Elephant Trip

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Lao has a long tradition with elephants. The ancient Lao kingdom of Lane Xang was known as "land of ten Million Elephants". Prior to the arrival of the internal combustion engine, elephants were used in industry. Needless to say, an Elephant is an expensive pet to keep if not bringing in some kind of income. At the village of Tad Lo, elephant rides are offered to tourists, as a way to earn income and continue the tradition of keeping elephants. For $5.00 apeice, we took a 2 hour trek by elephant, thru jungle, across a river, & thru a village. It was really nice to see the way our elephant driver interacted with the elephant. He was very gentile, & at times sang to him on the way. The elephant, while making it clear he would rather just be grazing in the forest, was willing to carry us around. At thime he would pull down big vines or small trees, & drag them along to munch on for a snack as he went. Village boys are also involved in the care of the elephants and ride them to get their lunch & had a snack of some kind of tree branch waiting for the elephant when we got back. We were glad to be able to play a small part in maintaining the elephant tradition in this village.

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Photos

another waterfall...
...by elephant this time. We later hiked back here to go swimming

kids on elephant
These boys were taking the elephant to get something to eat