nature - Traveling Thru History

3 Amazing Activities To Do In Banff

Erin — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 19:56:23 +0000

Banff is one of the most beautiful national parks in Canada. Here are the best ways to take in the scenery and enjoy the park's natural beauty. #TBIN

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21 Virtual Tours to Satisfy Your Wanderlust

Erin — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 06:15:18 +0000

A virtual tour is the best way to get a travel fix while between trips. Check out these 21 fascinating virtual tours to satisfy your wanderlust when you can't get out to see them yourself. #TBIN

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Road Trip to Canada, Days 3 & 4

Erin — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 20:43:38 +0000

My best friend and I took a road trip to Canada to celebrate her birthday and my graduation. It was so much fun getting to explore Vancouver together. This is what we did on the last two days of our trip. #TBIN

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Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary

Erin — Tue, 10 May 2016 07:03:35 +0000

In October Troy and I went with a handful of his coworkers to check out this neat little place about 1.5-2 hours northeast of Kuala Lumpur. Along with being a scenic roadtrip away, it boasted the opportunity to feed and interact with elephants. I was soooooooo excited and couldn’t wait to get there.The elephant sanctuary is located in a very rural area that is fairly easy to get to……..if you’re paying attention. We got turned around a little bit because our gps told us to turn right when we should have turned left and we ended up at this compound with barbed wire around it. Yikes! After a quick turn around and navigating by eye instead of using the gps, we got there safely. There were several signs that we had missed that directed us straight to the entrance. lol. The parking lot for the sanctuary was surprisingly empty. There were only a handful of other cars there. I had thought it would be really packed, but we were there kinda early. The sanctuary opens at 10:30 and we got there around noon. Nothing really interesting happens until about 1:00. The schedule says the elephants wander around a trail in a fenced area, but they weren’t doing that when we got there. So, we just hung out in the common areas, took some pictures and ate lunch. After eating, we walked about and learned a bit more about the place. Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary is an elephant preserve that has been around since 1989. It is there to provide a place for elephants who have gotten into the plantations around Malaysia to go and be cared for before they are relocated to different preserves or national parks in the country. Some elephants are injured and stay there until they are healthy enough to be in the wild on their own. The sanctuary staff teaches the elephants to be comfortable around humans and to help out with heavy-labor tasks, such as moving trees and clearing out large pieces of timber. They try to get the elephants moved out within a few months, but some end up staying longer due to illness or injury. The main purpose of the sanctuary is to help and preserve the elephants in Malaysia since they are on the Critically Endangered list. To do that, they focus on educating and making the public aware of the plight of the Malaysian elephants. In the common area, they have this information station that has large tablets with information, pictures, bones and other elephant-related items. It was pretty neat. There were a lot of really neat facts about Malaysian elephants and some really big skulls! They also had an example of the size variation between mammoths, Asian elephants and pygmy elephants. Of course, we had to get our pictures next to it. Yay! I’m taller than a pygmy elephant! After hanging out and killing an hour, we were able to watch a really neat video that talked about the purpose of the sanctuary and then a documentary on what they do there. It was neat seeing how they capture an elephant that is damaging a plantation. Though, I think they should say that the plantation destroyed the elephant’s natural habitat and the elephant is just trying to find out where its home went. But, anywho, the video shows how the elephants are captured, cared for and then released back into the wild. I really enjoyed seeing how they do all of this and the care they take while doing it. The workers there really love the elephants. After watching the video, we were able to go to the middle of the preserve and see the elephants! By this time, there were a whole lot of people there. When we first got to the area where the elephants were, we got to visit with some of the smaller elephants. We’d brought food with us, so our snacks became snacks for the elephants! I absolutely loved how excited this lady looked to have a picture with the elephants, so I snuck a picture of her, too. After about 15 minutes, they had a mini procession of the larger elephants going from the jungle area over to the river where we got to watch them play in the water. It was pretty fun. Usually they let people swim in the water with the elephants, but if they think the