Lao Lessons

STATS: Day count=256; theft count=1; rip-off count=1; tourist screw-up count=5.5; Chris’ photo count=2131; Emma’s photo count=110; touch-typing char/min=247; Poi skills mastered since last post: None

We’ve been working at the Tat Kouang Si Bear Rescue Centre now for a little over a week, and in true Project Management style it is time for a focus on Lessons Learnt:

Valuable Lesson #1: Don’t leave your iPod lying around

The very observant amongst you may have noticed a dramatic increase (from 0 to 1) in the ‘theft count’ statistic in this post. The guest house we are staying in is great – clean room, friendly staff, balcony overlooking a river, TV, fridge etc. Even the fact that it sits under the flight path for the local airport which is only a few km away is not a problem since, as with everything else in Laos, planes are infrequent and basic and sitting only a few tens of feet below a landing propeller plane is quite interesting, if somewhat noisy. Unfortunately however, I had got complacent with our normal rigorous security measures and left both my wallet and iPod on show. Some money went missing, as did the iPod. I couldn’t guarantee it was the guest house staff, and the manageress was most upset about the possibility and most apologetic. My fault for leaving it around. We got some free bananas out of the episode, so it isn’t all bad.

Valuable Lesson #2: Practice at a one-visit-buffet is never wasted

Luang Prabang is a really nice place to stay. Very, very quiet, lots of restaurants and cafes and an interesting night market. Amongst the stalls selling big, puffy slippers and embroidered pillow cases are a few food stalls. Some of these are excellent – offering a variety of vegetarian Lao/Asian dishes which you can serve yourself onto a plate and all for 10,000 Kip (less than £1). Years spent balancing a variety of salad items on a small bowl at Pizza Hut (at a time when you could visit the salad bar once and once only) prepared me for this and the tower of noodles, tofu and green beans was impressive to all around. Except possibly the person running the stall. We have visited these stalls a lot over the last week.

Valuable Lesson #3: Never trust a bear

Whilst we were helping out weighing the bears (more on the bears below), which is done using a transport cage on some electronic weigh scales and somehow encouraging each of the 17 adult bears to pass through the cage (it took a while!), one of the Lao keepers at the centre was a little distracted and inadvertently leant her hand against one of the cages, which was holding one of the big adult bears. Playfully (he didn’t intend any aggression) the bear (named Dinh) grabbed her hand and pulled it in the cage, whereupon she reacted understandably by pulling her hand back, which Dinh saw as a kind of game. A few screams, some shouts, rushing around and banging on cages later the keeper managed to get her hand back – lots of blood from scratches and bites but nothing too serious. A painful-for-her and valuable-for-us reminder that they are still wild animals!

Valuable Lesson #4: Gimp masks would probably make very good bear feeders

A large part of our work here is to help out on the ‘bear enrichment’. This involves constructing various things out of whatever is lying around, or is cheap to buy at the market, that either gives the bears something to play with, or challenges them in some way – usually involving a clever way of getting at hidden food. Emma had a great idea for a raised platform for the blind bear cub to eat from and climb into, I learned (google is great!) how to make rope netting to hold large fruit and vegetables, and also made a hanging food basket from some heavy-duty fabric strapping. All were impressed with this, but Emma and Jude (one of the managers here) both commented during construction that it looked like a mask from some S&M party.

And so to the bears. They’re great. The rescue centre has a total of 23 bears (all Asiatic Black Bears – Moon Bears – except for one Sun Bear) of varying ages – all rescued in Laos from poachers or the hideous bile farms, where bears are kept all of their short, but painful, lives in tiny cages, often ill, usually unable to move around beyond sitting and standing for up to 10 years (a bear’s natural life is around 20+ years) and regularly injected or having a catheter inserted into their gall bladder to extract bile, which is used in Chinese potions and lotions with the claim that it improves various things. Doesn’t improve anything for the bear, of course. At least when they get to the Rescue Centre they have a good life.

We’re loving the work here. The sanctuary is set within a protected forest, right next to some of the most picturesque waterfalls in Laos, where you can go for a swim beneath the falls when it gets too hot, and where there is a useful and regular procession of tourists who see the bears on their way to the falls. Run in excellent fashion by two Brits, Jane & Jude, whom we are very jealous of – they ‘fell into’ the job 5 years ago while they were doing pretty much what we are doing – and their small staff of 5 Lao locals. All very informal, we help out where we can and, unlike at the gibbon sanctuary, we do seem to be actually helping here. We help feed the bears each day – they are taken out of the enclosures and into their cages for 30 minutes or so while we go around and hide their food so they have to forage for it when they come out; we help with the 5 bear cubs they have, one of whom (Champa) is blind and has suspected water on the brain and needs a bit of care and attention; we have painted the fence around the main enclosure; and we’ve helped to create some interesting bear enrichment equipment. Very rewarding for us, seemingly useful for the team here and appreciated by the bears! We’re enjoying it so much we’re planning to stay an extra week at the rescue centre.

We get a tuk-tuk to the rescue centre each day – a 35km journey from the town – booked for 8-8:30am everyday and turns up like clockwork at 9am. The centre is surrounded by wildlife (not just the bears) and we regularly encounter a huge variety of insects, reptiles (including snakes), leeches and, unfortunately, spiders. It is currently a bit of a mess as they are in the long,  drawn-out process of having another enclosure built – another reason why there is plenty for us to do there. After a busy day at the centre we may head to the waterfall for a swim, or back into town and have a really cheap herbal steam room session near to our guest house.

We get weekends off, not that our activities during the week can be classed as ‘work’, but it is nice having the old routine again, if only briefly. Walking around the town at the weekend and it seemed a bit like a ghost town, it was so quiet. The inflatable globes that I have been carrying around for the last 9 months in the hope of finding someone, or some organisation, worthy in my eyes of receiving one/some found a home at last at a local organisation (“Big Brother Mouse”) that does a tremendous job in getting books to the Lao kids, most of whom have never owned, and otherwise would probably never own, a book. They seemed really grateful for the gift. We hope to help out there next Saturday at their reading English lesson.

The Daily Mail recently did an article on the town we are in – Luang Prabang.  If you fancy reading a bit more, and seeing some better pictures than I have taken (though the town looks a lot busier in their pictures than in our experience, but we are in low season now), check it out. It even briefly mentions the bear rescue centre. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1313404/Laos-combines-French-style-Buddhist-calm.html

It’s a tough life.