Vegan Vacations involving Animals

[atouria]

It took me quite a while to come up with a name for this thread. I want this to be the place to find animal friendly places to visit, without promoting cruelty to animals. I also want to provide 'low environmental impact' type vacations or day trips.

I want this thread to have good alternatives to places like Zoo's and Sea-World type places. Sanctuaries are obvious choices and I hope that many of you chime in and list the name of the place, the address, phone number, and a brief description. Please put the type of organization(s) or activities in your title.

This would also be a good place for low environmental impact adventures (though 'low' is a relative term.)

I'll start....

[atouria]

Baja California, Mexico
From January through March in Guerrero Negro, you can see gray whales: in February and March, blue, fin, and minke whales as well. (It's been said that sometimes whales will come right up to the boat and roll over to have their bellies rubbed at this location.)
Baja Jones Adventures offers short trips.
Baja Jones Adventures, 909-923-8933

Provincetown and Plymouth, Massachusetts
Summer on Cape Cod brings out the humpback, finback and North Atlantic right whale. The season for day trips is April to October.
From Princetown: Dolphin Fleet, 800-826-9300
From Plymouth: Captain John Boats, 800-242-2469

Monterey, California
Spot gray whales December through April, humpbacks and blues, May through November. Killer whales can sometimes be seen year-round.
Monterey Bay Whale Watch, 831-375-4658

Everett, Washington
This is orca and minke whale country. Boats cruise the San Juan islands April through October, but June through September is peak.
Mosquito Fleet, 800-325-6722

Yes, it can be argued that this isn't not very animal friendly because of the pollution of the boats. If you want to view whales from land, I've got another post for ya...

[atouria]

Lubec, Maine
A prime location for catching sight of finback and minke whales.
July and August ar ethe best months to catch a glimpse of a local minke.
Quoddy Head State Park, 207-733-0911

San Juan Island, Washington
This hotspot for orca watching is almost always a sure thing. Shore sightings are best between June and September.
Lime Kiln Point State Park, 360-902-8844

Newfoundland, Canada
It's not unusual to see more than a dozen humpbacks, finbacks and minkes in one day at this spot 20 miles south of St. John's in Newfoundland.
Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, 709-635-4520

Rancho Palos Verdes, California
Although gray whales typically migrate from December through May, visitors have photographed some of the most beautiful whales in the off-season.
Point Vicente Center, 310-377-5370


All of the above info (from the last 2 posts) are directly from Weekend Magazine in their premier issue. I really like this mag!

[bird]

Here's a vegan farm and Bed & Breakfast in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, which are very scenic.

The White Pig

[bird]

The following are articles on international vacations to different environmentally sensitive resorts.

[bird]

A Village Preserves a Shangri-La

November 21, 2004

By CRAIG SIMONS

THE English words carved in stone beside the road - "Following Joseph Rock's steps to Shangri-La" - seemed entirely appropriate. This place really did look like paradise.

I was in Yunnan Province in southwestern China, only a few miles from Lijiang, a Unesco World Heritage site and one of China's loveliest cities. Its old town of cobblestone lanes were crisscrossed with perfectly clean canals, and in the distance, the 18,360-foot Jade Dragon Snow Mountain towered over the green landscape of corn and young barley fields. The local people, a minority called the Naxi (pronounced NAH-shee), have preserved some of their traditional matriarchal society and, from what I could see, all of their incredible tradition of hospitality to strangers.

I had arrived in Lijiang in April, at the tail end of a yearlong Chinese language-training program at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and I was looking for a chance to slip away from fighting traffic jams and memorizing hundreds of Chinese characters. My goal was to get somewhere natural and quiet, and a friend had suggested a community-run eco-lodge set up with support from the Nature
Conservancy.

The Wenhai Eco-Lodge, nestled in a valley at 10,000 feet, was, according to one of its fliers, inaccessible "except by foot or horse," and offered "an undiscovered trekking opportunity." A cooperative of 56 local families runs the lodge, which began operations in 2002, and the business gives them a reason to keep the natural landscape pristine. At $12 a day for a room and three meals, the price was unbeatable.

When I called the Nature Conservancy office in Lijiang to plan my trip, the lodge coordinator, Jing Chen, an American woman, added an unexpected bonus: I could start my hike in Yuhu, eight miles from the lodge, the town where Joseph Rock, an Austrian-born American famous for classifying hundreds of plant species in Hawaii and later as National Geographic's "man in China," lived for 17 years in the 1930's and 40's, she said. Having taught English as a Peace Corps volunteer in China in the mid-1990's, I was fascinated by Rock, who wrote articles with titles like "Konka Risumgongba, Holy Mountain of the Outlaws" and "The Land of the Yellow Lama."

Which is how I ended up at the sign saying I was following in Rock's footsteps. Just up the road I met Cun Xuerong, the 30-year-old manager of the eco-lodge, who had agreed to introduce me to some of the older Yuhu villagers who remembered Rock. He led me into a large courtyard home in the center of town, where I joined 74-year-old Li Jiyue, whose uncle had worked as Rock's personal assistant, for a hearty lunch of fresh corn and cucumbers and pork that was boiled and then fried with tangy black beans.

Rock lived in Yuhu until 1949, when Mao Zedong seized power from the Nationalist government, and Mr. Li's uncle had become one of Rock's closest friends. Not only did he accompany Rock on his sometimes months-long trips into the surrounding mountains but he was also responsible for an important job: assembling and taking apart the giant camera that Rock used for his National Geographic photos.

Also at lunch was Zhao Fujin, a feisty woman in her 80's whose father was Rock's personal cook. Rock had sent some 80,000 plant specimens from China to the United States but Mrs. Zhao remembered one tree in particular.

"He and my father found a tree that would shiver whenever anyone touched it," she said, looking up at the snow-covered peaks above us. But when Rock left, she said, "he told my father to keep secret where the tree was, and now no one can find it.''

After a quick tour of a museum in Yuhu dedicated to Rock (where visitors can see some of the tools he used and large prints of photographs he took), I was ready to look for the lost "shaking tree.'' Mr. Cun and I said goodbye to Mr. Li and Mrs. Zhao and made our way north along a trail into the mountains. The hike from Yuhu - a steep uphill climb followed by a traverse through a shallow bowl and a sharp descent to the lodge - takes a few hours.

That gives hikers time to enjoy the scenery. The forests surrounding Wenhai Village are home to many species of plants and animals, including musk deer and Lady Amherst's pheasants.

I didn't see any animals - they usually hide higher in the mountain's pine forests -but the area is also impressive for having an exceptional variety of rhododendrons. More than 20 of the world's 850 or more species bloom on the mountains in the late spring, and the hills were speckled with brilliant patches of purple, pink and white.

Even more gratifying was the view of Wenhai Village. The Naxi people build homes of wood and roof them with gray tiles, and the village was only recently connected to Lijiang by a rough dirt road (now making it possible to drive in). None of the uninspiring concrete buildings that so often mar Chinese landscapes are present. Instead, there are intricately carved gates and huge wooden racks used to hang barley to dry in the fall.

The rustic charm of Wenhai Village is enhanced by a seasonal lake, also named Wenhai. During the summer rainy season, the lake fills and endangered black storks and black-necked cranes, as well as many other migratory birds, fly in for the winter. In early spring, the waters drain into underground limestone caves, leaving a luxuriant bed of thick grass on which horses and cattle graze. Since it was mid-April, the waters were already a winding stream that meandered east before dropping out of sight, and I made a mental note to track it to where it disappeared into the earth before I left.

But first I wanted to see the eco-lodge. Slipping through the wood and stone gate, past a flock of skittish goats, I immediately identified my favorite chair in the courtyard. It faced the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain's 13 peaks, which rose in icy majesty reminiscent of Joseph Rock's story titles.

After I chose my bedroom from the 12 comfortable double rooms in the lodge, I arranged my gear. Like the lodge itself, the rooms, built of golden pine and set with giant windows in delicately carved frames, are simple. The men's and women's bathrooms are shared but clean. Even in midsummer, temperatures are cool enough that air-conditioners are not needed, and electric blankets are provided in spring and autumn. There are no heaters.

What the lodge lacks in amenities, it makes up for in eco-science. The Nature Conservancy fitted the buildings with a biogas pit that converts manure into clean methane gas, which is piped to a kitchen stove to reduce the need for firewood. Solar panels on the roof, as well as a small hydroelectric generator in a nearby stream, provide electricity.

Over glasses of a potent fruit liquor that a villager had brewed, Mr. Cun explained that the Lijiang area has been heavily affected by a recent tourism boom. Until the mid-1990's, the 280,000 Naxi living in the area were isolated from the rest of China except for a trickle of scraggly backpackers who made a three-day bus trip from Yunnan's capital, Kunming. But in 1995, Lijiang opened an airport with direct flights from several Chinese cities, and the trickle grew to a flood. Last year, the city had more than three million visitors.

The rapid influx has affected local customs. For example, with swelled demand for lumber to build new and bigger homes, some farmers, earning only a few hundred dollars a year, are willing to risk fines to log local forests.

"Naxi culture taught us that we must protect small trees and only cut big trees," Mr. Cun said. "Now, everything is cut."

By giving local residents a chance to buy shares in the eco-lodge for a few dollars a family and letting them earn dividends, the village has an interest in protecting the forests and in keeping the tourists coming back. The lodge has also created jobs. For a few dollars a day, young English-speaking villagers work as trail guides leading guests to nearby sites.

For the more adventurous, Wenhai can be the starting point of a three-day trek through the Tiger Leaping Gorge, which tracks an upper stretch of the Yangtze River through one of the world's deepest ravines. (Environmentalists are fighting plans to dam the gorge for a hydropower project that would flood much of the area, but not Wenhai, which is at a higher elevation.) Other activities include horseback riding, visiting local schools and, from November to March, bird-watching.

For me, relaxing with a cup of hot tea and a novel seemed a better idea. But I had happened to book my trip to Wenhai over the weekend of the Grave Sweeping Festival, when Chinese pay tribute to their ancestors with offerings of food and wine, and the He clan, who have a stake in the lodge, invited me to join them. We spent the afternoon eating delicious roast potatoes and fried pork strips, and I peppered Mr. Cun with questions about the festival and other local ways.

After lunch, the oldest member of the He family, a 74-year-old woman with a wide toothy smile, lighted a small fire and burned paper money for deceased relatives. Smoke from similar fires on hillsides around the valley drifted into a blue sky and the sun broke through scattered clouds, lighting the peaks of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.

The next morning, I would hike back to Lijiang, pausing during the three-hour trip to see the limestone crags that Wenhai Lake drains into. But first, I had a few more hours to sit with the He family and be awed by the view. I had followed in Rock's steps and, far from China's frenetic cities, I had found a rare eco-paradise.

Visitor Information

Wenhai Eco-Lodge, 42 Jingxing Xiang, Guangyi Street, Guchen Qu, Lijiang, Yunnan Province, (86-888) 510-6226, fax (86-888) 515-9920, online at www.northwestyunnan.com. The lodge is about 15 miles from Lijiang and is open by reservation year round. There are 12 simple but comfortable rooms costing $12 a day a person, with three meals.

Bird-watching is best from November to March; rhododendrons blossom in April and May; in July and August, it rains most afternoons.

Getting There

There are direct flights to Lijiang from Kunming, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu.

China International Travel Service in Beijing, (86-10) 8522-8888, www.cits.net, can arrange flights. The round-trip air fare between Beijing and Lijiang comes to about $350.

Nature Conservancy guides will meet visitors in Lijiang to lead them on foot, on horse or by car to the lodge.

In Lijiang

Visitors should spend at least a day in Lijiang, a bustling city with a charming Old Town of quiet lanes and quaint parks. In the Old Town, there are numerous cafes and restaurants serving Western and Chinese food. The hill in the Black Dragon Pool Park offers good views of the area.

A good backpacker hotel is the First Bend Inn, 43 Mishi Xiang, Xinyi Jie, phone and fax (86-888) 518-1688. It has 20 clean but simple rooms with shared baths starting at $10 a night. Most dinners for two cost less than $10.

For a more upscale hotel, try the www.cits.net Xinyi Jie, Dayan Town, (86-888) 512-8888, fax (86-888) 512-7878, e-mail: grandljh@sina.com. It is one of the best in Lijiang, with 127 clean and comfortable rooms. Doubles with private baths start at $42 a night.

[atouria]

Virginia Beach, Virginia
"You paddle with a group of about five other kayaks, paralleling hte coast only a few hundred yards away. Arriving at Cape Henry, a pod of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins sims right up next to the kayaks. Guide Josh Martin of Chesapean Kayak Tours drops a hydrophone in the water and paddles next to your boat. He slips the headphones over your ears. The aquatic mammals click and chirp and whistle below the waves. Ahead, one of the animals leaps completely out of the water as if putting on a show... "
(An excerpt from Virginia Living August '05 issue.)

Chesapean Kayak Tours in Virginia Beach takes groups of up to 12 with one guide per six persons on three-hour Dolphin Tours at $45 per person. 727-287-0938

Dolphin Kayak Tours are also availabe at Tidewater Adventures for $45 per person. 757-480-1999

Wild River Outfitters have tours available for $45 per person as well. 757-431-8566

[atouria]

Wow, thanks for the posts, Cymraegrrl!

Would you mind posting summarized versions to make the vital info easily accessible?

[atouria]

The White Pig looks really cool! I love how it has links to other veg*n friendly stuff, too.

[bird]

Originally Posted by atouria

Would you mind posting summarized versions to make the vital info easily accessible?

All the vitals are at the bottom of each article (restaurants, hotels, etc.)

[atouria]

Originally Posted by atouria

...chime in and list the name of the place, the address, phone number, and a brief description. Please put the type of organization(s) or activities in your title...

Ok, I guess I'm just being nit-picky. I was hoping for the title thing to catch on, so that the activity/event/place would at least be bold. I'm a visual person

[atouria]

Manquin and Lyunchburg, Virginia
"Anticipation builds as you lie beneath the red and white hang glider. The craft looks like a large kite and you wonder if it can really hold two people. instructor Tex Forrest presses close to your body in the side-by-side tandem harness suspended from the glider... Forrest spins his finger in the air to tell the white ultralight plane to take off. A cable from the plane pulls the glider forward on the grass airstrip and the ground speeds by at 30 mph. The hang glider lifts in to the air following the ultralight.... Within minutes the glider reaches an altitude of 2,000 ft. Forrest presses a handle to release the cable from the plane and the glider slows to a quiet 20 mph. The country side below is a patchwork of farm fields..."

Tandem Lesson at Blue Sky Hang Gliding in Manquin $125. Flights last an average of 15-30 minutes. 540-432-6557

Tandem Flights also available at High Peak Hang Gliding in Lynchburg $105. 434-401-3434

[bird]

Oh, sorry, I didn't understand what you meant at first. I do now, but I'm reluctant to edit the articles down, just because I think they're well-written and I enjoy reading them as is. (Obviously, since I've saved them all this time. )

I also wouldn't know quite what to cut out, since I think people reading the thread in the future (and at their leisure) will probably benefit from having these faraway, unfamiliar destinations fleshed out for them a little bit.

[bird]

On second thought - I'm sorry, atouria. I shouldn't come in here and disrespect your thread. You very politely indicated what you were hoping for from the beginning, and I didn't look your instructions over carefully enough. I won't post in this thread again without formatting my submissions the way you outlined. I think your way is better, anyhow.

[atouria]

Ack! Please don't quit posting here, cymraegrrl! You have a wealth of great information to offer, and I do want to read all of it!

I was hoping that this thread would grow and grow! I just meant that maybe you could bold the event/place/thing so that someone could easily scan through the long thread and easily spot a specific activity they might be looking for. I'm sorry for all the confusion!

{{cymraegrrl}}