I wonder where they are now....?

STATS: Day count=278; theft count=1; rip-off count=1; tourist screw-up count=5.5; Chris’ photo count=2296; Emma’s photo count=120; touch-typing char/min=247; Poi skills mastered since last post: None  After waxing lyrical about the charmingly rustic absence of decent roads throughout Laos in earlier posts, we have ever since been treated, in general, to smooth, tarmac roads. Either I could be accused of judging an entire country from first impressions or someone high up in Laos is reading this blog and pulled out all the stops to make our later journey as smooth as possible. Vientiane is incredibly quiet – for a capital city. Oxted in rush hour would have more traffic. This makes it a very pleasant place to wander around, despite not really having a lot of ‘attractions’ to tick off. I did eat some lotus seeds though. Taste like chestnuts. We also visited a ‘Buddha park’ – a small park, or large garden, filled with various statues that are Buddha related. Created by the same gu...

STATS: Day count=270; theft count=1; rip-off count=1; tourist screw-up count=5.5; Chris’ photo count=2246; Emma’s photo count=120; touch-typing char/min=247; Poi skills mastered since last post: None Our last two weeks at the bear rescue centre were busy, but  relatively uneventful. Our regular tuk-tuk ride continued to arrive 30 minutes late every day, we spent the days painting, making impressive contraptions, supposedly as ‘bear enrichment’ though it certainly contributed to ‘volunteer enrichment’, hiding food for bears to find - usually a lot quicker than it took us to hide it in the first place, mounting posters and generally looking at, and looking after, the bears. A cut bear paw caused a stir, a lunchtime spent searching an enclosure for any offending nails or glass, and two weeks confined inside for Deng, a rather large male bear, while his paw healed. Emma reinforced the opinion that she is drawn to those less fortunate by forming a bond with the blind...