Wildlife
Cute Monkey Pic
By Tony on February 26, 2010 | 2 Comments »
OK, there’s no point to this post at all. This little monkey was just so cute that I had to put him up on the blog. So sue me!
Mekong River Dolphins
By Tony and Thomas on February 25, 2010 | No Comments »
In the last two and a half years, we’ve never mentioned fresh-water dolphins – that doesn’t mean we haven’t been trying to find them. Scouring the rivers of eastern India for Gangetic dolphins and Myanmar for Irrawaddy dolphins, we’ve been looking and looking and looking. No luck. » Continue reading this post »
Mahout for a Day
By Thomas on February 22, 2010 | 1 Comment »
We’ve been on elephants on numerous occasions in India and Nepal, but somehow the experiences left us wanting more. What we really wanted was to learn to ride the elephant like the mahout, the driver who rides on the elephant’s neck and controls the animal by issuing a series of vocal commands.
Well, thanks to our friends Emma and Richard who first told us about the incredible elephant treks outside of Sen Monorom, Cambodia, we are now experienced elephant drivers, although they haven’t quite issued our licenses just yet. It’s actually a little harder than it looks because balancing on the neck can be a bit awkward when the elephant goes up or down an incline.
Chunky Monkeys
By Thomas on February 12, 2010 | 3 Comments »
I’m always baffled that people feel the need to feed wild animals. This video shows visitors to Angkor Wat feeding wild macaques. I don’t get it. It’s not cute – it’s grotesque and horrifying. Obese monkeys waiting for their bananas by the side of the road. Although we are only showing one chunky monkey, there were several overweight animals which could barely walk. Stupid tourists, please get a clue.
California Coastal Wildlife
By Thomas on October 5, 2009 | No Comments »
The California coastline along Highway 1 boasts many natural attractions, above all the amazing animal life. On our trip from Monterey down to San Diego, we spotted sea otters, harbor seals, sea lions, pelicans, cormorants, seagulls, ground squirrels, hummingbirds, and northern elephant seals – just to name a few. “Anything to get excited over?” a Californian might ask. For a local, these are just common animals. But for a German, these are creatures you never get to see outside a zoo – except in California.
I was thrilled to see the California sea otters and the northern elephant seals in the wild. They are not common in Southern California where I used to live, so this trip up north provided a whole new wildlife experience. The sightings were especially meaningful knowing the animals’ sad history. » Continue reading this post »
