Mr Handsome

I was feeling a little sorry for myself today ..... Last night I went up to Tam Dao town at the top of the mountain to have dinner and drinks with some friends from Hanoi with every intention of catching a taxi down after a few hours.... A few hours passed and I was having too much fun so I stayed a little longer ... and a little longer... and there was rice wine... and beer.... and more rice wine.... And I ended up staying on top of the mountain all night!

Of course I had to work today and we have a sick dog in so I was up at the crack of dawn trying to try and find a lift down the mountain. The hotel we stayed in was padlocked up like fort knox! I had to investigate down into the basement and find the managers bedroom so I could get let out at 5:30 this morning! Then it was off down the road to find a xe om ... luckily very quickly and before I knew it I was on a motorbike coasting down the mountain...

So back to feeling sorry for myself... Last night I met two very lovely Vietnamese families with younger children who spoke exceptional English! After many conversations and many drinks I convinced them they should come and visit the bears! So they all turned up!! Luckily at the same time as I already spent nearly two hours with them taking them around the centre and educating them about bear farming in Vietnam ... the heat was searing, the humidity was unbearable, my head was hurting and my clothes were drenched in sweat... All in a days work and that's what I get for networking so well! It's really great that they came. They were all very enthusiastic and very thankful for the work we are doing and promised to tell all their friends and family about us :)

With the busy morning over and a quick 30 minute snooze at lunch it was back to work ... I snapped this in about three goes late afternoon. I also took a bunch of action shots of Shima trying to seduce Taurus and Taurus playing hard to get... but they were all a bit rubbish - wasn't til I got back to the office that I realized the image stabilization had been flicked to off!! Grrrrr. So here is handsome Chocolate :) Looking very dark at the moment. He tends to be darkest during summer and lightest during winter.