elephants are stressed for any reason, they don’t allow people to go in the water with them. They also don’t allow people in the water if the water is too high or the weather is bad. The weather was beautiful when we were there, but the elephants were stressed out, so we just got to stand in a gazebo and watch the elephants in the water. It was fun watching them play and have a good time. One thing to keep in mind while you are there is that there are a lot of people and you will get pushed and bumped a lot. This guy was being a bugger and trying to spray people with water. White they were in the water, the elephants enjoyed a good scrubbing by the mahout. Watching these men interact with the elephants, it’s so clear to see how much they love these animals. After the elephants played in the water for a bit, the handlers took them over to a little arena area where they did a small presentation. There were a few English-speaking people there who complained about the ‘lameness’ of the ‘show’, but these aren’t show elephants. They are wild animals who are just being taught a few simple things before being returned to the wild. Some of the elephants are domesticated enough to help with the translocation process of the wild elephants, but none of them are for show or entertainment. I enjoyed the presentation that demonstrated how strong elephants are and how good their balance was. It’s always neat being able to see the strength and intelligence of the animals around us. Pardon the shakiness. We were getting pushed and jostled quite a bit. After the presentation, we got to feed the elephants! I didn’t even realize there were baskets of fruit laying about until the end of the presentation. I’m glad Troy noticed sooner than I did so that we could grab some fruit to feed the elephants. We’d brought celery, carrots and some apples to snack on, so we still would have been able to feed them, but it’s always fun having a lot to give them. We got some pretty fun pictures of us feeding the elephants. After feeding them a bit, Troy thought it would be fun to pick an elephant’s nose. While we were feeding them, I decided I wanted to do something silly and see if the elephant would take an apple out of my mouth. Troy didn’t think I’d do it, but here’s the proof! I feel like the elephant was laughing at me. “Silly girl, that apple is mine!” The people we went with were all talking about how cool it was that I did that, so Troy tried it, too. His attempt didn’t work out quite as nicely as mine. I think he forgot the part about it needing to be in his mouth. lol. Or maybe the elephant learned and was quicker to grab the apple this time. Overall, the entire experience was fun. It was a bit crowded and a little crazy, but we still had a good time feeding the elephants and learning more about the sanctuary’s mission. Any effort at animal conservation is a noble thing. So, if you ever find yourself in Malaysia and want something to do, check out the Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary. Here is the schedule listed on their website: Time Activities 10.30 am – 12.00 pm Elephant observation along the interpretive trail. Visitor will be able to observe the young elephant roaming freely within the secured electric fencing area. 1.00 pm & 1.30 pm Video show A documentary shows translocation of wild elephants to their new habitat 2.15 pm Bathing and cleaning of elephants by mahout The visitors will watch the elephant bath given by mahout with explanations by NECC staff. 2.45 pm – 3.15 pm Elephant conservation talks at interpretive stage. Visitors will be introduced to each of the elephants which include their background and ability. Note: Please be informed that there are no elephant rides provided in this centre. They used to allow people to volunteer at the center, but they cancelled that program in 2011. I snagged a screen grab off their blog as to why: I am sincerely appalled that one (or several) of my countryman would behave in such a manner as to cause an entire program to be shut down. I am so sorry this happened. I hope one day the Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary will be able to resume their volunteer and internship program. I’m sure it helped a lot of people better understand elephants and the effort to help them. And here are directions to the center: By Road From Kuala Lumpur, take the Karak Highway heading towards Lancang District, passing the Karak Village along the way. Once in Lancang, you should be able to see a BP gas station by the side of the road. Turn left into the road before the gas station, then follow the ample road signs along the way and head towards Bolok. You will pass an Orang Asli settlement and at the end of that road, you will reach the Kuala Gandah Elephant Orphanage Sanctuary. The journey takes between 2 to 2 1/2 hours and is 160km from Kuala Lumpur. As for the price, it’s free! They do ask for a donation when you leave, so it’s nice to give at least a little bit. This place wouldn’t be able to operate if people didn’t donate, so show your appreciation for the work they are doing and your ability to go and be around these magnificent creatures. Every little bit helps. 🙂

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Visiting the Great Wall of China

