Pachyderms, Waterfalls, and Climbing everything in sight

---

Sabaidee!

The last couple of days in Luang Prabang have been full of amazing activities. Yamil and I decided to take a half day elephant tour. We took a minibus out to the "elephant village" about 30 minutes away from town. All of the elephants are former working elephants, mostly from the logging industry. They now live a much more comfortable life, giving people rides through the jungle and allowing people to feed and bathe them. Sure beats the dangerous hauling of logs from the jungle...Since the elephants cannot be feasibly re-introduced back into the wild after they have been trained, I fully support the efforts of the "village".

At first we headed into the jungle on a bench perched on a saddle on our elephants back. You are up so high that you can see insects and plants in the forest canopy that you can't see from the ground. After about 10 minutes on the bench I decided that I wanted to ride on the neck instead of the mahout (elephant trainer). We switched places and there I was, controlling with my feet and voice, on an elephant's back riding through the Laotian jungle.

After about an hour of riding we hopped in a boat and headed up stream towards a waterfall called Tat Sae. The waterfall was gorgeous and cascaded down in many steps towards the river below. There was a pool for swimming and we were curious about climbing part way up the waterfall. Luckily the rock is incredibly grippy and quite climbable, so we started our new sport of "whitewater bouldering". For those who don't know bouldering is basically climbing low rock walls without a rope. Just a little bit fun 😊

The next day we we supposed to go real rock climbing, but the other girls who were supposed to come did not show up so we would've had to pay more. Instead, we decided to take a tour to another waterfall called Kuang Si. This was a great decision! At the base of the waterfall was a bear rescue centre. Dozens of Asiatic black bears live in the centre, with tires and toys all over to keep them interested. They were rescued mostly from bear bile farms, where their bile is cruelly "harvested" for use in traditional Chinese medicine. Obviously bear bile is a completely unnecessary ingredient whose effects can be easily replaced by other medications. Asiatic black bears are smaller and slimmer than their North American cousins and have a moon shaped white patch on their chest.

From the bear centre we hiked up a short road to reach a massive jungle waterfall. Unbelievable place that, like most things on my trip, only pictures can even remotely describe. We hiked up a steep path to the top and walked across the river in the water. Then we hiked down to the base and planned our next rock climbing session. A short scramble up the waterfall there was a small section of limestone stalactites behind the rushing water. A perfect place for some bouldering. Noticing a trend in my activities?

The following morning we were determined to go to the actual rock climbing site (waterfalls were just not enough apparently). Unfortunately the guide had to go attend to some family business, but Yamil knows how to lead climb so we rented gear, hired a boat, and headed down the Mekong River for half an hour to reach the climbing site. Another amazing climbing session, albeit the rope that we had rented could have used some replacing. Probably not the safest climbing I've ever done (sorry mom but I survived right?).

Every single night I've been here I have gone through the market either buying things or planning what to buy. It is the best market I have been to. I'm not even that big of a shopper but its impossible not to want almost everything there. Off to the side are bowls of vegetarian fare (all you can fit in your bowl) for 5,000 kip (about $0.50), the best tasting chicken on a stick for about $1 and fresh fruit shakes for $0.50. Oh and of course a large beerlao is only a dollar as well. Enough said.

Today is my last day in Laos and I decided to do one of the activities I hadn't done yet on my travels, a cooking class. I was the only one signed up so it was a private lesson. In the morning I took a bus to get to the local market (I was one of the only foreigners there) to look at where they buy their food. Every herb, spice, meat, vegetable, and fruit was there. Some things like dried buffalo skin and galangal (a ginger relative) I had never seen before. From there I went back to the restaurant and began to learn about how to cut and prepare the vegetables and make sticky rice. I got to choose 3 recipes to learn to cook. I ended up learning to make vegetarian tofu spring rolls, a coconut chicken soup, and a dessert with bananas and coconut milk. The soup was by far my favourite. One of the most delicious dishes I have ever made. It contains, among other things, coconut milk, chicken, potatoes, two types of eggplant, galangal, lemongrass, pumpkin, beans, onions, shallots, garlic, chili powder...and on and on. After making it I sat down to a meal (paired with some pineapple wine and a shot of lao lao, the most disgusting rice whisky that is about 50% alcohol). I have never been so full in my life. I am entering a food coma as I type this. Definitely something I will try to recreate at home as long as I can find some of the ingredients.

Well tonight is my last in Laos and I am obliged to finish off mass amounts of shopping. Tomorrow morning I fly to Bangkok for one day before flying back to Canada. I will write one more blog entry hopefully. Laos has been indescribably amazing and is definitely a place I will come back to anytime I can. The people are the friendliest in SE Asia, the scenery is almost unmatched, and the market is...well I already talked about that. Now I must go enjoy my final afternoon here so until next time...

---