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Discoveries of a Dane

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Tag: america

October 19, 2018October 19, 2018

Adventures in America

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Chased some waterfalls on Doi Inthanon in Thailand and found this: Wachiratan Falls. Swimming was prohibited, unfortunately - I would've loved to have dunked my body in its ice cold waters! 🧜🏼‍♀️ Hopefully, we'll find some waterfalls here in the Philippines - even though the weather forecast says rain for the next 4 days 🙄🙄

The sunset at Wat Arun was amazing, and a fantastic ending to my stay in Bangkok. After this, I went to the Sky Bar at Lebua, where the helicopter scene in the Hangover II was filmed. One drink was 950 Baht, which was roughly my daily budget per day in Thailand! However, I had to see the skyline at night, right?! And yes, it was worth it 🙆🏼‍♀️ I'm now in the Philippines and will be sharing photos from here soon!

Every day at the elephant sanctuary, the volunteers had different tasks. Two hours of one job in the morning, such as unloading bananas from trucks and stacking them in the storage cage, followed by a lunch break and two hours of work in the afternoon, such as scooping poop from the enclosures 💩 Not everyone was as excited about the bananas as I was (swipe) 🍌🍌🍌

This was the view from my hostel in Bangkok. I sat by the canal a few times and witnessed boat after boat, lots of dead fish, a massive iguana and so much garbage in the water - as well as a man taking a leisurely swim. Thailand has opened my eyes to the existing lack of knowledge about the environment - or the indifference and ignorance toward it. It's strange, because people wore masks due to pollution, but still constantly drove around in their gasoline driven cars, threw trash into the canals and used single-use plastic with everything, as if the pollution wasn't caused by any of their actions. Only once did I see an ad for eco-tourism, and that was in the other end of the country. How do we bridge that gap and whose responsibility is it?

When was the last time you felt really small? For me, it was standing next to this elephant and looking directly into its eye (which is a time-stopping experience, by the way). It's so easy to feel like your contributions don't make a difference, that what you do doesn't matter. Especially when it comes to something like the environment or animal cruelty, where so many people turn a blind eye and it seems like the battle is already lost. I'm pretty sure that's the reason so few people try to do anything at all - they feel like the actions of one person are insignificant. But imagine if we all carried just a little bit of the weight, if we all changed ONE habit, it would be so much easier for everyone to see and feel the changes. If one person does it, another one will, then another one, and then... Every little thing counts, I promise! Speak up for those who can't - please. (The only reason I was able and allowed to stand this close to the elephant is because I was feeding it; I had bananas in my left hand. All unnecessary and unsupervised interaction with the elephants at the sanctuary is forbidden).

Seeing monks walking around in the bustling cities is such a weird combination to me. According to Wikipedia, most men do a temporary ordination of about one season as a monk and then go back to living their 'normal' lives. Having been a monk makes them more attractive or suitable as spouses, apparently!