How to spin a dog in a circle

1.  Obtain a wooden board at least 12″x6″ in size.

2.  Insert dog’s teeth (both top and bottom) into board.

3.  Pull on board until dog starts making “Grrrr” noises.  (note: if dog does not start making “grrr” noises and/or lets go of the board, dog may not be suitable for spinning in a circle).

4.  Holding board out in front of you, spin in place, slowly increasing speed until centrifigal force lifts dog completely off the ground. 

More animal dreams!!!

This afternoon, as Greg & I were about to leave Marahau after our day of sea kayaking, we ran into a local who was taking his 2 Clydesdales for a stroll.  I stopped to admire the beautiful animals and he said, hey, hop on, I’ll take your picture!  And guess what happened next?  OMG, I rode a Clydesdale horse!!!  That’s another childhood dream I can check off the list…

Riding Clydesdale = maniacal happiness, according to this photo.

The horseman didn’t want Greg to feel left out, so while I trotted along, Greg rode in the carriage:

A totally awesome day!!!

Gili Trawangan Kids

No.  Not those kinds of kids but kid goats.  There are a number of small goats that roam the island and look for scraps.  My nephew (Jack) and niece (Rayann) show goats in Texas (they are 13 and 12 years old).  My niece is showing a goat in the State Fair of Texas this week.  Good luck Rayann!

I think these little goats have really unusual markings.

They also like to hop and skip around a lot.

Turtle Haven

We have now been on Gili Trawangan for a few days and it is a lot of fun.  There is great snorkeling right off the beach and both Francie and Randall saw a large turtle today.

There is also a small turtle hatchery on the island.  They try and protect the eggs left on this beach.

They have an area where small turtles are being taken care of–its not state of the art by any means but one of the dive shops was telling us that they have actually released a large number back into the wild.

Today we saw this guy cleaning the baby turtles by scrubbing their shells with a brush.

I am sure this turtle is terrified.

Here are some close ups of fresh water turtles.

Check out his snout!

Trekking Photos

Greg & I just got back from our 5-day trek, and it was spectacular. Here are a few photos from Greg’s digicam…

We hiked up this valley in the background:

Me, Dave, & guide Angela hiking towards the mountains:

This is an interesting kind of moss that grows over the rocks. Hmm, I think I was kind of cold when Greg took this photo…

The peak on the right is Mt. Chamokanga (7200m, 24,000 ft):

The lakes in Tibet are an amazing color:

This is a photo of our camp getting attacked by a herd of goats:

Greg & I, lakeside:

A couple Tibetans who came along on one of our hikes:

The scenery at our campsite:

Tibetan kids at Nam-tso lake (where we camped our first night):

Dave, me, Angela, and Michel on the shore of Nam-tso:

A typical tibetan nomad tent (made of woven Yak hair):

A foal following it’s mother (whom I am riding):

And finally, a Tibet trek wouldn’t be complete without a photo of a cute Yak wearing earrings:

The cutest donkey EVER…

… lives at Ganden Monastery in Tibet. Greg and I had the pleasure of a visit from this donkey on the 2nd night we stayed there. She has a fluffy chocolate colored coat, the cutest little hooves, and a taste for cashews.

In this photo you can see how petite she is:

“More cashews please.”

Hugs. Yay!

Bruno the Tibetan Mastiff puppy

We had the pleasure of making a new friend yesterday… Bruno!!! He belongs to the folks at Windhorse Adventure and is a purebread Tibetan Mastiff. We took him for a walk around Barkhor square yesterday.

Because of his large size, Bruno looks like an older puppy, but in fact he is just over 8 weeks old… He is gonna be HUGE!

Bruno has one brown eye and one blue eye. As our friend Gary says, “One eye is looking at me, the other is looking into my soul”…

Bruno is the sweetest puppy and incredibly well behaved, gentle, and mellow. The folks at Windhorse are working hard to train and socialize him well because during the winters (when their offices are closed) he will be living at the Lhasa school for the blind, keeping the kids there company. Good luck Bruno!

Puppy photo: LONG OVERDUE

I hope I haven’t dissappointed you people by not posting a puppy photo for awhile. Ya know what? I would have posted many more but there are really not that many dogs in China. Well, at least not as pets… In Wolong we saw several big dogs chained to construction equipment that the road builders didn’t want anyone messing with. And I don’t want to think about what all the ragged dogs chained behind people’s houses were for…

But on the brighter side, here is one happy little furball that is living it up in Songpan!

ZOMG!!! I have baby panda in my lap!!!

Hua Mei’s bebes

The panda Hua Mei gave birth to twins on July 16th, so Greg and I have had the pleasure of watching them grow from week 2 to week 3.  Panda’s are very small when they’re born, and (i think) resemble a rat more than they do a panda, but they grow fast and change a lot in their first few months.

This is Hua Mei’s bebes when they were born: (photo is from the wolong panda club website)

here is one of the bebes on 7/31/07:

and here is one of the bebes on 8/6/07:

He or she is starting to look more and more like a little panda!