LAOS - Elephants and our adventure trail

We said to Tim our trip organiser in London that we'd like a bit of eco adventure in the itinerary and that's what he gave us. Biking, elephants, staying in an eco lodge, and kayaking over two days. Collected at 8am from our hotel by tuk tuk and our guide Lu we set off to collect our bicycles. They were very new but with tiny saddles or do we just have big bums!! Having not been on a bicycle for years we were given a quick lesson on the gears, donned helmets and immediately found ourselves on a road with as much traffic as Luang Prabang has to offer - this scary bit was fortunately short-lived as we soon veered off onto a dirt road and our first hill! First stop a few K later was in a small village although by Laos standards quite sizeable with its 100 or so families, but then they call Luang Prabang a city so it's all relative. Here we stopped at a weaving community. They keep their own silk worms to make the yarn which they then weave on primitive looms into beautiful scarves, sarongs, bags and mats. We remembered learning about silk moths and worms and mulberry leaves at school eons back so it was interesting to see first hand as opposed to out of a book.


Off we peddaled again, up and down dusty hills. All along the route and in the villages anything below a level of about 10 feet is covered in a layer of thick dust. Their homes of one room are generally made from woven bamboo leaves and shoots. They have little or no furniture or beds inside, just mats on a floor which they sweep constantly. Their lives appear very basic but industrious and they're always smiling. Extraordinarily many of the houses each have a satellite dish (also covered in dust) and as you peer in through their door there's always a TV on. Last Friday evening in town just about every household seemed glued to their TV - we thought perhaps it was the Laos X-Factor final!



As we puffed on we passed plenty of local industry - road making mainly and including a structure that looked like a vast pizza oven but which was in fact a brick kiln to make the bricks for the little houses they were building nearby. No shipping them in by the truck load here.

We then descended a steep track down to the river to visit a monument to the french explorer Henri Mahout who discovered Angkor Wat in the 1900's. He travelled to Laos by Elephant and after all that sadly died in Laos of malaria. To this day an elephant's keeper is called a mahout.

15km later and we arrived at the XL Elephant Village - and there they were 9 beautiful lady elephants who had been rescued from logging in Northern Laos. Before they came here they would have worked 10-12 hours each day, suffered great hardship and injury, sometimes being given amphetamines so they could continue with their work. They now live a much better life in the village and earn their keep by giving rides to people like us, but now only for a maximum of 3-4 hours a day. At night they cross the river to the jungle with their mahout, coming back each morning for a bath and then breakfast before they start work.


The setting of the camp is so amazing. It sits on the Nam Khan river - misty hills in the background. Children play in the water whilst the swallows dip and dart around them. In fact the children aren't simply playing but collecting weed from the river which after being beaten and mixed with tamarind juice is spread thinly onto bamboo mats, sprinkled with little bits of tomato, salt and sesame seeds and then left to dry. We ate it several times and it's really very delicious and must be very good for you.

After lunch we were whizzed down river by long tail canoe to a waterfall for a swim after which we were dropped off at our abode for the night which was wonderful. Set right in amongst the jungle trees and so peaceful. Once dusk fell there were lots of jungle type noises. We thought once or twice we heard a monkey but think that was more our imagination as not sure there are any. After a superb supper with two bottles of wine and finished off by homemade coconut ice-cream we tottered off to bed.

Next morning we got up early and walked through the jungle back towards the elephant camp and waited for the elephants. About 7.30 along they came back from the opposite side of the river for their morning bath in the river. It was so amazing and we wished we could get in there with them but it's not the kind of thing you just do. It was so funny watching the mahouts getting completely dunked when the elephant decides to take a dive. It was truly amazing.


After breakfast our guide re-appeared to take us off to our kayaks. We then learnt we were paddling all the way back to Luang Prabang. Not until we reached our destination did we realise we'd actually paddled 22km! It was a wonderful journey though. A few little rapids here and there which were fun. Once we didn't see a rock and ended up on the top of it, teetering. Fortunately managed to swivel off it without too much ado. Herds of water buffalo were grazing on the banks and the river itself and in places it was pretty hectic with people either wading in the water or on canoes collecting their precious weed. Anyone we passed would look up and smile to say hello (Sabadee). It was brilliant and although tired we were quite disappointed when our journey finally came to an end.

And a sign we saw in an office in Luang Prabang.


RECOMMENDED RESTAURANTS

3 Nagas - fantastic laos food and their sticky rice with bananas!!! I dream about it still. We ate their twice.