Erin — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 00:50:24 +0000

I’ll tell you now, before I get into my post, that this post has a LOT of pictures. I hope you enjoy my journey along the top of the Great Wall of China! To pick up where my last post left off, after we hung up with Kevin we wandered around the Beijing Olympic Stadium for a while. The tour company called us several times, asking if we wanted them to come get us, where we were, what had upset us (haha, that one was funny) and if we could work out a deal. We weren’t about to tell them where we were and we definitely didn’t want to attempt another ride with them, so we just kept waiting on Kevin to call us back. And goofing off. I mean, even if we’re somewhat stranded in the middle of Beijing and a bit stressed out from our day going so crazy, we can still have fun, right? After about an hour Kevin called us and said he’d found someone who could take us to the Great Wall. The price would be 600RMB and there would be no superfluous stops along the way. We were ecstatic to have a ride to the Wall, regardless of the price increase, and quickly went to where he said his friend would meet us. He was there when we got there and within minutes we were on our way. I feel terrible that none of us remember his name, but I think part of it was that we were all so frazzled and stressed about the morning’s events. He was really nice, so I’m sure he will forgive us. From this point on, though, almost everything went just the way we wanted it to. Kevin’s friend was really great. He drove us straight to the Great Wall and chatting with us along the way. He was very nice and very friendly and, most importantly, didn’t try to con us out of any money. After an hour of driving and feeling more relaxed than we had all day, we arrived at the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. While the Great Wall was first begun around 700 BC, the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall was built during the 6th century AD. After a few hundred years it began to crumble and in 1569 this section of the wall was repaired with some parts being entirely rebuilt. On the east lies the Gubeikou section and on the west is the Juyongguan Pass. Of all the sections of the Great Wall, the Mutianyu section is the best-preserved, most unique and had the largest scale of construction, though it is one of the lesser-visited areas. After a quick lunch and figuring out a game plan, we took off to ascend the Great Wall. We’d considered climbing the stairs up to the top, but there are over 4,000 of them. As in-shape as we are, 4,000 steps in a row is a lot and we didn’t want to wear ourselves out before we’d seen anything. What’s the point of using all of our energy getting up the wall and then not having any left to explore it? So, up the chair lift we went and got to see our first view of the Wall. The first thing I noticed about the wall when we got to the top is how level it is not. You’d think the Great Wall would be flat with gentle grades, but it’s really quite steep at some parts. Honestly, by the end of the day I was thinking they should change the name from The Great Wall of China to The Great Staircase of China. Seems more fitting, considering how many steps you have to climb.The entirety of the Great Wall, including branch-offs, spans roughly 13,171 miles. The Mutianyu section is the longest section of the Great Wall and runs about 14 miles in length. No, we did not walk the entire thing. lol. The section we visited is flanked by two “no-tourist” areas, so it is only 1.5 miles in length. But that’s a little misleading because if you take the chairlift up, it deposits you a little over a quarter of a mile from the end. If you want to walk the entire thing, you have to go all the way to the right for about .3 miles and then go the full 1.5 miles the way to the other end. If you choose to go down the tobaggan ride just past the end (the tower just before the wall cuts left and goes straight up), that’s another .06 miles, so in reality you end up doing 1.86 miles if you go from one end to the other. We decided to go back down where we came up, so including the 1.2 mile backtracking, we did about 3 miles overall. It wasn’t too bad. A bit hot, but we had hats and plenty of water, so we were fine. In addition to the main wall, there are various offshoot sections that have not been repaired and are off limits to tourists. Some you can walk down and others you can’t. Someone wanted to make sure the world knew they were here. Vandalism? Or a 6th century version of writing your name in cement?Overall there are 23 watchtowers that dot the top of the Wall. They are spaced roughly 328 feet (100 meters) apart. The interior of the watchtowers seems sparse now, but I imagine there were tables, wall hangings, cots, a warm fire, maybe a rug or two and other bits of comfort for those who had to live here.The neverending stairs of the Great Wall of China. Seriously. There were more stair sections than flat sections on the wall.When I see how dense the forest is around the Wall, it makes me wonder why anyone would want to attack through this area and how people on the wall could see the attackers in the forest. Maybe that’s why this section is the best preserved? It had the fewest number of attackers and therefore the least damage?Getting to the top of the watchtowers isn’t too hard. While it’s possible to walk across the slant to get up there, they’ve blocked that part off so you can only go up via the stairs inside the watchtower.This is Zheng Guan Tai Pass. This layout of three towers, as well as the interior connection of the towers, is something that is only seen at this section of the wall. For some reason, I didn’t get any shots of the actual pass itself, just shots with the pass off to the side. Oh well. It’s not a terrible shot.The hidden red door! We climbed down an area that I don’t think we were supposed to and found this red door. Not sure where it goes, but I thought it was kinda cool. Perhaps it’s a magical door that takes people to Narnia! Now I’m sad we didn’t try to open it. 