity in his eyes. My intense stare shifted from one eye to the other, searching for any twinge of criminal in him.

Even though my gut was screaming "Don't do it!", I handed over my passport and money, as everyone else had done.

We are shuttled 2 minutes away by bus with the promise of the safe return of our passports and money in 15 minutes. We are dropped off at a small snack shop to wait. As the antagonizing seconds ticked by, I sat as nervously as someone awaiting the condition of their loved one after a risky surgery.

30 minutes later, 2 unknown Thai boys came back with our passports and money. I felt a rush of relief, but intuition told me there was a scam in progress. They feverishly pass them out, then shout, "Time to get on boat! Boat leaving!" Everyone rushes down to the dock about 100 feet away. I'm the only one that has the brains to count my money. I tell the Chilean and Irish girls to count their money also. I flip through the stack of Lao kips and hastily punch in the calculation on my iPhone. I soon discover I'm $58 short!!! 58 dollars!!! I frantically recount it 3 times. "This is the wrong amount!" I announce. The other girls chime in, "yea, mine is wrong too!"

We tell the boys that delivered them, but they pretend they don't speak English. On the verge of acting obnoxious, I explain to him we are all short money. He pretends like he doesn't understand, then says "boat leaving!" We're frustrated with no options available and are keenly aware of the fact that the boat is seconds within leaving. I feel so helpless. Half way around the world, getting stolen from, with no one that allegedly speaks English. It's times like these that I don't like traveling so much.

I scowled at the boys and sprinted down the hill to the boat dock. As I'm running, I spew out a string of foul swear words that would make Mother Theresa faint. Swearing always makes me feel better for some reason. :)

We are the last ones on the old wooden boat and it leaves the second we step on. Whew! Me and the Chilean girl, Gabriella, shuffle to the very back of the boat, searching for a seat. The only seats remaining are next to the deafening loud, smoking engine that spits out black oil. We are absolutely miserable in these horrendous conditions.

The good seats in the front of the boat that were all taken

We plop down in our seats, pissed off. Gabriella is in a frenzy. In her thick Chilean accent, she says she is $40 short. I see tears swell up in her brown Latina eyes. I try to comfort her but I'm severely upset myself.

Gabriella, in happier times

We eventually talk to the other travelers and realize everyone is short money. I fared the worst at $58, the others lost $20, $30, $40. That criminal just made hundreds of dollars off of us! We are so stupid! I bet he does this everyday. He must live in a mansion! It was obvious that his tactic was to give us our money back at the very last minute so we didn't have time to go back to retrieve the missing money. We would have missed the boat, and he knew that! What an evil weasel!! How can that crook sleep at night?!

I was outraged. $58 is a whole lot of money to me right now. It's a lot of money to anyone traveling for an extended period of time, just ask them. I'm on a strict budget and frequently refrain from buying things I want because of it. Then this weenie comes along and steals from me! $58 is probably more than most Laotians make in a month! You could probably buy a couple water buffalo's with that much money! I couldn't believe his level of greediness. He just ripped off HUNDREDS of dollars from us! I worked long hard hours at the hospital for that cash! There's just so many things wrong with this situation.The worst part is that he lied to my face. He looked me right in my eyes and lied. The deceit hurt, but I know there is a lot of bad karma coming to that sleazeball. My guard is up even more after this sneaky scheme.

I understand Laos is poverty stricken, but it still doesn't make it OK to steal my money. It's sad that they must go to such great lengths to dishonestly obtain money any way they can. I wouldn't have minded if it was $10, or even $15. But $58!!!!

This was a very negative first impression of Laos. Are all Laotians like this?, I thought. I knew I had to step it up a notch and be extra vigilant here. These people are pretty sly. It's like a game, trying not to get ripped off. I'm embarrassed to admit I let this happen. I should have known better.

Needless to say, the 8 hour boat journey was unbearably uncomfortable. We get our money stolen, then have to sit in the worst seats on the boat! This is so unfair! Hold on, I'm going to throw a temper tantrum......

On the bright side, when we docked, me and Ember (the American) found a sweet bungalow overlooking the Mekong river from our balcony. Oh, and there were also plenty of ATM's and money exchange offices there, contrary to what the thief had told us. As I gazed out into the Mekong river, I thought, "Let it go, Rach, let it go. You're too blessed to be stressed."

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

View from our room

Life on the wild side

My time in Thailand is coming to a close. Sadly, my 1 month visa expires in 3 days, so I have to hightail it outta here. I had such a great time here and created so many fun memories. I wanted one last adventure before the curtains closed.... to go out with a bang!
I constantly saw posters advertising something called "Tiger Kingdom". It's a place where you can interact with tigers hands-on. I talked to other travelers and they gave raving reviews, so I decided to check it out.
When I arrived at Tiger Kingdom, I was a little apprehensive about the whole situation. You could choose from different packages. Either smallest, small, medium or BIG tigers. I watched other brave souls get into the cage with the BIG tigers and thought, "There's no way I'm not doing that." I went the safe route and chose to hang out with the smallest tigers. They were harmless at the tender age of 2 months. I was able to play with the cute, fuzzy youngsters and even helped feed one with a bottle.

