Birthday Party in Laos!

July 29, 2013:

Today was my birthday!  It started off with a delicious breakfast made by P-Koko and Abi giving me a birthday gift - a beautiful painting that perfectly describes our trip.  (I'll include a photo)  

It was an awesome day to celebrate our birthday on the other side of the world together.  We taught and played with the local kids, worked on the community service project (a bathroom for the village we are staying at), we played cards, showered in the stream while playing with the kids and Abi even found a leach stuck to her arm twenty minutes later!  Dean caught the runt piggy I had been chasing around for the past few days and I got to hold him.

After our delicious dinner and singing of happy birthday we were given the traditional birthday gift of killing a chicken.  We had a hard time with this and we agreed to convince everybody to let him go.  By naming him Gunther.  However, this did not work and other people started to say they would just kill him.  So, we decide we had to do it.  Abi would hold him while I slit his throat.  After five or ten solid minutes of me laughing and crying at the same time our friend Seton came to help steady my hands and help.  We were warned not to cut to hard or we would cut his head off when we only wanted to slit his throat.  So the first three slices were unsuccessful.  By now everybody was yelling "kill him already" and "you're making him suffer" and "Ah! I got blood on me!!"  As you can imagine the two girls who wanted to set him free ran away at this point and the chicken was finally dead.

Then we went inside where the room was beautifully decorated with balloons.  Khom Thai put balloons in his shirt and was pretending to be a ladyboy.  We had our birthday pancake and shared the last third with the local kids.  After this most everybody went to sleep.  I stayed up with my friends Dean, Anya, MengYang, Anou, and Khom Thai.  Khom Thai cooked the chicken with a little bit of cilantro and I enjoyed a small tasty piece of Gunther.  Dean ate the chicken feet and the chicken head (both common in this part of the world) ; brain, tongue, eyes, skull and all.  However he couldn't quite crunch down on his beak.

R.I.P. Gunther 7.29.13 Mok Dou, Laos

Definitely my most memorable birthday so far. 

Claire Russack

In the group of people I traveled through Thailand and Laos with for the last month I met my now good friend Claire.  She's a seventeen year old girl who lives in Connecticut and is an incredible singer and self taught guitarist and pianist.

I encourage you to check out her Soundcloud page:

https://soundcloud.com/clairerussack

As of now she only has covers posted, but one of her original songs is coming out at the end of this month!

https://soundcloud.com/clairerussack

Shanghai, Yangzhou, Tea Factory, West Lake, Massage, Hot Pot

This morning we arrived in Shanghai, once we got settled into our hotel we hopped into a highspeed train to Hangzhou for the day.  We stopped at a hostel for a yummy lunch of pizza and played with the three week old puppies who had been born at the hostel from the hostels dog Sonny.  So cute!  My friend Jeffrey and I played Uno (and I kicked his ass for the record).  Then we all rented a bike and took a beautiful bike ride through Hangzhou to a tea factory, because (I think) Hangzhou is the tea capital of China.  I picked out two teas to try and bought two packets of each.  One I read about at the museum called Baihao Yizhen that has a slight apricot flavor.  And the other Jasmine tea (Mary's favorite) so good!  We got back on the bikes and rode in the hot sun to the West Lake.  We took a boat ride out on the lake.  The veiw from my bike was incredible, so green.  After our bikes were returned we ended our day trip and returned to Shanghai.  Next we got massages.  This was very different from what we are used to in the U.S.  All the girls got full body massages, in the same room together, over these pink pajama-like suits they gave us.  And tonight we had my favorite meal in China so far, Hot Pot.

Summer Palace and the 798 Art Zone

Today we went to the Summer Palace - this is where the emperor would live during the summer months.  Basically his lake house, it is a palace built on a man-made lake.  I am again amazed by the Chinese architecture and the detail incorporated into their buildings.  There is a long outdoor walkway/hall-type thing leading to the palace with more than 4000 paintings on the ceilings and walls, each different.  Some are of Chinese landscapes and some are of traditional Chinese stories.
Next we went to the 798 Art Zone and saw all kinds of modern art - from sculptures, to paintings, to street art.
Tonight we are on an overnight bullet train to Shanghai.

Leaving Thailand heading to Laos

My posts are going to be a bit out of order and very delayed as I post for the rest of my time in Asia.  However I am going to continue to start each entry with "Today, I did this and that" as I wrote it for that day.  But today I am actually now leaving Thailand going to Laos.

Why I have not been posting often:

While I was in China Blogger was blocked, along with Facebook, Youtube, and many other websites.  The Chinese government blocks these sites in attempt to control the media, the government also owns all newspapers and televised news throughout the country (This excludes Hong Kong).  A week ago I arrived at the Elephant Conservation Center, Mahout and Elephant Training Center in Lampang, Thailand with no wifi.  Tomorrow I leave this hotel and will most likely not have internet access for the next three weeks.   I will be in Thailand for another several days and then Loas for a few weeks. When I get home I will be sure to post all about my travels.  I cannot wait to share the photos I have with these amazing animals.

The Great Wall of China and Karioke at the Beijing Olympic Center

Today I saw the Great Wall of China.  It was literally breath taking.  I wassch a wuss when it came to climbing the steep steps of this really GREAT wall.  You know when you see those paintings of China with the mountain peeking out from the top top of the clouds?  That is exactly what I saw from the Great Wall.  And again, my camera cannot show how incredible the veiw really was.  I will include some photos of the wall and myself and friends on the wall.
I'll also post a photo of Mary and I heading down on the lifts from the Great Wall.  She is from China and speaks fluent Manderin, English and Korean.  Her favorite band is Korean and Korea (South Korea) is her favorite place.  I hope to meet her there for a concert in the winter this year.
Tonight I put on my new blue wig and we took the subway to the Beijimg Olympic Stadium where the 2008 Olymics Games were hosted.  It looks incredible at night when everything is lit up.
When we were about to head out we heard karioke.  And of course we did not know the songs becuase they were all Chinese songs, but us four girls, Katie, Sarah, Jill and I waited in line and tried our best to sing Fergilicious at the Beijing Olympic Statuim.  We were terrible but drew quite a large crowd and had a great time.  I mean how many people get to say the did karioke to Fergilicious in Beijing at the Olymipic Stadium!   If any of the videos end up on YouTube,  I will be sure to share the link.