George writes:
The big event of the day was going to the Elephant Preserve. What caught my attention here were the monkeys. They were so cute, but one of them was clearly very upset with all the people. He kept jumping at us while he was in the fenced in area as if he was attempting to get away. Monkeys are territorial so it isn't surprising crowds of people are threatening to them.

This was my first time in a real jungle. There were many different types of trees and animals here. We came across a monkey swinging in a tree right over top of us. Further down the same path we were walking on in the jungle we saw these white spiders that looked like snowflakes climbing on a branch. I’d never seen anything like this before.

We rode a cable car three kilometers to get deeper in the jungle. It wasn’t my first time on a car like this, but the view of the jungle below was incredible. I was hoping to see a wild elephant, which is what I came here for, but the monkeys ended up making my day.

Later we traveled to the Xishuangbanna Tropical Flowers and Plants Garden where I discovered pineapples grow in the ground not on trees as I'd previously thought. This place was really beautiful because there were so many different varieties of flowers and fruit trees. At the end of our tour of the gardens we fed many fish in the pond. There were hundreds of orange and white fish fighting over the little food pellets that we bought from a nearby stand. I couldn’t get over the sight of so many fish in one spot.

You could pay to have your picture taken with a snake, a baby bear, a baby monkey or birds.

We all rode cable cars over elephant valley, here are
Sarah and George.

This monkey made an appearance up above our heads.

The White “Flowers” you see in this photo are really small spiders.

The group pauses beside a river. We saw many signs of elephants in this area.

This family of Dai tourists asked Jessie to pose for a photo.

Charlie, Abigail and Harrison enjoy the back seat of the tour cart through the garden.

George, Writer of the Day
George is learning to play his traditional Chinese
flute.

The Elephant Reserve was very busy with tourists, mostly from China. As we entered there was all kinds of entertainment. Here the Bai people perform some traditional dances.

There was a very large tented butterfly and bird area. Here is one of the colorful birds we observed.

We were well above the old growth forest canopy.

On the jungle floor in Elephant Valley at the sight of the tree houses.

We hiked back down through the valley, but unfortunately did not see any elephants.

We also went to the Xishangbanna Tropical Flower and Plant Garden. George, takes a leap across the lily pad bridge.

Feeding the carp in a pool at the garden.