 At one point, the entire litter surrounded me in the corner as they nestled in for a nap. One licked the bottom of my foot as I was kneeling on the floor. It tickled and made me jump. I watched the precious fur balls sleep and watched their mouth twitch as they dreamt. They reminded me of puppies, and even smelled like one too.

Big yawn!

I found a lone sleeping beauty in the corner and instantly fell in love with him.

I left the "little cat" cage and walked towards the exit, passing by the BIG cat cage once again. Intrigued, I watched these stealthy animals glide across the floor. They were stunning! What an amazing creation! I can't believe the little cubs I just played with will grow up to be so big and potentially dangerous one day! I felt a rush of fear as I thought about getting in the cage with them. As most of you know, I'm a dare devil. There was no way I was going to pass up this opportunity.
I tend to put myself in dangerous situations.
I've swam with sharks in Hawaii.
I've walked amongst wild grizzlies in Alaska.
Why not add a huge tiger in Thailand to the list?
Dear God, why do I tempt fate?
I questioned the Thai girl at the front desk. "Has anyone ever gotten hurt doing this? Any maulings?"
"No.", she replies.
"How long has this place been open?" I ask.
"2 years", she says, while holding up 3 fingers.
I shake my head in confusion.
"Ok, I'll do it", I confirm as I slap the money down onto the counter, which was well over my daily budget. I scribble my signature on a waiver and was guided to the "BIG cat" cage!
I was more scared than a cow in a slaughter house. They open the tiger den gate and I hesitantly walked in behind the handler, whom was a Thai guy about half my size. He's the one that's supposed to protect me? Pfff! He joked the entire time, making me even more uneasy. We walked towards the beautifully striped creature and he says, "Are you hungry, kitty? Doesn't she look tasty?" The tiger laying on the concrete step turns his head quickly and looks directly at me, as if he understood him. I saw a hungry look in his mesmerizing eyes.
My flight response kicked in. "I want out right now!" I demanded. The man tried to take my hand and lead me closer to the tiger. I stiffened up. "No, I want out of here!" I said, trying to stay calm. I could see another tiger pacing sleekly behind me and another one in the corner starting to get up.
Oh God, did they fed them today?!
I finally convince the handler to let me out of the cage. Relieved, and nearly in tears, I gather myself. I watched an English couple subject themselves to the terror as they pet the cats and posed with them for pictures. When they came out, I shyly asked them, "Was it scary?" In unison, they said, "yes!" The English guy made a good point when he said, "you're going to regret it if you don't do it." That was it. That was the sentence that made up my mind. I knew what I had to do. I told the handler I was ready to go back in. I put on my game face.
I forced myself to put one foot in front of the other and, like Nike says, "just do it." I knew I could do this. We get back into the cage and the door slams shut behind us. Klunk!
2 handlers accompany me this time as we enter a different cage.
There are 3 large tigers playing roughly together. One lays down and I point to him. I want to pet that one. He's laying on his side panting and curiously sticks his head up as we approach. They tell me to kneel next to him and pet him. "Not soft, hard. Tiger no like soft.", instructs the handler. Oh gosh, what if I do it wrong and he attacks me?
I lay my hand on the massive animal as he rests and am surprised at how compact he feels. I slide my hand over the rough striped hair. I expected him to be soft, like a kitty cat.

"Hold his tail!" the handler says. "What?! No!" I exclaim. They pick up the tiger's tail harshly and hand it to me. "Be careful! Don't piss him off!" I say.
They laugh at me. I start feeling more comfortable as I use the tiger as a pillow. This is unbelievable. I've seen this animal on TV and in a zoo, but never imagined I'd be laying my noggin on one.

I see the tiger in the corner raise to his feet and start to prowl across the cage in our direction. I didn't think laying on the ground around 3 massive tigers was the brightest idea, so I signaled to one of the handlers that I was done. They tried convincing me to take pictures with the hungry looking tiger walking towards us. I refused and we exited the tense cage.
I was glad to escape unscathed. What a rush!!
I'll tell you a secret: even though I act like I'm scared, I really enjoy living on the wild side! Don't you? It's so much more exciting!

Rawrrr!

The elephant story

In Chiang Mai, Thailand there are plenty of one day tours to keep you busy for days on end. They are cheap ($20-30) so it's affordable to sample a few, if you have the time.

I knew I definitely wanted to see the hill tribes while I was here, but the packages I found to visit these tribes included an elephant ride. I hesitated. These days, I try to avoid elephants as much as possible. I had a traumatizing event involving elephants while in India. I tried to overcome this terror in Nepal, but I found my irrational fear towards these gentle giants still exists.


I think it's time I share my elephant story with all of you, so you know where I'm coming from. First of all, I realize that not all of you are going to believe me when I tell this story. But, I want you to know that I have not embellished this story one bit. If anything, I'm making it sound less serious than what it really was. This was one of the scariest things that has ever happened to me.


It was November 2010, I was in Munnar, India. I had hired a tuk-tuk driver for 5 days to drive me anywhere I wanted. His name was Shiju.

