Blogs from Muang Hongsa, West, Laos, Asia
June 24th 2009
So eventually we got our tickets for the slow boat and we had to pay 90,000kip whist Lao pay 50,000kip, nice. We embarked on our journey, now we have already done a slow boat down the Mekong through Vietnam and Cambodia ans so didn't expect it to be any different, but it was!! The main thing is, that laos is just jungle and forest out here and the Mekong is huge, wide and very powerful. We saw all sorts of things, people fishing, driving speed boats, fishing rods left to their own devices and then checked at the end of the day, swimming, bathing, selling and moving stuff via the river, moving house practically by riverboat, elephants working on the slopes of the jungle, people catching otter and rat to sell to our comrades on the ... read more
February 15th 2009
We'd seen posters advertising Elephant Festival around Luang Prabang and decided that we really wanted to go. We'd passed on tubing in Vang Vieng and thought that spending three days photographing and admiring elephants dressed in silk costumes was a great alternative and more our kind of thing. From the posters we'd seen the festival promised to deliver 100 elephants, all competing for the prestigious title of “Elephant of the Year”. Elephant processions, elephant bathing, mahout demonstrations, ancient Baci ceremony, traditional Monk blessings, live performances from Lao and foreign artists, night markets, fun fairs and much, much more. Thinking there might be a rush of tourists heading to the event we got up early to make sure we were on the first bus to Sayaboury where the festival is held. We were two of about 6 ... read more
February 18th 2007
It was finally time to leave my favorite little town of Luang Prabang. I've indulged too much, toured the sights, gotten a 1/2 hour head massage & haircut, spent an hour hemming pants with my guesthouse mom, learned even more Laos from a local tour boat operator as I helped him translate documents into English & ate even more Indian food from one of the many restaurants named Nazim or Nisha (...does anyone know the significance of that??? Apparently in Laos all Indian restaurants carry one of those names!) So, off to the 1st Annual Elephant Festival I go! Our boat trip up the Mekong river to Hongsa was some of the most spectacular scenery I've seen in all of Laos. A few net fishermen along the river banks, rock sandbars as we cruised through bubbling ... read more
Hong Sa - The Elephant Festival!! (plus a macabre experience with 'the silence of the pigs')
Published: March 10th 2007Asia » Laos » West » Muang Hongsa
February 17th 2007
We started our journey south from Luang Nam Tha with the goal of reaching the annual Elephant Festival (although this was the festival’s first year…) in Hong Sa and the prospect of an Elephant Festival filled us with a little too much excitement! We set off on a local bus with the intention of heading through a town called Udomxai and then another bus south to Pak Beng, a stopover town for travellers who journey from the north Laos border to Luang Parabang in two days via the Mekong River. We planned to stay there a night or two, then head to the festival the day before to arrive in plenty of time. Travelling with us were two of our new friends from our trek, Cat and Patrice. Alas, like many traveling stories this plan was ... read more
February 16th 2007
Elephant Festival The elephant festival at Hongsa was interesting! It was the first year that it has run so it was a little rough around the edges. For instance, the 'elephant race' was cancelled at the last minute for safety reasons- stopping 50 stampeding elephants is not easy. The 'elephant of the year' contest was pretty tense- but the best elephant won in the end, though we're not entirely sure what the judgement criteria were. It was all good fun and we ate some really good food. We stayed the weekend in a little old ladies house and we reckon she can now feed her family until next year's festival. The highlight of the festival for Ness was feeding the baby elephants, and the highlight for Pete was when one threw a stick with his ... read more
