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TROPIC OF CANCER WITH SIMON REEVE - Programme Six: Laos, Vietnam, Taiwan and Hawaii.

Author and TV presenter Simon Reeve completes his epic 6-part journey around the Tropic of Cancer, the northern border of the tropics region. On this sixth leg of the journey he travels from north-west Laos across Vietnam, visits the island of Taiwan and then crosses the Pacific to finish his journey in Hawaii.

The photo shows Simon with a logging elephant in a village in northern Laos. Laos used to be known as 'the land of a million elephants', but due to deforestation there are now just a few hundred left in the wild, and a few hundred left working in the logging industry, hauling logs out of the forest. Simon visited a village which is home to around a dozen working elephants and their owners, and was invited to take part in a ceremonial blessing. Village elders gathered around a floral display inside a hut, chanting and praying, and then one owner celebrated his bond with his animals by linking himself together with them using a thin white thread.

Photograph © Simon Reeve. More information: www.simonreeve.co.uk

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Uploaded on April 13, 2010
Taken on November 24, 2009