This is a tuk-tuk:

On this day, we were headed to the wildlife sanctuary, which was 60 km away. It was a beautiful, sunny day. On the way there, I bought a huge bundle of bananas to feed the monkeys along the road. I love monkeys! They were a little scared, so I would throw a banana a little closer to the tuk-tuk each time until they were really close. They started to get a little too close and aggressive, so I would say "Go Shiju!" and he would take off fast in the tuk-tuk. I was afraid the monkeys would steal the bag of bananas. We laughed so hard. They kept stuffing the bananas in their cheeks until they looked like chipmunks. It was such a fun day and the sun was shining bright. Life was grand. After 3 hours, we arrived at the sanctuary. We planned to hike a couple hours to a waterfall and back. I was escorted by Shiju and another Indian boy that worked as a guide for the sanctuary. Both these boys were very young and skinny as a toothpick, they couldn't have weighed more than 100 pounds. They were also a good foot shorter than me.


I wasn't prepared for this hike. I was wearing jeans and clog sandals. The hike was kinda hilly and I started to work up a sweat and my jeans started sticking to me and my clogs started getting slippery so it was difficult to walk. I was really uncomfortable and just wanted to get back to the tuk-tuk.

We had just begun to make our way back from the waterfall, walking in a single file line with the guide in front, me in the middle, and Shiju behind me. There were large trees and bushes surrounding us. It was beautiful. We were crossing a little creek which required us to step on rocks to get across. I was negotiating my step on the second or third stone, looking down and concentrating where I was stepping with my useless clogs. All of a sudden, I see the guide, who was about 5 feet in front of me, throw his hands up, turn around and start running towards me. Everything went in slow motion from this point on. Simultaneously, I hear the trees in front of us rustle wildly and also hear a big swoosh of air. I frantically screeched "what?!" to the guide as he was running towards me. I grabbed his pencil thin arm. At the same time I look up and see what caused the guide to get so spooked. A huge Indian elephant was charging straight at us, coming out of the trees with his ears flapping!


My mouth drops and I swivel on my heel and hop-scotch it across the rocks and back onto the dirt path. Even though I could hardly walk in my slippery sandals, my flight response took over and I could miraculously run fast in these sandals. I felt an overwhelming surge of adrenaline pump through my veins. We pass by Shiju and I grab his skinny arm too and we are all running connected together now. We are sprinting as fast as we can.


My legs feel like they're moving slow because every second that passes feels like a minute. But in reality, we were running like the wind. It's funny what adrenaline can make you do. I didn't look back. I was just waiting to feel the crush from the elephants gigantic foot. I could hear branches breaking behind us. I knew we were undoubtedly going to get trampled, it was just a matter of when. I'm shocked when it doesn't happen. We run off the path into the bushes and hide behind a tree. When I come to my senses, I think, "this flimsy tree isn't going to save us! The elephant will just knock it over!" I feel utterly vulnerable and trapped as I look around for a way to escape this unbelievable situation. Shiju and the guide are rambling in Hindi and I can't understand anything they're saying. They speak very, very little English. They kept saying "don't worry, madame." But it was impossible for them to comfort me when they were obviously shook up themselves. Their little brown hands were trembling just as bad as mine.

Luckily, the aggravated elephant had retreated back into the trees and was pacing back and forth while keeping a watchful eye on us. Then we see that he is near another large elephant and 3 baby elephants. 5 elephants all together! So that explains it. He was protecting his young and we had stumbled upon them accidentally! At this point, I'm so overcome with fear, all I can do is whimper "I don't want to do this anymore, I want to go home", over and over and over. I couldn't think straight. I had a hold of Shiju's arm and wouldn't let go. I wanted nothing more than for a helicopter to land next to me, swoop me up and transport me safely to Windom, MN.... to my mommy. I was so afraid, I couldn't even cry. The guide decided we needed to hike completely off the track, through  the tall brush, to get around the angry elephant and his family. We trekked through huge cobwebs with spiders the size of my hand. Even though I passionately hate spiders, this didn't even phase me. I was so focused on getting out of that sanctuary alive and away from those elephants, I didn't even care.


We were all silent on the hike back, concentrating on getting our distance from the elephants and dealing with our emotions as it sunk in what just happened. We had just been within feet of a charging wild elephant and we were still alive!


On the 3 hour drive back to the hotel, I was still shaking. I had a totally different outlook on life. Do you know the feeling after you just escaped death? The world looked different, the colors were brighter, music sounded sweeter and my thoughts were much clearer. I'm not kidding. I can't really explain it. I was so thankful to be alive. It was a huge reminder of how precious life really is.


When I got back to my hotel, I told the man at the front desk what happened. He looked at me with big eyes and said, "Madame, that's verdy, verdy bad! Verdy bad!" He said around there when an elephant charges people, it's never a good outcome. Then he looked at me like, "you shouldn't be standing here right now." I get the heebie jeebies when I think about how close to death we came.


So this is why I'm afraid of elephants!

However, I was still able to make myself get on this elephant for the sake of the tour.

 Oh, by the way, visiting the hill tribes was pretty cool. here's some pictures of the Thailand tribes: