Seen any lions today, dear

When I was a child living in Africa we used to go camping in the bush. This was before the days of gates, fences and gamepark regulations. My dad would load up the car with tarpaulin, rope and provisions. The animal sounds of grunts, snorts and roars would sing us to sleep. On my 9th birthday I got a Kodak Brownie camera. I still have in my treasure box a 3inch square format black and white photo of two majestic male lions, black manes framing their fine features. Wherever we go travelling now, we play a game called 'spot the Lion'. In Europe the Lion is usually a statue on a gatepost. On our Thai Tiger motorbike we rode from Khongchiam to the Laos border then down south to the Cambodian border. Over the 4 day trip the terrain changed from green rice paddy fields to dry savanna interspersed with scrubland and dense bush/thickets/tall trees. It became almost African-like. We started to play 'spot the Lion' . We saw a lush green topiary giraffe and a miniature concrete sculpture elephant, but no lion. There was a white and black striped plastic wrap around a wooden frame resembling a zebra. The wet wallowing water buffalo became hippos and the dry grazing water buffalo became rhinos. But still no lion. The roaming piggies became warthogs. Free range cows and goats stayed as they were because that's what they are in Africa too. The slinking dogs wandering across the road and along the embankments became hyenas. But still no lions. We reached the end of the road at 4000 islands, in time for the sunset. Photographing the sun setting over the river prompted me to ask B, " is this the Mekhong, Limpopo, or Zambesi River?". "Not sure", he replied as the beers arrived. I looked up from my camera lens to see a printed magnificent charcoal drawing of a lion emblazoned on the busty T-shirt in front of me. For a brief moment we were back in Africa, we have seen our lion. Thank you, waitress, you made our day.