Laos You Doing?

Saibaidee ngajubintharri!

I am volunteering at the Laos Conservation Trust for Wildlife just outside of Vientiane, and I am having a cracker time :D

Working very hard as you can see

I've been here for a week now and today is my day off so I finally have time and energy to tell you all about it.

I have wanted to come to Laos for AGES and on a whim I booked a spot here at LCTW and got my tickets and accom and... we're not vibing like I'd hoped we would.

I've been crook ever since I got to Laos. And the fact I had to wait at customs with my E-visa for an hour and a half simply because they ran out of ink for the printer didn't start us off on the best foot.

The food hasn't been sitting right with me, which is weird because I haven't had a problem with the food in the other countries. So I'm not feeling too crash hot.

But! I'm loving hanging out with the wildlife here. I'm volunteering with the Husbandry and Enrichment Team and we've been busy deep cleaning the kitchen where the animal food prep happens, have also been prepping food for the quarantine animals. One morning we got to hang out with the bear team and clean out their enclosures then hide their food around the place and watch while they searched for it - really fun by the way!

When we've got time we work on building a new enclosure for the macaques. And one morning we even helped out with a school tour. I was with the youngest kids (5-6 years olds) so you can imagine how thrilled I was and not awkward at all....

Picking up bear poo > tours with children

The gibbons are pretty cool. Did you know gibbons sing? And their singing sounds like beautiful music. You hear it during the day and it's quite peaceful.

Did you also know gibbons can just hang for ages as well. Their hands have formed so that they exert fuck all energy to just hang from a branch.

And how cool would it be to just swing from a branch like that?

Lost cast members from the Neverending Story

There are two types of bears here; the Asiatic black bears (also known as moon bears) and the sun bears, and in the sun bear enclosure they also have binturongs, or as I was calling them, banterangs (which sounds like an 80s all girl glam rock band).

I love the bears and binturongs!

I think the bears are adorable and the binturongs are the funkiest looking creatures I've ever seen. They kinda look like they belong in the Neverending Story.

They also are the dominant animals over the sun bears, which I find hilarious!

This moon bear knows how to chill!

This guy has found the peace of meat we hid in the puzzle and he's one happy chappy.

Watching the crocs eating is both terrifying and satisfying.

I don't know what it is about wildlife but you can spend hours just watching them eat.

The bears are so cute when they eat, they make these adorable little sounds and pick up their food in their paws and take bites out of it. So civilised.

Meanwhile the binturongs eat like crocodiles, they pick the food up with their mouths and crunch off peaces to chew and swallow.

👆🏾 deep cleaning the fridges. It is honestly so satisfying to do a deep clean (walls and all) and just stand back and see the progress. We've spent two days on this, one more and I reckon we'll be done.

There's not really a lot to do after hours around here. The conservation is in a small town, so our options are games, TV shows/movies or reading. I really enjoy watching trashy TV with everyone - Too Hot to Handle is now my new guilty pleasure, me and Bonty are invested in Harry and Beaux now ❤😂

Suss about my ice cream flavour

Before the tour I got a buffalo milk ice cream and the only flavour they had was black sesame... it didn't really appeal to me but I really wanted ice cream so I got it and oh my.... it was very yummy! Will be going back later for another one.

👆🏾 helping out with the food prep. As you can see I'm loving cleaning the leaves out of the ants for the pangolin

Oh and speaking of bugs, there are some big fuck off bugs here in Laos!

I've seen spiders so big they could steal your purse! Shat me dacks while collecting banana leaves only to look up and see two of the big buggers just sitting there!

That same day after my shower I walked out of the shower block to find a huge scorpion standing in front of the door looking straight at me 😨

Bonty and my new little ceramic pangolin just chilling while I eat my ice cream.

My second night here there was a party to celebrate one of the staff's mum visiting. Lots of food and lots of beer! These Laos mob know how to drink and the little bitty women were giving me a run for my money.

Earlier in the day just after my work day had ended I walked to Truck Stop - the small stop just up the road that does our food for us - and ordered an ice coffee. While I waited a few of the locals were having beer and invited me to join.

I loved it!

They did not speak a word of english and I only know hello and thank you in Laos so there was a lot of talking and no understanding going on. I just assumed they were asking me questions about myself so I told them my name and that I'm from Australia.

They were so sweet too, they loved my octopus tattoo and were very generous with their beer. One of them pointed to his truck outside and signalled with his hands that he could give me a lift if I needed. I signalled that I was staying across the road and thanked him for the offer. Then my ice coffee arrived and we said goodbye and I practically skipped back to the conservation because I that had been a highlight of my trip for sure!

At the end of the day there's nothing better than just chilling in my hammock at my bungalow.

Yeah my stomach is not feeling that great and it's hot and humid and the bugs are fucked! But the beer is good and I'm loving being here at the conservation.

I've got one more week left and then it's off to Thailand!!!