A tiger chomps down on some chow in Laos.

Journal and photo by Colin McAuliffe

Sa Bai Dee from Laos, which coincidentally is one of the friendliest, most beautiful places I have ever travelled to in my life. The people here are ridiculously warm and friendly, even the little kids with M-16s are excited to see us; in fact, even the grown men armed with weapons are excited to see us.

Laos may not be a country with a lot of money, and some people might tell you it’s an extremely poor nation, however in my view, people from Laos lead a charmed life. Never is there a problem with food shortages, and money isn’t even really needed in the villages. Sure, villagers might not have televisions, mobile phones, or easy chairs, but when you drive through a small village and you see the smiles on everyone’s face, you can see that these frivolous things are not necessary. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to denounce all my material possessions and move to a small mountain village; I’ve already been programmed by the western media, however, it’s nice to see that there are still those that can resist the draw of modernization and really enjoy life to its fullest.

So yeah, that’s Laos, it’s like stepping back in time, at least that is, once you leave the cities. One day in particular Justin and I did just that. We hopped in D4 and headed 35 kilometers out of Luang Pruabang to a waterfall. We had a blast. We swam, we relaxed, we ate, we met some Spaniards, you know, the usual. Oh yeah, and Justin got bitten by a bear, an Asiatic black bear to be exact. It’s not as bad as you think, the bear didn’t just come tromping through the woods and chomp on to Justin’s leg. You see, the bear was part of a family of bears that had been recovered from a poacher and were being raised in an enclosure near the park. Anyway, we kind of wandered into their home and their care taker told us it would be fine to hang out there. Within minutes the bears were right there with us, begging to be pet. Justin was more than happy to oblige(as was I), and was quickly surrounded by a few of them. Eventually, I think he pissed one off a little and it nipped at him. Nothing major, no broken flesh. They were pretty cute and all, but when they got snippy I got the heck out of that enclosure.

After the whole bear attack thing we were walking up back towards the waterfall, when we came upon another enclosure. This one was bigger, but we couldn’t see anything inside it. After walking along the outside of it for a while, we came to another caretaker’s house. I looked inside and there it was, a tiger, and a hungry one at that. Her name was Phet (Thai for spicy) and she was also captured from a poacher. It was feeding time, and she was very hungry, pacing back and forth in her enclosure looking at me like she wanted to eat me on a platter. Luckily, her caretaker was more than happy to let us watch her feed the cat.

Watching Phet wolf down chunks of raw buffalo meat was amazing, I’ve never been so close to a big cat; I was within inches. But seriously folks, the grace and power of the beast, I can’t even describe it. The first few minutes I just kind of sat there with my jaw dropped open, awed by the animal. Eventually the shock kind of wore off and I just grabbed a chair and sat back and kind of hung out with her while she ate. All in all, I probably spent an hour hanging around Phet. It was a great experience, and I don’t think I’ll forget it anytime soon.

So, now we are on our way to China, where I’m really curious to see what awaits the team and me there; we’ll find out soon.

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