🙁 One thing I found curious about the wall was the shift and tilt. It would be flat one moment and then sharply angled within a few steps. With as masterful as the Chinese are with their buildings, I’m sure this wasn’t an accident or the result of careless construction. Can’t find anything about it online, so I’m curious about why the level of the wall changes so much.Looking back at where we started. We began at a landing just to the right of where I took this picture and then climbed up to the watchtower at the top of the hill before turning around and coming back towards the opposite end. It’s about .3 miles from this point to the far tower.Far off remnants of fortification branches.One of the interesting facts I learned about the Great Wall is that the Mutianyu section was designed with defensive fortifications on both sides of the wall. The battlements have merlons (crenellated parapets) and arrow loops on both the interior and exterior of the watchtowers and the ramparts.Signal towers dot the mountains near the wall.Seeing the views from the watchtowers, I think I would have been okay with living there.The Mutianyu section of the Great Wall was built mainly with granite instead of the brick, tile, limestone and rammed earth that make up other parts of the wall. This is one of the reasons that it is the best-preserved section of the Wall.This is more of what I had imagined the top of the wall to be like: smooth and flat with sloping curves. Not the mountain of stairs we ended up climbing. Interestingly, the Wall varies between 23-26 feet high and 13-17 feet wide. I had expected it to be tall (which it is), but hadn’t expected it to be so wide. It’s wide enough that two small cars could drive past each other in some parts! Almost to the end! The tower in the upper left corner is where we turned around and went back. We could have gotten down off the wall by that watchtower, but we wanted to go back down by where our driver was waiting for us. Sometimes it felt like the Wall was never going to end. lol The mountains in this area are just beautiful. I would love to go back in the fall and see how fiery the mountains become when the leaves change colors. So close! And this was the end. The last tower of our journey. If we pressed on and went through the tower, we would have ended up at an area where people could ride down to the bottom of the mountain. But that’s not what we wanted to do, so we turned around and trekked back to where we started. With all of our stops for pictures and such, it took us about two and a half hours from the time we got off the chair lifts until we reached this tower. On the way back to the start, we came across this sign. It reads: Founded in 1404, number 14 tower was [a] border command post at that time. Though these tower[s] were in different shapes, such as a broad bedroom in the middle, its circumference was surrounded by corridors–. gyrus shaped is the common feature.” According to Miriam-Webster online, a gyrus is “a convoluted ridge between anatomical grooves”. Anyone want to take a guess at what the sign is trying to say? We also went down to explore this tower. It looked like all the rest of them. lol No clue what this sign means. Google has come up empty.Almost back to the beginning. In the cradle of the mountains you can see a valley with a small village in it. That is Mutianyu Village and before the Wall became a popular tourist destination, this village was struggling. Even though the Mutianyu section is one of the lesser-visited sections, there are enough tourists here each year to keep the village solvent. There’s even a resort there now. I can’t find anything out about this guy, but he is pretty cool. And, of course, while we were there we had to have photos of us at the Wall. This one was at the beginning when we walked to the end closest to where the chair lifts dropped us off. I’m only a little bit sweaty at this point. Gah. I am SOOOOOO glad Troy doesn’t have this awful goatee anymore. The one he has now is trimmed and well-kept. This was about halfway from the end where our first picture was taken to the far peak where we could go no further. As you can see, I’m very VERY sweaty. lol. It was August and very hot with high humidity. We were very happy we had lots of water in our backpacks.Getting up the Wall we rode a chair lift. We could have done that on the way down, but decided it would be so much more fun if we rode the tobagan! I took this video of my ride down the slide. Towards the end you can hear me yell at someone to slow down....

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