Being finally an out of Vientiane explorer

Sitting and relaxing at home is nice. Moving into a new house, making it feel home and cozy is nice too and a cool hobby. Being immersed into gardening, get up in the morning to see how many flowers, the orchids in particular has grown, brings joy and a feel of happiness.  Indeed, at the end it’s small things which make the day.  But wait – that sounds also very much as if I had been domesticated, settled down and what’s next: Getting stuck?

No no no no – explorer Andrea has come out there with several activities in mind. First: South East Asia exploration. Vientiane is not on an airline highway, but still not at the end of the world. It is connected to more and more cities, thus making travelling easy. Targets are Kuala Lumpur, Phom Phen, Ho Chin Minh City, Myanmar, Southern Thailand, Chiang Mai.  Second: Vientiane Adventures.  Get a bicycle, a truck or motorbike and just go out of the city. Be it for a waterfall, a night in a tent, a swim in a lake, a floating restaurant or a visit of the tattooed monk. It all serves the purpose  of changing my mind, experience moment with people I care, move and have the feeling of “having done, having lived” something. All of that does not happen alone – doing such things alone, to be honest, sucks. But, together with my adventure mates, it is real fun and I actually do start enjoying this country a lot more, even though not all the things I discover are “nice and good”, often the things seen are sad.

Example. There are beautiful forests and in certain areas the governments has established natural parks, to protect and conserve them. This does not stop illegal logging, it also does not prevent people to throw and leave their garbage in plain nature – in a so called “National park”.

Another example is how they treat animals here. We discovered a very nice spot, with little bamboo huts a long the lake, cushions. Walking around, we were all impressed, until we discovered two bears in tiny steel cages sitting just a few centimeters above the water. Then, a couple of monkeys, closed up in a little cage and crocodiles, in a space, locked underneath the water surface, barely able to move. Really shocking.
Sometimes I don’t understand this world, the simplest and most common things seem to be un-understandable to others.  Everything becomes relative; there is no such thing as “common understanding” or “obvious things” in the jungle where at the end you do not know if it is because of education, culture, ethnics, ignorance or intention to do things which are cruel and disrespectful. But I guess, I also have to watch myself what I say, sure, also me – I am not perfect, starting with failing in trying to be a vegetarian (and instead enjoying to eat jumping shrimps)