Laos: The Land of a Million Elephants

Travel is good for the soul; this is my thought for the day. I’ve spent the last couple of days in the Lao jungle riding elephants bareback and watching fireflies dance in the night sky; I am in a completely different world. But let’s backtrack a little…

I’ve arrived safely in Laos and am currently living in Luang Prabang, a gorgeous French-Lao style town that was named a UNESCO World Heritage site some time ago. I got here by crossing the border in northern Thailand, at the Chiang Khong (TH) / Huay Xai (L) border crossing, which consists of a rickety ferry across the Mekong and even ricketier (is that even a word?) ticket booth where you get stamped out and stamped in. My passport is starting to look pretty interesting! J

Met a bunch of interesting people on the bus up to the border who’d also been staying in Chiang Mai. I attached myself to them and we found a guesthouse and got some dinner, larb and Beerlao (about $4 altogether, tops). No better introduction to the country! Except of course the tropical storm that came about an hour later followed by a powercut (why are heavy rains always followed by power cuts??). Welcome to the 3^rd world.

Laos is very different from Thailand, you notice it the second you cross the border. The crustiness rating goes up (down?) a few notches, and people don’t seem to give a shit about you at all. Not in a bad way, but a blasé, disinterested, laid-back-they’re-almost-falling-over kind of way, whereas in Thailand they’d be trying to sell you something. It’s a nice change to be left alone! I’ve already picked up the essential phrases: hello “sabai dee”, thank you “khawp jai lai lai”, how much “thao dai” and no worries “ben phan nyang”. The numbers 1-10 are the same as Thai (thank you!!!!) so I’m doing ok on that front too. Makes such a difference when you learn a few phrases and try to use them.

On Tuesday morning we got the slowboat down the Mekong, a 2 day trip that involved spending the night in Pakbeng (aside: Pakbeng is an absolute hole where our guesthouse lady tried to sell us opium and weed when she realised we weren’t going to buy breakfast from her, and the boys room had cockroaches the size of Texas) before arriving in Luang Prabang on the evening of day 2. The boat itself was a lot cushier than I expected; I had memories of the wooden benches on the Cambodian boat trip (Siem Reap – Battambang) crammed into a space the size of 3 bathtubs. Although this boat had wooden benches, there was heaps of room and even a row of car seats at the back that reclined and everything – swish! Our comfort level was helped immensely by the fact that the boat wasn’t even half full, due to it being low season. I’ve read horror stories of 100+ people being packed into a boat with a capacity of 70, but we would have been pushing it to make 40. The scenery along the way was beautiful… for the first hour or so. Then it got samey; no floating villages, no animals, no birds, no rapids… it was quite a long 2 days. I started and finished my book – Sharon Osbourne’s autobiography, highly recommended – played a number of card games, napped and whinged about the heat. But we made it and Luang Prabang is definitely worth the effort to get here. I’ll write more about the town itself in my next post.

Yesterday I went to the All Lao Elephant Camp to do a 2-day mahout course. This involves learning elephant commands, riding on the neck rather than on a seat, bathing and feeding. It was so much fun!! It’s unbelievable to be up close & personal with these huge animals. The camp is located 7km out of town on the Nam Tha river; they have a bunch of elephants and also do trekking, kayaking, tubing and offer accommodation in their eco-lodge. I got to stay in one of the chalets as part of my 2-day course, OMG it was like a presidential suite! It was so beautiful, it had wooden floors and beams, a humongous soft cushy bed with mosquito net, beautifully decorated, and NO COCKROACHES. I couldn’t believe this was included in the price (just over NZD$100 for 2 days incl all meals and activities). Check it out!

When we first got there we went for a 1 ½ hr ride through the jungle in the elephant seats. It was raining but that made it more fun, lots of slipping & sliding around and I think the elephants enjoyed it too. After that we had lunch and changed into our stylish mahout suits, and had a 15-minute lesson on elephant commands:

…which we promptly forgot as soon as he took the board away. But the key ones are “pai pai” which means “go, go!” and “houw” which means STOP. After a slippery trek back to the main camp (the lunch spot and eco-lodge is a 10-min walk and precarious boat ride away from the main office) it was our turn to be mahouts… this first time we got to mount using the platform and sit on the elephant’s neck. Not as comfortable as it looks!!! L You have to use your leg muscles constantly to hold yourself there, or you will fall off and it’s a looooooong way down. The real mahouts were on the elephants with us, but we got to ‘drive’ them through the jungle. Woo hoo!

On the second ride we had to mount them from the ground. This involved a couple of commands: they made me clamber on by saying “haab” which gets the elephant to bend his knee, you grab his ear, step on his knee and pull yourself up. Not graceful at all! The others used the “mab long” command, which means lie down. Much easier.

(Just to clarify: we were using the commands but it was clear the elephants weren’t really listening to us most of the time, the mahouts needed to give the command to lie down before they actually would :P)

This time round we took them to the river for bathtime. “Boun boun” means spray water! We had lots of fun using this command J After the second ride, the other 3 went home as they were just doing the 1 day course. I had the early evening to myself in my presidential suite, and had a fabulous afternoon nap. The heat really takes it out of you! I woke up to a beautiful soft evening light and the smell of Lao home cooking calling my name. I shared a delicious curry, vege stir fry and rice dinner with my guide Kor and we chatted about all sorts of things. He’s not actually Lao, he’s from the Hmong ethnic group (one of the hilltribes, also found in Thailand) so had some interesting things to tell about his village and their beliefs at all. His English was really good; you have no idea how much you appreciate that when you’re on the road. Not just someone who knows how to order a beer, but actually have a conversation with. I spotted some fireflies just past where we were sitting and he caught one and put it in a jar so I could get a better look – my very first firefly J I saw quite a few flying around that night, it’s neat and adds to the “jungle” feeling.

The next morning I got up for the elephant’s early morning bath. It’s so much fun being in the river with them and splashing around J Then we headed back to camp where I got to feed them, then it was time to say goodbye. Kor and I headed upriver for some kayaking down the Nam Tha, a nice end to my stay. All in all a fantastic experience and a beautiful part of the world to be in.

Over the next few days I’ll be checking out Luang Prabang, getting back on the photographic wagon. I’ll be doing the sunrise wakeup call to watch the monks collecting alms… followed by a strong coffee (café Lao, the locally grown stuff, is delicious).

How are things at home? Write me!

Until next time

May Lee x